Sewing Tips for Elastic Band and Stuff Pocket Fabric?

[Christian K]

Anyone have any tips on the best way to sew elastic band to non-stretch (minimally stretchy?) polymesh for a front stuff pocket? Not as much as an issue with Lycra, but I just like the look of the polymesh.

I was planning on using 3/4-inch flat elastic and folding it over to sandwich polymesh (both from Quest Outfitters) to make the top of the pocket. Learning from other packs (and mistakes I’ve made myself), straight stitch doesn’t allow for the elastic to stretch, so I’ll use the widest zigzag I can. Pocket will be 10-11 inches across.

My first thought was to take a hanger (one with clips) to stretch the elastic from both ends and keep the polymesh straight so that after I sew and unclip it the elastic will return to it’s unstretched size. Or… I’d make something similar from scrap wood if I can’t find one long enough. What can I say… I’m an engineer… I like to make things complicated :)

Thoughts? I’d love some advice. There’s gotta be an easier way…

[Matt]

If I understand your goal correctly … you need to reverse your thinking.

Cut the elastic to size (width of pocket), and make the polymesh over-sized with pleats to absorb the extra fabric.  That way, the polymesh can expand when needed to open the pocket but return to size when the elastic snaps back.

[Christian K]

Pleats at the bottom seem pretty self explanatory but I can’t just pleat the top, right? Then it’s basically just overlapping non-stretching fabric. Will that hinder the top opening range? Does it make sense to sew a straight stitch in the polymesh first, pull it slightly to bunch it up evenly, not tie it, and then wrap that in the folded 3/4-inch elastic and sew with a zigzag?

Or am I making this too complicated and overthinking it?

[d k]

I would say to just pin at both ends, stretch the elastic out to full length of the fabric, maybe put in a few more pins, and just sew while stretching, holding both ends as you run it through the machine.

[Jerry Adams]

make a sleeve, feed in the elastic, sew it at the ends.

You can play with how much you want to stretch the elastic.  You could start with one hand stitch, determine if that’s right, then sew a row of stitches to attach elastic to fabric

[Matt]

I think Jerry and I are on the same page.  Make a sleeve with the polymesh all the way across its width.  Feed the elastic through it.  The polymesh will bunch up because it is wider.  This is where the extra fabric provided by the pleats gets absorbed.  The polymesh will get locked down in the seams.

By the way, you don’t have to do pleats.  You could start the polymesh to size at the bottom and let it fan out as it rises to the elastic.  It just depends upon what purposes your pocket needs to serve.

I’d just make the elastic as wise as your pocket opening.  Any more than that, and you got saggage.  Again though, it all depends upon intended end use.

[Dave @ Oware]

Tunnel or sleeve, like a drawcord in a stuff sack. Like Jerry says.

[Lester Moore]

Below is how I sew elastic banding to the rim of a pocket. The mesh, stretched elastic band, clamps and the wooden board are all passed under the sewing machine as a single unit to sew the band to the rim.

[Eric Blanche]

Good responses here!

I usually will switch out my microtex needles for a slightly larger universal (or stretch) needle if I’m sewing stretch mesh or similar. Don’t forget to check the tension as well!

 

To add to the discussion, does anyone have any tips on actually sewing round elastic to fabric? If you were to use the sleeve method and sew the elastic at both ends. I always have trouble here with my machine jamming, birds nest underneath, broken/bent needles, etc.

[Jerry Adams]

I just use a hand needle

[Lester Moore]

does anyone have any tips on actually sewing round elastic to fabric?

Either hand needle as Jerry mentioned, or don’t sew the elastic cord at all. Instead of sewing the elastic cord, you can make a fabric tunnel along the pocket’s top rim, insert the elastic cord, then tie knots at each end to prevent the ends from entering the tunnel. You can adjust pocket rim tension this way by simply retying the knots at different locations. Or, you can put a cord lock on one end to make it easier to adjust as needed.

[Roger Caffin]

>> does anyone have any tips on actually sewing round elastic to fabric?
You can do this nicely if the elastic is not too fat. Use the single-stitch zigzag on a sewing machine with a cording foot. The foot has a groove underneath to centre the cord or elastic while the needle goes across it.

Does not work so well with 4 mm bungee cord though!

Cheers

[Author]

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