One of the first sewing blogs I looked at was Grainline Studio. She has several patterns that she designed for sale on her website. One of the easier patterns is the Scout Tee. The original pattern is for light to medium weight fabrics like cotton, crepe de chine, or voile. But she had just written up a tutorial on using knit fabrics. Since I'm home all day I wear T-shirts everyday, so a comfy knit shirt is perfect for me.
This was my first shirt, so I was nervous about attaching sleeves. I knew it wouldn't be great, so I wanted to use a knit I already had. Unfortunately, when I had order fabrics (I order from the US and ship it to Switzerland) I didn't know that there was so many different types of knits. The two knits I had on hand were a solid red rayon knit and a stripped stretch needle out hatchi knit. The red would have been much easier to work with, but I didn't have red thread. So I went with the strip.
It started out ok. I knew I needed to match the stripes, and I cut out the fabric with no problems. I decided to try both a zig zag pattern and twin needles, so I could see which technique I liked better. I did not have a walking foot (I do now!).
Sadly, when I tried to sew it, I could NOT sew in a straight line. I tried to sew very slowly, but nothing I did helped. My lines were so crooked. Crooked lines make the seams pucker.
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| Puckered seams :( |
I cut a size 2 but it ended up being too wide, so I cut off probably 2 inches from each side. I like my shirt to be a little more fitted so next time I'll cut slightly slimmer than the size 0.
The major disaster happened when I tried to attach the sleeves. When I sewed the sleeve it wasn't lined up correctly, so I needed to rip out the stitches and redo it. The problem was needle-out knit has holes in the fabric. I couldn't tell the stitches from the fabric.
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| Boo to holes in the fabric |
I didn't know how to rip out the stitches without accidentally tearing the fabric. I'm sure there is a way, but I had no idea. So I cut the sleeve off (as close to the seam as possible), made another sleeve and sewed that one on. I sewed the new sleeve on top of the seam from the first sleeve. That made my seam bulky and it puckers badly.
When I did the hem the right side is higher than the left side. I have no idea how that happened. I cut along the strip but somehow one side is 1/2 inch higher than the other.
So the sleeve seams are bulky and puckered, the hem is lopsided, the side seams pucker and the neckline stitching is crooked. This shirt will never see the light of day, so off to the back of a drawer it will go.
This fabric is not for me. I will try this pattern with a knit again. I've done some knit research, I have a walking foot, and various tapes to help with keeping the hem straight.
Here's a few links I used:
Tilly and the Buttons
Grainline Studio
Pretty Prudent
I also signed up for this Craftsy class that I'll watch before I do knits again. (I got it when it was 50% off, score!).
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