Fab Finish for Knits: Bound Edges

I love the ease of sewing with knits. And one of my favorite finishes for knit garments, especially necklines and armholes, is a self- or contrast-fabric binding. It produces a clean, elegant look, and it is really easy to do. Let me show you how I do it...

Measure your bound edges
First, measure the edges you want to bind. In this case, I’m binding the neck edge of a wrap-top. Use a flexible measuring tape for greater accuracy. I don’t worry too much about getting the exact length of the edge. I usually make extra long strips of binding and trim off the excess when I’m done.

Next, cut your binding strips. I cut strips of knit fabric on the crosswise grain, which has the most stretch. To figure out how wide my strip should be, I first decide how wide my binding will be on the outside of the garment. I multiply that number by 3 and add a scant ¼ inch. For example, if I want my visible bound edge to be ½ inch wide, I use the following equation to figure out how wide my strip needs to be:

3 x ½ inch = 1 ½ inches. 1 ½ inches + ¼ inch = 1 ¾ inch total width.

This will give me enough width to bind the edge with a little extra on the inside. If you prefer, you can make your binding even wider, and go back and trim the excess when you are finished.

Apply the Binding
Once your binding is cut, you need to do a little prep work on your garment fabric. First, trim off the seam allowance from the edge that you will be binding. Placing right sides together, sew the binding to your garment, keeping the raw edges even. Press the seam toward the binding, as shown.

Next, fold your binding over your garment edge to the wrong side and pin:

Working from the right side of the garment, sew very close to the binding:

This will catch the folded binding on the inside of your garment, enclosing the edge and making a clean finish, as shown:

Ta Daa!
Here's the finished neckine:

That’s all it takes for a beautiful finish. One of the fun things about this is that you can use any contrast knit you would like to create a great garment with a designer touch.


A couple of afterthoughts:
I got a couple of questions in the comments section that merit some additional information here. First was a question about stitch type. You can see a primer on sewing knits that I wrote for Taunton Press here on their CraftStylish website.

Second was a question about whether to shorten the length of the binding to "snug up" the closing. The answer is that it depends. It depends on the style of the garment that you are making and on the fabric of the main body. I'll use a neckline as an example. If the neckline pattern has a facing, compare the measurements of the facing's neckline edge against the measurement of the neckline. If the neckline facing is shorter, then it's a good bet that the designer intended for the "snugging" effect. In that case, go ahead and do it, using the length of the facing as your guide. If not, you need to make a judgment call whether the garment opening needs it and how much.

Happy sewing!

© Ann Steeves 2010, all rights reserved

Tutorial: A Better Way to Attach a Collar Band

A couple of folks asked me for some clarification on how I attached the collar band, so here's a picture tutorial. I've made another Simplicity 2603 tank. This time I made it from our Flowers in Showers jersey, which is not sold out.

First up, apply your interfacing to one collar band front and back section.


Once that is done, sew the interfaced sections together at the shoulders, then sew the uninterfaced sections together at the shoulders. The uninterfaced section is the collar facing.

With right sides together, sew the collar to the collar facing at the neckline opening.

Turn right sides out. Understitch your collar facing. Press. Baste raw edges together.

Now you have just one piece to attach to the garment. Using a zigzag stitch or a serger, attach the raw edges of the collar band to the garment.

Press the serged edges down toward the garment. Sew the rest of your garment as usual. With this attachment method, you don't have to topstitch the collar band, though you can if you wish. Here's the front of the finished collar.

And here's the back.
HTH. Happy sewing!

Mesh Tutorial - Jalie Sweetheart Top

June of 2009 is shaping up to be the least sunny in Boston ever. Seriously, we have had 3 days of sun this month and that is it. I decided that I need to make some sunshine, so I settled on Jalie's Sweetheart Top made up with Citrus Paisley Mesh from Gorgeous Fabrics (of course). I made the short sleeved version this time. I'm not going to review it here, since you can see everything I did in This Review.

Because I was working with a mesh fabric, there were some changes I needed to make it wearable in public. Mesh, by its very nature, is sheer. You can counteract that in several ways: wear a camisole underneath, line it with tricot fabric or take the "Sweet Pea approach", which is what I did.

A couple of years ago I bought myself a top by Sweet Pea. The top is mesh, and it had some interesting construction details. To solve the sheerness issue in the body of the shirt, they used a double layer of the mesh, with the wrong sides together:

The sleeves, on the other hand, are just a single layer:

This is quite easy to translate to your sewing projects. Cut duplicates of the pattern pieces that you want to cover up sensitive parts, and just singles of the rest. In the case of the Jalie top I cut the front, the back and the yoke pieces twice. I cut the sleeves and the neckbands (which are folded over anyway) just once.

I basted the fronts and backs together just as you do with an underlined pattern piece. Like the Sweet Pea top, I basted them wrong sides together so the right sides face the world and the body. I then proceeded to sew the top together just as the instructions say. There were no other changes. The result is a top that is sunny, but not see through.

The other thing to know about mesh is that it doesn't run or ravel, so you don't need to finish the hems on it. Here you can see it in the sleeve and at the bottom:


It makes it a snap to finish! Of course, you do want to finish your seams nicely so they don't leave thread tails hanging down. Since I used a serger for this project, the way I finished off my seams was by threading the tails back through the stitches using a large-eye needle:
Trim off the excess and you're ready to go. I've done this lots of times and it works great.

It's supposed to rain again tomorrow. You can be darned sure I'll be wearing my sunny top.
Happy sewing!

Pattern Review - HotPatterns Envelope Clutch

Alright! After sitting at my sewing table stumped, uttering a few well placed curses and stomping downstairs, I figured out how this thing is supposed to go together! Truth be told, it's very straightforward, but I could not figure it out yesterday. But I managed to get it together and now I have a stocking stuffer for my BFF. So here you go, with my own illustrations:

Pattern Description: From HotPatterns' website, "The must-have clutch, inspired by a fabulous Prada piece seen in the fashionista-favorite SATC movie. This Clutch is perfect for real or faux suede or leather, but it will also work in fabrics like heavy denim, tweed or corduroy. Oversized, lined, slouchy Clutch has a carrying strap on the back and closes with a zipper under the front flap; flap also features concealed magnetic closures. Clutch is completely flat, and the interior has 1 large zippered pocket and a smaller open/cell phone pocket. This fashion-forward Clutch is perfect for stowing inside your bigger everyday tote-keep your phone, keys, wallet and important papers in it for easy access. Wear this killer style in a fabulous color to rev up your work wardrobe, or make it in a luxe embellished fabric for a modern evening accessory.

Skill Level: advanced beginner"

Sizing:Again, from the website: "Finished clutch is 11' high and 17' long"
Actually, I think they mean that it's 11 inches (not feet) high and 17 inches long.

Did it look like the photo or drawing when you got through? Ultimately, yes. It took me some brain twisting to get there, though.

How were the instructions? The instructions were so-so. This is the kind of pattern that, while not difficult at all, requires very specific illustrations to make it clear, at least for me. The written instructions are adequate, but I could not make heads nor tails from the illustrations of the zipper assembly. So here are my pictures of the steps for applying the back strap and the zipper. Hopefully they'll be helpful to you.

First the Back Strap: This is actually not difficult at all, but I thought these pictures might help some folks to figure out how to apply the strap, since the instructions specifically tell you that you should not be able to see any stitching on the strap itself. The first thing you do is stitch the strap to the back at the placement dots on one side:
Then you pin the strap to the back on the placement dots for the other side, turning under like so:
Aren't you glad I used such a high contrast fabric? Are your eyeballs vibrating yet? Mine were. After you have it pinned in place, carefully stitch along the stitching lines. You'll want to sneak your presser foot in there, and you have to do a little futzing to keep the strap out of the way, but it really isn't hard. Here's a picture as I was sewing the strap

Ta daa!

Next up, the d*mned zipper
This was the part that nearly drove me to drink. Okay, it did drive me to drink, but not until after I'd figured it out. The key to knowing how this goes together is to keep in mind that the zipper sits under the flap and provides the opening into the lining. It took me a while to get that point of reference to sink in.

So here's what you do. You sew the tops of the lining pieces together, leaving an opening that is large enough for your zipper. Baste the opening closed (sounds weird doesn't it?) and press your seam allowances open. Then turn the lining over so the wrong side of your lining is facing up toward you. Center your zipper over the opening, with the wrong side of the zipper lying against the wrong side of the lining. Baste the zipper in place. Here you can see the result
Sew the flap piece to the bag front piece the same way as the lining, leaving an opening for the zipper. I basted the zipper opening and pressed the seam allowances. Then I took out the basting so I could see the rest of the construction.
Place the bag front/flap piece right side up over the zipper/lining (so your wrong sides will be facing eachother). Stitch along the zipper through all layers. This will attach the lining to the outer bag at the zipper.

Once you have the zipper attached, it's really a piece of cake. Maybe I was just having a "duh" moment (qui, moi?). But it worked out okay.

Materials Used: Wild Thing Reversible Cotton from Gorgeous Fabrics. For the interfacing, I used fusible hair canvas from Pam Erny at Fashion Sewing Supply. I used a zipper and snaps that were in my stash from my handbag manufacturing days.

Any changes? Nope.

Likes/Dislikes: I love the size and style. This was my test run before I cut into my leather. No dislikes, I just needed some clarification.

Would you do it again? Would you recommend it? I am going to do it again. I do recommend it, and hopefully my pictures will help.

Conclusion: I think BFF will like it! Here are pictures of the finished front, back and zippered lining.

Front

Back

Zipper/Lining

Happy sewing, and Merry Christmas!

Meshin' Around

I'm feeling under the weather today. I always get sick after Thanksgiving. I think I must be allergic to turkey. I can't even begin to face food today, so I figured I would let DH take the kids while I pop tums and spend time in my sewing room. I'm trying to clear out some stash fabric (yeah, as if!), and I had a couple of pieces I had grabbed for a brown fall grouping. One of them is a super soft jersey (since sold out, sorry) in bittersweet chocolate. The other is this really fun Walk on the Wild Side Mesh.

I had this idea that a mesh top would be nice, but face it - unless you are 17 years old and live in a very warm clime, a mesh top is a wee bit impractical. Plus, I went through that phase back in the early 90s where I would wear a sheer top with a black bra, and there is no way I'm going back to that club girl look. That would be very, very bad.

The idea came to me to make a top that has a built in liner, and I immediately thought of J. Stern Designs Tee Pattern. The design has separate pieces for the upper and lower bodice, so it would work perfectly with no alterations. I set to work.

It really was quite simple. I've already made this tee, and You can see my review of it here. I made a few changes to get the results I desired. First, I cut the lower front and lower back bodice pieces from both fabrics:

I underlined the lace with the solid jersey, basting them together and then treating them as one fabric.

I cut the bodice top pieces and the sleeves from just the lace. Though if you want, you can create a nice design touch by underlining the sleeves and bodice side front, leaving just the upper front and upper back bodice pieces unlined.
To sew the lace pieces, I set the stitch length on my serger to 2mm. That's about half the stitch length that I usually use, but since this mesh is so, well, meshy, I wanted to be sure there was enough coverage in the seam. I also reinforced the shoulders with a 1/4 inch strip of fusible tricot interfacing sewn into the seam.

I made a 1-inch by 19 inch facing strip for the neckline using the solid jersey. I eased the neckline onto that using a 2.5 mm zigzag stitch. I would have preferred to use my coverstitch machine (yes, one of these days I will get around to posting about that beast!), but I really don't feel up to leaving the house. So I made do.

Finally, I did a narrow overlock on the hems of the top. Again, had I been feeling up to it I would have prefered to head up to the studio and run it through the CS. Next time. Here you can see the result on Shelley.
I really like the fact that this gives the pattern a completely different look. I'm thinking I'll give this to my neice when she comes home for Christmas. I think it will look really cute on her, and it will give her something to wear for New Years.

Tomorrow I hope to make lots of progress on my coat if I'm feeling better. Tatiana's dress is also coming along, but she wants to change some of the design. Tell me again why I wanted to do this? Oh yeah... it's a challenge!

Happy sewing!

Tricot - It's Not Just for Linings Anymore

When I was in New York City last, I was walking down the street in the garment district behind a woman who was wearing the most fascinating top. It looked like she was wearing an impressionist print. I wish I had had my camera at the time. As I looked a little closer, I realized that she was wearing a black mesh top over a black camisole. What gave the impression of a print was the play of mesh on top of her tattoos. It was a gorgeous effect! I don't have any tattoos, and I won't be getting any in this lifetime (I have an aversion to needles that don't have doctors' orders attached to them), but I think that a little mesh top over a tattoo or wild print top gives a really nice change to your look without drowning it out completely. And making a top like the one that woman wore is so easy. You can do it in less than an hour and for less than $10. All it takes is a good tricot mesh, a simple pattern and a zigzag sewing machine or a serger.

Supplies
I decided to make a tie-front bolero. I used an out of print New Look pattern, but you can use a pattern like McCalls 5241 with great results.

For the fabric, I used Black Tricot Knit from Gorgeous Fabrics


The only notion I used was serger thread.

Construction Notes
I did all my construction on my serger. I used a three-thread, right-hand needle setup. My stitch length was just under 2.0 mm. You can make this just as easily on a zigzag machine. If you use a zigzag machine, use a medium width (2.0-2.5 mm) stitch and set your stitch length to 2.5 mm.

One thing to note when you are cutting tricot. Most tricot knits that I have worked with will take stress in one direction, but not the other. Here are two pictures that show you what I mean. I cut a rectangle of tricot about 8 inches wide by 7 inches high. In both cases, the lengthwise grain line is running toward the camera. You can see that when I stress one end of my fabric rectangle by stretching it on the crossgrain:

The fabric runs along the lengthwise grain. But when I turn the same rectangle around to face the other direction and pull:

I don't have a problem. When working with a tricot knit, test your fabric, and use a nap layout so you align the tops of your garment pieces, or any parts that might get crosswise stretch, with the end of the fabric that doesn't run. You don't want to have your fabric running if you are trying to set a sleeve or match up uneven length seamlines.

On to the actual construction. First thing to do is stabilize the shoulders of your top. To do this, fuse strips of tricot interfacing to the back shoulders just in the seamline.
Stitch your seams together as you normally would. Here you can see the serged armhole.
Finish sewing your top as normal. To finish the edges, I used a narrow overlock stitch on my serger. It's similar to a rolled hem, but it tends to use less thread and gives a lighter finish. I like the way it gave a picot effect to my hems. Here's the sleeve
And here's a closeup of the neckline edge:
And here is the finished top:
Wont this be fun over a really loud print? And if you are decorated, this is a very cool alternative when you want to partially cover up. I made my top from New Look 6543. But you can use almost any simple tee or long sleeve top pattern, or any other bolero pattern with good results. Here are a few to consider. Pamela's Patterns Versatile Twinset:


And Kwik Sew 2740 are both good choices. The point is to keep the lines simple. You'll have a kewl top in less time than it takes to type this post.

Coda
Jackie asked to see the shrug over a print. I am waaaaay behind on laundry, so all my fun knit tops that would look good under this are in the washing machine. But here you see it over a piece of rayon woven print that will be up on Gorgeous Fabrics tomorrow. I hope this helps!

Happy sewing!

Playing with the Pattern - Jalie 2806

Yesterday I decided to make another version of the Jalie 2806, which is fast becoming a fave-rave of mine. For this iteration, I made it as the ruched neck version. I wanted to use a very cool Wool/Rayon Jersey Doublecloth from Gorgeous Fabrics. And I wanted to make it reversible to take advantage of the fabric. Here's how I went about making it.

The first thing I did was serge the seams together as usual. After serging, I used my sewing machine, set on the narrowest zigzag (.5 mm) with a stitch length of 3 mm. For this shirt, I put gray thread in the bobbin and white thread in the needle and topstitched along the seam lines. This flattened and finished the serged side. I could have done the same with my coverstitch machine, but I decided to try this way. I topstitched each seam right after serging it. It's very straightforward with the straight seams.

The only tricky part was the sleeves, because you have to stitch in a hole. Sorry for the blurry photo - I suppose I need to learn about depth of field and how to set it up on my camera at some point. But I think you get the drift.
I attached the neckline piece as a binding, leaving the raw edges exposed on either side. Again I used the narrow zigzag stitch set on 3 mm length.

For the hems, I simply stitched 5/8 of an inch from the raw edges. I'm hopful that when I wash it (hand wash in Eucalan) the raw edges will curl.So overall, this gives me a fun top for casual wear. The gray side looks more "finished", and the white side looks more deconstructed. I can wear it either way, and it will make a comfortable (and warm) top for cooler weather.

Happy sewing!