Saturday, I met up with a few local women who love to sew. We planned a day trip to Winmil Fabrics in Boston. It was a beautiful day in the city. Here we are on our way to lunch with our packages.
I bought a few yards of stretch silk from JONES NEW YORK. It has moderate stretch and good recovery. I think it would make a great sleeveless wrap dress, worn under a little shrug with stappy heels. I ordered a pattern from Pamelas Patterns for the shrug, and I have a Vogue pattern for the wrap dress. I am thinking of using a chocolate brown bamboo knit that I picked up last year at the Worcester Sewing and Quilting Expo from Emma Seabrook's booth for the shrug.
I have very little experience sewing knits, and I have a million questions: Should I use a serger for these pieces? What size seam allowance should I use? Should I use a stabilizer in the shoulder seams? Along the neck and wrap edges? Interfacing - yes or no and where? What about a muslin? Do I need one, or can all adjustments be made during a final fitting? How should I finish the hem?
Hi Debra and thanks for the blog award! I am reading through several posts to see if I can find where you explain what a Hug Snug is :)
ReplyDeleteRe: knits - I rarely sew the who garment on the serger because I have so much more control over the sewing machine. I baste seams by sewing with a narrow zig-zag and a long stitch length. Then I serge. it is a real pain to unpick serging, so this simple step helps me a lot.
I spent some time getting a good fit for a basic t-shirt. I use that TNT pattern as a basis for checking fit on new patterns. I always stabilize my shoulder seams, but some people don't feel it adds value (maybe their shoulders are shaped different than mine). As far as edge finishes, always test the finish on a scrap of fabric. If the recovery is not good, I often embed some clear elastic in the edge. Katherin (fzxdoc) has some great instruction on her blog about how to do that. For the hem, a twin needle on the SM is dandy. If you have a coverhem machine, that works well,too. oh - interfacing: I don't think you will need it on the shrug, but sometimes an interfacing is needed on a knit garment. I love the interfacing sold by Pam Erny on her website. SHe has one that is perfect for knits.
OK gotta run... I really got drawn into you blog and enjoy it very much!!
Robin,
ReplyDeleteOops, sorry about that! Hug Snug is polyester seam binding. I buy it from zipperstop.com. It is the pink ribbon in the pictures here.
CORRECTION - Hug Snug is rayon. Sorry for the misinformation.
ReplyDelete