Sewing Knits

Posted by admin on Jul 27, 2009 in Featured | 4 comments

So I’ve tried to sew knit fabric a few times, with little success. I’ve read a lot of info suggesting that a serger is best, but that it can be done with a conventional machine. While reading the Wendy Mullins book, Home Stretch, she mentioned a foot called a walking foot. It has a top feed to keep layers of fabric together.

So I got a walking foot:

I tried to make the very simple t-shirt (no hems) in the Home Stretch book out of some very nice lemony yellow knit fabric. The fabric is kind of heavy and it doesn’t have a whole lot of stretch. I thought it might help to use a seemingly more stable knit.

My machine has a mock overlock stitch, which is what I used here to go around the neck hole, sleeve openings, and the bottom. I used a contrasting green thread because I thought it would be cute.

Here are some pics:

So of all the knit projects I have tried, this has been the most successful… but there are still problems. One, because there aren’t real hems here the neck doesn’t lay quite right. This might not have been a problems with a thinner, lighter fabric.

But more troubling is that a lot of the stiches are uneven. I’m not ready to invest in a serger so I really want to make this work on a conventional machine. I’ve almost come to the conclusion that I might need to upgrade my machine. I’m using a Brother XL 5500 which has been pretty good up until now, but I think I’ve reached it’ s limitations.

This is the best pic I have of the finished shirt:

Any thoughts on sewing knits using a conventional machines? If anyone knows tips or tricks,  I would appreciate hearing them.