Shirring on a Brother CS 6000i

Shirring  is tricky on a brother!  You have no idea how frustrated I was trying to figure out how to make my shirring nice and tight.  After plenty of googling and reading dozens of discussions, perusing many blogs, and watching a few youtube videos, I finally have the answer.

Here's what you do: buy elastic thread. Wind the elastic thread on the bobbin using the machine. This will make the bobbin tightly wound (other brands differ, but this is what worked for me).

Take the bobbin case out of the machine (you will need to pop off the gray plastic piece from the arm). There will be two teeny screws on the bobbin case: one on the right and the other on the left. Mine has green paint on the left screw. Take an eyeglasses screwdriver (bought an eyeglasses repair kit on amazon for 2.50) and tighten the screw. Put the bobbin with the elastic in and place the bobbin case back in the machine. (There will be a white arrow on the bobbin case that points to a white dot. line those up!) Replace the plastic cover and thread it as usual.

The top thread will be normal thread (cotton, polyester, whatever you use) and this should match the fabric you're shirring. Thread everything up as usual.  Turn on the machine and set the stitch length to 5 (max) and increase the upper thread tension. I set my wheel (on top of the machine) to 8. Then sew! I used a straight stitch (00) and it was incredible! Very nice and scrunchie. Before I figured it out, the shirring looked horrrrrible. Not scrunchie at all. But after all these steps, it's perfect! Just what I wanted.