Sewing with knits T-shirt
So , I decided to enrol on a course about sewing with knits. I’ve used quite a lot of knits, some of which appear on this site, but I’ve had successes and failures. So I decided that primarily in the interests of trying out one of the many courses available these days, and in an attempt to meet some other sewers, this would be the one to chose.
I loved the fabric and bought it from TextileExpress weeks ago. I’ve been looking a it, patiently waiting to turn it into a t-shirt, ever since.
I learnt quite a lot.
- I had already stabilised a shoulder seam previously, but now I have some special stabilising tape with which to do it.
- I used an over-locker for the first time. Wowee! How wonderful. I need one, as long as someone else does the initial threading.
- I used a twin needle for the first time, which was one of the main things that I wanted to get out of the course. I broke one (sorry Lauren), and more than once the bobbin ran out, leaving a bit of a mess, and me to re-thread the machine and needles. At one point I thought I had spent more time threading needles than actually sewing.
- I also learnt that probably, I’m not very good at sewing with other people! OK, I had gone there to play with the toys above, rather than to make a simple zig-zagged t-shirt. And to some extent that slowed me down. At one point I was sitting in the corner un-picking my neck band, and eventually vowing to throw my t-shirt in the bin, order more fabric and start again. In truth, I didn’t want a neck band; I wanted to twin needle round the neck as well.
So after some retail therapy downstairs (including two twin needles, for when one breaks) and a long talk with Lauren’s Mum (the results of which should appear in a week or two), I took my unfinished t-shirt home and didn’t touch it for a week.
Then this morning I was lying in bed working out how best to rescue my t-shirt. I sort of like doing that, but maybe I do it better in bed than surrounded by other sewers all whizzing round their t-shirts with a zig zag stitch and finishing them in no time. What’s the point of lying in bed thinking about it on a bright sunny solstice morning? Get up and do it, rather than just thinking about it. So I did.
I tidied up some ends. I tacked the remaining neck line in place and used my own iron to press it all (which is safer than the ‘course’ iron, as I know my own iron…). I unpicked the mess where i had run off the hem with the twin needle. I installed my new twin needle on my own machine (The course was therefore a success!), and I finished my t-shirt. All before 8:30 in the morning.
And there is the result for you all to see.
I never started my Tilly Coco. I think i’ll leave that until the Autumn. Meanwhile I have ordered another knit pattern for a cowl neck set of tops, which I think will better suit the weight of my second set of course material – unused.
I have so many things still to sew…….
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One Week, One Pattern
Me Made May 2016
Me Made May 2015
Simplicity Competition
Sew Over it Patterns
all my own work by ann 
so nice
http://www.fashionforlunch.net