Saturday, April 05, 2008

Work week from ________!

My work week was most stressful this week. It was one of those weeks where I felt I was on the treadmill and could not get off of it. But thank God it is the weekend!

I did get a little sewing done last night on my cardigan pattern. I serged the shoulder seams and interface them to help stabilize the stretch of the knit fabric. I decided to stabilize using bias fusible binding around the entire neckline. This knit does stretch. Before stabilizing the shoulder seams, I tried the cardigan on and found I needed to take 1/2 inch seam instead of the called for 1/4. Perhaps due to the stretchy knit. I adjusted the sleeve for this by trimming and additional 1/4 inch off the sleeve cap. The rest of the fit will be okay.

I have to make a decision on how I am going to bind the neckline. I am playing around with some ideas. The pattern calls for stretch lace or lingerie elastic. I have a perfect lingerie elastic in ivory but to bind the edge with this is by folding over and encasing it will be a bear! A real bear due to the stretching and non firmness of this knit fabric. I can cut a binding of the fabric and attach that which looks good also. I even serged the lingerie elastic to the edge of a knit sample with out turning it to encase and that looks good also. I am just concerned about the edge of the elastic. It should not fray but it was an underlying thought.

I would appreciate your suggestions or feedback about this. I have not sewn a lacy knit fabric in a long, long time and just unsure what will work the best. You guys have given me great tips before so please comment.

Off to CURVES. Sewing later.

2 comments:

  1. Have you tried looking online for a foldover elastic? I was in Daytona Trims (NYC)last week and was AMAZED at the amount and variety of elastic braids and trims they have. I had no idea so many different kinds existed! It sounds like you just need to find the right kind of elastic. Unfortunately Daytona does not have an online store, but maybe a little digging could find some?...

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  2. Linda, Have you tried using Lastin or another type of clear elastic? It comes in different widths. I use that almost exclusively to bind stretchy fabrics. My serger has a slot for it to feed through so it feeds with a nice even edge and you can adjust the tension of the elastic by how tight you hold it. I used to be the "elastic girl" when I worked at Jantzen Sportswear (before outsourcing overseas). I found a good source for the clear elastic on Ebay. Mary

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