Not all buttermilk knits are created equal

I am working on another KS Twist Top using a buttermilk knit from my stash, purchased over a year ago from one of my favorite fabric sites for knits, EOS.

I will post photos of fabric and top later. This particular buttermilk knit came in geometric shapes of pink/green/white as well as coral/green/white. I bought some of both. I made the coral/green/white top using a KS pattern that was high neck tank. After making FBA and such the top ended up rather wide through waist and hips. I also attempted to use a fusible thread in lower looper of serger, creating an easy way to turn up hem, iron base fusible thread, then hem using sewing machine. The fusible thread proved to be too "strong", "harsh" for this buttermilk knit and thus one could see the fused thread and this will not disappear. Someone on Pattern Review advised of this when I posted a tip on using fusible thread in lower looper. It was good advice. So test, test, test.

I decided to make the twist top using the pink/green/white knit since it has clearly aged in my stash and time to use. Also this will allow me to make another entry into the stash contect on Pattern Review. Sometimes these contests are great motivator for getting me to use some of my huge amount of fabric in my stash; when I enter I always think this will be a breeze to compete in, yet I never seem to get close to winning. Maybe the win is using up surplus fabric.

What I forgot about this particular fabric was that serging the edges is a true bear. After spending at least 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour playing with serger settings and still finding it challenging on this knit, I decided to use a technique that I just read about creating "serger fabric or serger knit" using wash away stablizer along the edge of serge stitches. This proved to be the perfect solution to my challenge. The threads layed on the fabric nicely and I had a more stable knit to work with. I also attempted to fuse bias tape to test sample edge which gave the knit some stability also. Since I was low on the bias tape I did not use this. I will in the future should I have a buttermilk knit like this again.

I say not all buttermilk knits are the same because I have a favorite knit top I made over a year ago using a pattern drafted with PMB=Pattern Master Boutique; that was the perfect knit to serge and sew. It did not require stablizing and fusible thread in lower looper for basting hem worked perfect.

I have another buttermilk knit from stash like the perfect one above and will make some sort of knit top from it. Probably not the Twist Top but gosh I truly love the fit and look of that pattern on me.