Fabric purchase

I fell in love with some fabric while shopping at JoAnn's the other week. Since I won the gift certificate door prize for JoAnn's at our ASG meeting Thursday night, I decided to go to JoAnn's and purchase the fabric yesterday. I used my gift certificate, my ASG JoAnn's discount card, plus a 40% off discount for one item coupon and made the fabric as well as some notions/threads purchase.

The fabrics are cotton, rayon and polyester blends. Some are machine washable should I choose to go that route. Here are some photos of my haul.

The middle photo is Gutermann thread in a variety of colors. The sewing box is reusable as the thread spools sit on a cylinder so as you use thread up you can put another thread spool of this size in its place. I also was able to purchase invisible zippers in matching or similar colors to use in the dresses I plan to make from the solid fabrics. I was tickled as I have only been able to find white, beige or black invisible zippers locally.

Photos KS tank top

This is the book I used and one that I will continue to refer to and use with other lining projects. This is a composite photo as I wanted to make sure the author's name was included.

Here are photos of the top, the lining and hung with the cardigan.

Lined tank top complete

The top is complete and for a simple item this took additional time due to the lining.

I truly learned alot from tackling this project. I think when deciding to line a knit top you have to test to be sure of how each knit will stretch. If similar then I think you do well to treat the lining as interlining. This will allow the project to got much faster. Fortunately I had sufficient fabric to truly test this.

In seeking help from others, I also searched some books from my sewing library and found I had Connie Long's book on "Easy Linings...". Though she did not address knits specifically, her writing on working with lace and lining helped. She also had a chapter on lining dresses and tops with no center back opening. Her technique I found to be superb. I have to admit that I read, read, and reread her directions about how to do this and could not absorb what I was reading. I was having some problems relating the written word to some of the photos. I was doing this last night, very late and was very tired as well.

At 3 AM, I woke up and could not go back to sleep immediately. When this occurs it is usually some issue from work causing me sleeplessness. I usually try to think about sewing-make lists of items I want to make, or items I need, or actually how I would sew something. The cause for sleeplessness last night was truly that I could not grasp what I had been reading, so of course I kept mulling over the part that was bothering me.

Upon returning from CURVES this AM, I went to my sewing room, turned to the page I marked, reread the directions and looked closer at the photos. I then took my top with the lining attached at the neckline per her instructions, turned it so that it lay like her top in the book and EUREKA! it clicked. Actually it is somewhat like attaching the sleeve lining to the jacket sleeve at the hemline striving to achieve the "hands shaking" concept. (Or for me it was.)

I took some photos of the process. I will try to put together some sort of tutorial to show how this works. I love the results and the finished look is appealing. I need to take photos of the finished tank top alone and with the cardigan.

Lining a knit top

I want to thank Carolyn and Marji for responding to my email SOS on lining knits. I love the blog world cause I now have so many sewing buddies to answer questions, give advice, etc. I also got some helpful feedback at Artisans Square also.


Here is what I decided to do after testing and digesting the feedback from sources mentioned above. To line or underline was the question.

1. Underlining would allow for all seams to be sewn as one and thus you would not see the seam allowance through the lace part of the knit fabric.
2. Underlining with both knit fabric and knit lining having variance of stretch between the two may or may not be an issue. Some say yes, some say no.
3. Testing the stretch of both by pinning together at neck and side seams revealed that the knit lining would pull the knit fabric in at side or at bottom creating an unattractive look.
4. I tried the other knit lining I purchased and that worked better. Yet it did not prevent the see through that I wanted.
5. I decided after this that I would not use the lining knit as underlining but will attach it as a lining piece. I will however attach it so that when turned right side out, the lining "raw" edges will be against skin not against the fabric seams thus eliminating show through of unsightly seams from the right side.
6. Doing it this way will allow both pieces to hang separately from neck/arms.

I will have photos to show later as I continue this sewing journey.

Purchase from JoAnn's

So, I did not get enough patterns on sale through BMV! I went to JoAnn's on Friday to get some thread and a few other notions. Vogue patterns-$3.99 better than the BMV offering. So here are two other patterns I purchased.

Of course, I knew I was also going to look for this pattern. I fell in love with Erica B's yellow top that she was wearing with her new Nubuck jacket that she made. You can see her top and review here.

While at JoAnn's I actually found and fell in love with some fabulous fabric. For me to find fabulous fabric at our local JoAnn's is a great phenomenon. Maybe since they combined two into one, we may see better fabric. Not all JoAnn's are created equal. I have found great fabrics at some and not much in others. I plan to make a run tomorrow to acquire at least three of the six fabrics I liked. One will be the Badgley Mischka above and the others may become the Simplicity top and jacket.

Look what arrived yesterday

Earlier in the week I got an email from BMV Club offering patterns at $4.99. I could not resist. This is what I ordered of McCall's patterns:













Here are the Vogue patterns:












And this one from Butterick:

As promised, photos of KS project

The cardigan is complete. Lining for the tank top has been cut out. How I will attach it, to be determined.

Here are photos of the completed cardigan. I added a piece of the fabric underneath to get an idea of how the tank top will look under the cardigan.

This is a close up of the sleeve with FOE attached.

Another close up of the sleeve with comments.

The next photos were taken as I worked on the cardigan yesterday. This is to give an idea of how the elastic was used as a trim.

Close up of the front opening.

I already have another plan to make this cardigan pattern using a knit fabric I purchased about a year ago from Fabric Mart.

Reply to comments on cardigan and update

Lindsay, lucky you to have something close by to browse. Fold over elastic or what I called lingerie elastic is what I have. Getting it to fold over the edge of this raised design on the edge was very difficult and I did not want to chance my not stitching it well. To remove stitches from this knit is extremely difficult. Yet I did use the fold over elastic only, I did not fold it over. I will post photos of what I did later.

Mary, thanks for the feedback about Lastin. I actually have a package of this clear elastic that I purchased about two years ago. Mine is very narrow and too narrow for this cardigan.

I took some photos of the finished edge of the front and back neckline using fold over elastic as noted above. I attached the narrower side of the fold over elastic (FOE) to the front and back areas of the cardigan using my serger. When completed I turned the seamed edge to the inside and the wider side of the FOE is now the edge trim for the cardigan. One side of this elastic is matte and the other more satiny. So the satin edge is showing up on the right side which was my plan. I am pleased with how this turned out.

I also did this to the hem edge of the cardigan's short sleeves as well. I will then edge stitch the turned under seam to help this lay flat. I am truly pleased at how well this worked and looks.

I need to cut out the stretch lining for the tank top. I ordered the lining from EOS and purchased two types. Both look well under the knit but still have not decided which one to use yet.

I have never lined any type of knit fabric before so I have it worked out in my mind as to how I want to do this. Will test drive a sample before actually doing. Later.

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.

Fabiani 2451

Fabiani 2451
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

One more for the Vintage Collection. I have been trying to win the bid on this particular pattern for some time now. Several have offered it up for bid on eBay, but this was my lucky day for this one. The size is even closer to my needs than some of the others.

Butterick2146

Butterick2146
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

Recent vintage pattern acquisition. Thanks to Erin at Dress A Day for posting this on her blog. I really like the dress, though the model with her arm up without it resting on something, did cause some comments. I am glad I was able to acquire it from So Vintage Patterns.com