If your machine ever does this—skips stitches, makes wavy seams, or gives you seams with zero stretch—don’t touch your tension dial yet. Because with just 4 steps, you can get this instead.
When I sewed stretch fabric for the very first time, it was a mess.
My machine skipped stitches, the seam got wavy, and no matter how many times I changed the tension or moved my hands, I just couldn’t get a clean line.
But now? I love sewing stretch fabric because once you know how, it lets you create beautiful, fitted pieces that are essential for belly dance costumes.
This video is part of the Beginner’s Guide to Belly Dance Costume Making series, and today I’m showing you 4 steps that will help you sew stretch fabric with confidence and save yourself all that frustration.
Let’s get started!
The Wrong Way
First – the wrong way.
So I have 2 pieces of stretch Lycra here, and I will sew them together the wrong way. You see? The stitches are wavy and not consistent.
Let me try stretching it. Nope. It doesn’t work.
Do you need to invest in a serger? Nope. You can sew stretch fabric with a regular machine by following these steps!
The Right Way to Sew Stretch Fabric Properly
Step 1. Use a Fresh Stretch Needle
First and foremost, replace your old universal needle with a fresh, stretch needle.
These needles look the same as universal needles, but their tips are made more round to work better with stretch fibers.
My favorite is Schmetz Stretch Needles, and a pack of 5 costs about $7-8, and they are worth it. You can find them here (affiliate).
So if you’re sewing stretch fabric, have fresh stretch needles ready.
Step 2. Use Pins or Clips
Stretch fabric like this can be quite slippery, and it’s really easy for the panels to shift as you sew.
So make sure to use pins or clips to hold the layers together. If you’re sewing a curved area, you’ll want to use more pins.
Once you get good at it, you won’t need as many pins, or I sometimes rely on notches, which are tiny snips you make within the seam allowance as marks.
But for now, it’s okay, and I highly recommend you use as many pins or clips as you need.
Step 3. Use a Zigzag Stitch
I always tell beginners you need a sewing machine that does 2 types of stitches: Straight and zigzag.
By the way, if you want to know the best type of sewing machine for costume making that doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars, check out my best sewing machine video.
So this is where the zigzag stitch comes in. The zigzag stitch looks like this, and it allows the fabric to stretch after being sewn.
This is really important for fitted garments like mermaid skirts and dresses. If the waistband can’t stretch, the stitches might snap the moment you try to pull it over your hips, and that’s not good!
So use the zigzag stitch option when sewing stretch fabric. Your machine may come with different types of stretch stitches. Like this one.
This one above looks like a straight stitch from a distance, but the fabric can still stretch after being sewn. So have a look at your instruction manual for your options.
Even in areas that don’t really need to stretch—like when finishing a skirt slit—I still use one of these stretch stitches or a narrow zigzag. That way, if the fabric gets pulled by accident, the stitches won’t break!
Step 4. Don’t Pull the Fabric
If you tend to pull the fabric from behind the needle, you might get a wavy seam.
Instead, try holding your fabric like this: use the three fingertips of your right hand to ‘sandwich’ the layers together at the next mark, so the panels stay aligned until the next clip.
And hold down the layers with the fingertips of your left hand, in front of the needle.
And start sewing slowly. No need to hold down hard or stretch the fabric. Just enough to have better control of the panels going through the machine and prevent the layers from going at different speeds.
Remove your left fingertips as you get close to the needle, and once your right hand gets close to the needle, find the next point. Sandwich with right finger tips, hold down with left fingertips. And keep going.
Bonus Step.
After following these steps, if your fabric still comes out wavy, then try adjusting the thread tension.
It might be the tension dial at the top, or mine is digital. The tension really depends on your machine, threads, and fabric, so you may need to play around with it to find the right setting, but for the entire time I sewed on this machine, I hardly ever touched this tension section before, so I would adjust the thread tension after I tried everything else.
Following these steps should help you have a much easier time sewing stretch fabric! So try these with scrap stretch fabric before you start working on your project.
Free Course Giveaway!
And if you want to try these techniques right away, I have good news. I’m running a free course giveaway, and the winners can choose one of three popular Sparkly Belly courses.
And if you enjoyed this post, check out my video on where to buy fabric online as a beginner costume maker. It includes some great shops for stretch fabric!
Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling!
P.S. Pin this image on your sewing board!
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