Working with knit

Tonight I decided to make a yoga shirt. I had all of this blue knit fabric that I had purchased in Israel and I figured I might as well use it, so I pulled it out and got to work. In the past I've been a bit scared of knits. As a fabric, it's a difficult medium to work with and there are some tricks you need to know in order to get started. Although I love the shirt I made tonight I decided that I would write about handling the fabric not the actual project. We'll touch base on yoga wear during a different post. Let's begin!

First, let me say that choosing the right needle is of utmost importance. Over the last year I've experimented with various needle sizes, I've read literature on needle life, and I've tried virtually every specialty needle on the market. I won't discuss my brand preference, but I will say that using the appropriate needle and changing your needle frequently are two keys to sewing success.

Above: A stretch needle will help you with Lycra and other true stretch fabrics. A ball point needle will help you with knit fabric (this includes jersey, velor knit, t-shirt material, sweatshirt jersey, etc).

When working with knits you will likely use a ball point needle. Ball point needles penetrate between the knitted fibers not through the fibers like universal needles. This is important especially when working with light weight knits. If you use a universal needle, you run the risk of actually creating holes in your fabric that will degrade the integrity of your garment.

Now that we've covered needle choices, lets talk about your fabric and your pattern. Choose a pattern that is specifically designed for knit fabric. Some examples are:Butterick 5101


The pattern jacket will tell you what fabrics are suitable for the garments shown . The first few times you work with knit fabric you should follow these guidelines, but once you become more comfortable with knit fabric you can tailor your pattern to just about any fabric you choose.

You will cut out your pattern just like any other pattern. Once you have all of your pieces cut and marked you will begin sewing. Here are some helpful hints to get you started.

-Do not pull your fabric through the machine. It's tempting to pull or push fabric regardless of what type of fabric you're working with. Although I tell all of my students NOT to pull there fabric or force their fabric through the feed dogs, it's especially important here. Pushing or pulling your fabric through the machine is only going to distort your garment. Knit fabric is SO easy to distort and our objective here is to maintain shape. Let the feed dogs do all the work. On a properly working machine, you should not have to pull or push your fabric. It should glide through between the presser foot and the feed dogs with ease. If this is a problem, I would have your machine checked and tuned up.

-Change your needle after ever four to six hours of sewing or if you feel that your needle has been stressed by a bulky seam or pin. This will maintain stitch regularity and it will help your machine perform to your expectations.

-Finishing is important. Here I will talk briefly about using three stitching techniques: stay stitching or serging, topstitching, and utility stitches.
--Stay stitching or serging will keep your cut piece of fabric in shape and it will help you when you are ironing a hem or preparing to join pieces.


Above: I've stay stitched the neck and sleeve hems.


Above: I've used my stay stitch/serged edge to guide my iron as I fold my edge over.

--Topstitching reinforces your inseams and it helps your garment to look professionally finished. Notice, I always use my presser foot as a guide. I find it gives me a very accurate and straight line parallel to my finished edge. Its a fantastic way to get a high end look without buying extra feet or working with chalk lines.


Above: I'm now topstitiching my finished edges in place (necklines and hems).

--Utility stitches can be used as decoration, as seen below, but they are also useful in lieu of a serger. This is partly because they interlock your fabric with several parallel stitches, but they also tend to provide more stretch--key when working with knits (NOTE: A stretch fabric is not always a knit, but a knit fabric always has stretch!).

Here I've used a honeycomb stitch as a decorative stitch, but in reality it's a stretch utility stitch.

Sewing a knit garment isn't much different than sewing a woven garment. You just have to be prepared for a little extra flexibility. Below is a synopsis of what I did...

The first step I used is to serge or stay stitch (if you don't have a serger) the edges of my pattern piece that will need to be hemmed and finished. Why is this important??? Because it helps me to guide the fabric around curves and corners when I'm ironing and sewing, it stabalizes the fabric so that we maintain shape and it offers a road map for you to follow.

Secondly, I've ironed and then finished my external seams. Here, an external seam is any seam that is not joined to another. For example, a neckline or sleeve hem are external seams.

Thirdly, I've topstitched the seam using the right finger of my presser foot to guide me through my seam. Then I've added a utility stitch, 1/4 of an inch parallel to my initial seam, to secure my raw edges and to add interest to my garment.

My fourth step is to join all of my inseams. I join my inseams with my serger, you could use an interlock utility stitch if you don't have a serger. Once all of those seams are complete I use a straight stitch to add a safety stitch. Some sergers do this for you. My serger is a four thread model and although it provides a lot of stability, I like having that extra insurance.

Finally, I iron all of my joining seams and topstitch. Topstitching really reinforces the garment and helps it to look professional and clean.

I plan on posting a series of Yoga and exercise projects in the near future. If you're interested in this project and pattern and would like more information please don't hesitate to contact me.

~M

Finishing Avery's Dress

So, this morning while it snowed outside and the kids were mesmerized by Franklin I finished Avery's dress. Here are the basics:

After completing the bodice and skirt last night I still had topstitching, hemming and minor alterations to finish. I used my two year old as a model and started to work. First I ironed my finished seams and I ironed the serged seam where I joined the bodice to the skirt downward towards the hem of the dress.

Then, I ironed the hem. I gave myself about an inch and a half.


Once everything was ironed I started with the hem. I sewed on top of the serged edge to make sure that I got all of the unfinished edges sewn flat.


Once I had sewn the entire hem, I turned the skirt over, right side facing up. I positioned my presser foot so that the left edge of the presser foot was up against the original seam I had sewn. I topstitched the entire hem parallel to the original hem seam. (This creates a very finished double needle look and does not require any marking or added know how. It's much easier than changing out the needle and it helps with eye hand coordination.)



Once the hem was finished I moved on to topstitching the neck and armholes. I did this by positioning the presser foot so that finished edge was guided by the presser foot. This gives helps you get your stitch close to the edge, allows you to be consistent, and creates a finished look. (note: sometimes you will see double top stitching around the armholes and neck line like you saw on the hem. It's more personal preference than rule of thumb).



Finally, I moved on to the bodice joint. I wanted to topstich the seam that joined the bodice to the skirt for two reasons. The first for security and stability--after all, this is a dress for a two year old. Secondly, I wanted the serged seam to lay flat. To do this I used a zig zag stitch, but you could use two parallel straight stitches or a decorative stitch. You could even attach rick rack or ribbon a this seam to add interest.


Finally, I cut out two squares folded them in half and cut a V half way into the fabric. I took these to odd shaped pieces of fabric and sewed them right sides together so that I could turn them right side out through the flat side of the square (I know this is confusing, see photos below)


The finished pocket turned right side out.


I used a basting stitch to gather the flat side of the soon to be "pocket" and then I pinned it in place. I sewed the bottom of the pocket to the front of the skirt. Once the bottom of the pocket was sewn in place, I folded the pocket flap up and I then pinned the sides of the pocket in place and top stitched them in place. Once that was finished, I took the two triangles tops of the pocket and tied them to make a cute and unique pocket.

Above: Pocket basted and gathered

Below: Pocket pinned to dress skirt. Once sewn I folded the pocket up over the sewn edges, pinned the side seams and sewed them in place. The side seams extend from the bottom of the pocket approximately half way up the square, parallel to the V where the pocket splits. This allows you to tie the split sections into a knot as indicated below.


Once I was finished I tried it on my two year old. It was much too big so I took it in by serging from the armholes to the hem about an inch on either side. This is fine to do with a child's garment because there aren't a lot of curves to take into account, but if you're dealing with an adult garment the you'll need to invest more time taking the seams apart and adjusting various components of the dress, skirt or shirt.

And here is the finished dress...Now, keep in mind this is for a little girl, but all we make in this house are boys. Hopefully he won't remember this in therapy thirty years from now!

~M