Sewing With Nancy

While I like trying new sewing and quilting techniques, there's something irresistible about sewing the basics. Going back to my sewing roots, these next two episodes are all about sewing knits. You'll get a chance to sew, then mix and match four classic wardrobe pieces. Whether you're looking for comfortable nine-to-five wear or an easy evening staple, I'll show you how to easily stitch or serge a swing jacket, top, pants, and skirt. Now it is your chance to brush up on knit sewing basics, starting with the wardrobe focal point, the jacket. "Sew a Knit Wardrobe from Start to Finish," that's what's next on Sewing with Nancy.

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For the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting, and special effect threads, because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios, fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover, making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 90 years. Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Gonna start at the beginning, cutting out the pattern pieces, but before we do that, let's take a close-up look at this jacket. It's only made with three basic pattern pieces, believe it or not. The front is double so that the swing of the jacket folds back, you see the same fabric, and when you open this up, you'll see that there are two layers as one, just one layer in the back but two in the front. So the front is one pattern piece, the sleeve the second, and the third, the final, is the jacket, so three pieces. I've used a ponte knit, a rather substantial knit. It has some stretch, about 25% stretch across the grain, but you don't need a lot of slinky knits for this, something stable, which makes it really easy to work with. So the jacket, three pattern pieces, which I've cut out in-- 'cause I'm a little on the long side, I've lengthened the body of the jacket. You can make it longer, shorter, whatever you need. And here are the pieces. But I mentioned that the front has to be cut out twice, so you could just use the same pattern two times, or I just made a duplicate pattern just to show you today, adding the grain line on it. Now, the knit, as I mentioned, a ponte knit. Some people may call it a double knit from years and years ago, but the more common term now is ponte. It doesn't have as much stretch as some knits do, but I like to choose something that has a little bit of Lycra or spandex in it. It stretches across the grain the most. And the lengthwise grain is the most stable, has a little stretch but not a lot. If you have that little extra spandex or Lycra in it, you'll have great recovery to the fabric. I roughly lay out the pattern pieces on a flat surface. I'm not on a flat surface right now, and obviously the table could be a little bit bigger if I were really cutting this out, but I do a rough placement. You can check the pattern guide sheet too for layout, but honestly, I just cheat. I just make certain that all of the pieces have the neckline going in one way, the hemline going in the opposite way because that's the best way. It's called a nap layout. Nap just simply refers to the direction of the fabric, and if you put, let's say, one sleeve-- or one front going the opposite direction, you may get different shading. You may or may not. So just be on the safe side. Lay all the pattern pieces out in one direction, and roughly get the position. I don't use a lot of pins, especially with knits, and if you're on a flat surface, you don't have to worry about it, but let's just go through the process of pinning it using one of the jacket pieces. So the grain line is what you need to work with first, and I usually start with the widest part of the pattern piece. You could use a tape measure, or often, at the fold of the fabric, I use a ruler because it makes-- allows the fabric to lie flat. It's at 9". Anchor the pin, and then... put another pin in this area, and then put a pin in each corner. And angling to the corners. Oop. And then you can do the same at each corner. Often, I use a rotary cutter. I'm working on a mat, a rotary mat, and here's a close-up of how you just can cut out these simple shapes using this cutter. Now, the notches. The notches mark the placement so you can attach the pieces together, and on the sleeve, I have a notch that you can see here on another pattern piece that I've already cut out. I've just nipped the fabric at those areas. So you just-- It has 5/8" seam allowances. Just nip a little bit, maybe 1/4". After you've cut out, you've marked, then you need to do some stabilizing. Because this pattern does not have a facing, the back neck facing is just turned under and topstitched-- I like to put a little stabilizer in this area, and you can cut with interfacing from, like, a knit interfacing cut bias strips. 3/4" to 3/8" or 3/8" to 3/4" wide. Or, you can buy it already precut. So whatever you'd like to use. But they're bias-cut on the fold. Cut on the bias, not the fold. And then, let me show you how I add the fabric stabilizers. At the knit hemline, I add a strip. Just fuse it on. Easy to do. On the jacket back is the other area that needs the stabilizing, not the whole jacket. Again, at the hem, just a little strip. You'd be amazed how well this does. Then the neckline. This is what's very important. We have 3/8" added around the neckline to stabilize this. And then the back shoulder. Since we have 5/8" seam allowances at the shoulder, we've placed it at-- pressed it on covering the seam line, and that's how to cut, mark, and stabilize your knits. When sewing knits, less is best is the philosophy that I sew with. Check out the stitch options that you have before determining what you're going to do. Now, with knits, because of the stretch of the fabric, a straight stitch usually doesn't cut it. Even with this very stable knit, if you use a straight stitch, you'll see what will happen with the seam if there's stress applied, especially when pants or a skirt is involved. If you didn't have a serger, you could check a wobble stitch, both in the crosswise and the lengthwise. Wobble, that just means a really slight zigzag, and you can, if you want a little bit more stretch, you just increase the width of your zigzag. Here it's set at 1.0 for the width, about 3.0 for the length. If you want a little bit more stretch, you just make that stitch a little bit wider, and then you can test out just stitching this. And I test on a scrap of fabric, and do it-- stitch in both directions so that I can tell if it's working or not, that if I have the right amount of stretch. And this definitely works better, and it'll read as a straight stitch on the right side of the fabric. It will not look like a crooked seam. But serging, if you have a serger, now's the time to use it because that seam will stretch in great amounts, just stretching amount, and it will not have any issue of popping a stitch. For this jacket, you're gonna sew the center front seam from neckline all the way to the hemline in one fell swoop. This is a four-thread stitch, the standard stitch on a serger. This pattern has 5/8" seam allowances, and notice that I place my pins... parallel to the cut edge so that there's no chance of serging over a pin. And this is where speed comes in handy. Now, with a serger... You don't have to grade the seam allowances 'cause they're seamed and finished all in one, but if you use that wobble stitch-- I have another sample to share with you-- I would do some grading of the seams, especially if it's this 5/8", using a rotary cutter that has a pinking blade. On this sample, we have stitched the seam at the 5/8", and rather than trimming with a regular scissors, I just place this on a mat. You could do one layer at a time, or because it's so easy, I'll just do two layers at a time to do the grading and trimming, and that works out so well. I like to understitch, making certain that that seam, that center front seam, is pressed in one direction, and here is my next sample to share with you. And the understitching, using that wobble stitch, I have pressed the seam in one direction and just stitched all the way down so that I have a nice clean edge that it folds on perfectly after sewing. Now, it's stitched from neckline to hemline, and on this crazy jacket-- I shouldn't call it crazy, but this easy-to-sew jacket, the hemline is finished before it's even attached to the neckline. If we look at the hemline area, we can see that when it folds back, this is already finished, and that's because at this point, we now stitch the hemline seam. So I'll show you how to do this at the serger. I will start at the fold of this fabric. So, I'll scoot back here. And this would be either serged or stitched, but you'd understitch with your traditional machine and then, again, pin along the edges, pinning perpendicular to the edge. And I'll just do a little bit of this for you. Now, if you want to start to serge, sometimes when you're starting on a fold, I like to serge on an anchor cloth. Get the weight of the fabric-- the width of the fabric underneath the foot, and I'll serge from one piece, and it goes more smoothly-- smoothly to the other, and then I'll quickly sew this edge. Make sure you get those edges lined up. Then clip off that anchor cloth. And if you'd like to reinforce that edge, you certainly may with a straight stitch of your machine. And then, turn this right-side out, and you'll be surprised what happens. Look at this sharp edge. The corner is perfect because we've wrapped that corner, and I'm going to use a turner just to get that out there a little bit more, but you'll have a perfectly square edge using this technique. Off camera, I finished the front, both fronts, in fact, and we have-- here's a finished front. The front has all been seamed, understitch pressed, and then the lower edge, we did that little wrap corner, and here you can see how it looks nice and neat, and it's hemmed all the way to the side seam. To keep the two layers together, I stitched the shoulder seam, just basted around the shoulder armhole and the side seam just to keep these-- now to treat it as one. Both fronts are met to the back at the shoulder seams. Normal way of doing sewing. And you could either serge it or sew it, but I find, for this technique, to sew it is a little bit better. We've made this pattern really easy because when you pin the shoulders together, you'll find that the back-- you haven't made a mistake-- the back is going to extend about 3/8" beyond the front. We'll just stitch this shoulder seam and leave it like that for just this minute. It's going to be changed soon. So you could use, again, that wobble stitch and start to stitch the-- the shoulder seam. And this is a 5/8" seam allowance, so we'll just-- can't get much easier than that. By the way, needles. I did use a stretch needle. Knit nee-- Ideal for knits when working with knit fabrics. Kind of makes sense, doesn't it? So we have the shoulder seam stitched. Now, if you're wondering what's gonna happen with this extension, I'd like to show you the finished garment. And just like the jacket I'm wearing, this is the front piece. Here we are at the shoulder seam, and the facing is going to be wrapped around the front. Now, it's not really a facing. It's just the extension added to the jacket back. So I'll show you how that's done, and you can get a snug fit if you do this shoulder stitching first. So here's the extension, about 3/8". You wrap it, just like we did the lower area, around, and make sure it's snug. Pin it and then start sewing a little bit beyond the fold. I'm not sewing right off the fold. I'm sewing-- well, it's on just a little bit, maybe 1/8" in, and then I'll stitch and backstitch and then stitch just that little 3/8". Cut the threads, raise the foot, and then the magic happens. So here it's been stitched, and when I turn this to the right side, let's hope it lines up. Ah, it does. How about that? The front-- here's the front, here's the back, and it's a smooth neckline finish. Now, the rest of the neckline has to be finished by turning under and topstitching. But before we do that, let me show you a little bit of the trimming. The one side that I have already stitched-- here we go. Here I did some trimming using the rotary cutter again to trim off the excess fabric, and then take off some bulk from that corner. Just make sure you get the bulk. You may want to restitch that again just to secure it. Then it's very smooth in the area, and then I'll pin under 3/8". Grab a pin that works. Here we go. Pin-- pin all the way around the neckline. When you set your machine now for your straight stitch or your wobble stitch, that little wobble stitch, and just simply stitch around the neckline. Just stitching that extra little seam allowance flat. The front is completed, it's been attached to the back, and next, set in the sleeves. The notches that I marked earlier in the program now come into play. In the front of the armhole, there'll be one notch for the front. You have the shoulder seam and then the two notches in the back to mark the back sleeve. Those same three notches are found on the sleeve, two in the back, one in the front, and then I put a little nip at the cap of the sleeve. Now, to set in this sleeve, I'm going to meet right sides together and match the fabric and pin-- this is so important-- pin on the garment side because the garment is not-- or the jacket is not as large in the armhole as the sleeve. There's extra ease in the sleeve so that you can move around. So pin-- I'm gonna serge this. I'm pinning perpendicular to the edge, and when I get to the notch, you'll see between the notch and the cap, the sleeve is larger, and when I-- at the sewing machine, that will ease in automatically. You pin this all the way around, maybe putting an extra pin between the cap and the notch so that that can ease in. As you might guess, I pinned the other sleeve all the way around, perpendicular, and I can do the serging, and because I didn't sew the underarm seam yet, it makes it much easier to do the serging. You can serge flat-- "flat construction" it's called-- so you don't have to sew in the round. So it's a flat one-to-one ratio from the underarm to the notch, and I'm at the notch. Right here are the notches, and now it's time to do a little finger pinning. I'm matching that extra ease, but because those feed dogs that are on the bottom, they bite the fabric-- and ease it in, I should really say. They ease in, and... you can maybe take a little bit more time to get things aligned, but you can see how this is coming together. Got to refold the fabric. Make sure you take some time with this, and... And now we're coming to the homestretch. And gonna serge around the edge, the edge being to the final area. Ta-da. It's done. The sleeve has been set in. It's flat, and it's been eased in because of using the feed dog. Now, the underarm seam, I'll show you this way. Might be a little easier. It's a lot of fabric to deal with, but here's the sleeve, the underarm. Gonna start pinning. Just place a pin at the underarm seam at the hem. And here you're looking at the underside of it, the underarm, and here we're going to pin the underarm seam, matching those seam allowances-- and you'll see a little bit more as we get stitching this-- and then the hem. I have to put it down in my lap. The hem will be finished with that little wrap edge. We'll show that to you in the second program, but right now, I just want to do the underarm stitching, and let's do it. Let's make this happen. Now, you're gonna spend some time at home doing some pressing, which I have kind of skipped during this program just because it was more important to do the serging and sewing, but you can gently press your seams using... Setting an appropriate temperature. And then do some finger pressing if you'd like, which I do a lot of with this weight of knit. And let me get the fabric lined up. And here we go. And after stitching, you turn this right-side out, and it's time to do the hemming. Several years ago, I developed and wrote lessons on how to make a quilt from a fabric stash. I posted online lessons, calling it "Quilt to Give," encouraging you to make a bed-size quilt and then give it away. In past episodes of Sewing with Nancy, I've featured how we've used this "Quilt to Give" project as a community service event at the annual Quilt Expo in Madison. Twin-size bed quilts have been made during this three-day event and donated to shelters near and far. The process, enjoyable. The results, satisfying. During this episode, I'd like to share with you how we set up this community service sewing project with the hopes that you and your quilt friends will "Quilt to Give" as well. First, the quilt design. It's a twin-size quilt that has ten columns. A column is made up of solid fabric strips framing a patchwork center. Here are pointers on how groups big or small can work together making full-size quilts for those in need. First of all, choose project leaders. Select one or two members of your sewing group to make or at least review the processes. It's an easy quilt. The first year, our leaders, Theresa and Rachel, made a quilt in advance. They knew the process well. Then, number two, request donations, considering sending out emails requesting fabrics and batting donations. After the first year, we learned to request solids needed for the outer columns. We had way too many prints. And to note that fat quarters are just too short or small for this project. Other things to request include thread, scissors, needles, pins, rotary cutters, large mats, rulers, irons. You know. You got it all. Then machines. Ask a few fellow quilters to bring in their sewing machine. Not everyone needs a machine. You'll need some people to be sorting fabrics, cutting the strips, and pressing. Then make advanced preparation. For our event, we have two or three quilts ready to sew. My staff and I sort fabrics, cut strips for the outer patchwork sections, and for each "Quilt to Give" worksheet is filled out. Now, this filled-out worksheet, you can get online. You can just print it out, and this is to make a twin-size quilt, which most people where we donate find that this is the most useful, the twin-size quilt. So you can check if you want to have a variety of every other quilt column being a different color. You can have one color scheme. You can see the options, and then there's a little area where you can color in the colors you'd like for the columns. Make some notes, and I just show you exactly how to do this. Then we make sure we have at least two or three quilts sorted out, the fabrics sorted. This is for the patchy centers. And then, this is for next year. We have ready-- You can see the combinations for the columns, and this is for the binding. So we make sure we have enough fabric, and it's kind of fun to see what type of color combinations you'll come up with. It's a scrappy quilt, after all. And then, number five, set up the event. Holding our modern quilting bee at a convention center, we are able to allocate a considerable amount of space for this event. Set up in the atrium, attendees pass by the event on their way to classes, which gives the "Quilt to Give" event great visibility. Perhaps you'll have 5, 10, or 20 people sewing at your event. Look for a location that has space for several tables and an area that has adequate light and convenient electrical outlets. Areas designed for fabric donation, you can have, you know, a table for that so you can sort out fabrics by color, auditioning and selection for one quilt. Each year, we have fabrics leftover to use for the next year. They call it seed fabric. Then you can have a sewing machine section. The number of machines depends upon the group size. As I mentioned, not everyone is gonna sew at the same time, so you just need a couple of machines. There's plenty of cutting and pressing, as I mentioned earlier. The cutting station, Just be sure you have your rotary mats so you can cut strips and you can also square quilt tops. And then you need pressing stations. About two, I would recommend. We know we all value sew, press, sew, press when we make a quilt. The same rationale applies to a modern quilting bee. If you can have a long-arm quilting station, it's a plus, where perhaps a professional quilter would donate his or her time and work with a local sewing machine. Otherwise, tie the quilts. And then give the quilts away. That's the best part. We give our quilts to a local shelter and national organization called Enchanted Makeovers. All shelters need their clients to have a safe haven that has comforts at home. What could be more comforting than a quilt? With a little research, I know that you'll find recipients in your community who'll appreciate receiving your "Quilt to Give" quilts. The gift is in the giving. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this first program of "Sew

Knits

Sew a Knit Wardrobe from Start to Finish." Next time on Sewing with Nancy, I'll be working with a top, skirt, and pants. Remember to go to NancyZieman.com, where you can find more information about the "Quilt to Give" quilt and watch many seasons of Sewing with Nancy programs online. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now.

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Experience how easily and quickly a versatile, comfortable, and stylish knit wardrobe can be sewn or serged with this knit ensemble pattern design by Nancy It's $11.99 plus shipping and handling. To order this pattern, call 800-336-8373, or visit our website at sewingwithnancy.com/3016 Order item number M7331, Nancy Zieman's Knit Ensemble Pattern. Indicate your pattern size 6 - 22. Credit card orders only. To pay by check or money order, call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at NancyZieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy, TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman,

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