Sewing With Nancy

Less is better. That statement can be applied to many aspects, including sewing knits. During the second episode on "Sewing Knits from Start to Finish," I'd like to share how to take the easy way out and not feel guilty about the process. Last time, I gave sewing tips on sewing an easy jacket. Now, teaching the basics of sewing a knit top, pants, and skirt. I'm using a classic, yet comfy-to-wear, four-piece knit wardrobe pattern. The jacket from last time can be paired with pants and top. Or make your look casual, teaming up a top with a skirt or pant. "Sew a Knit Wardrobe from Start to Finish," that's what's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy.

gentle instrumental music

female announcer

Sewing with Nancy, TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman,

is made possible by

Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting, and embroidery machines and sergers.

Baby Lock

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. During the first episode of this series, I worked with the jacket, getting it almost finished, completing the front, the back neckline, setting in the sleeves, and the underarm. What I didn't finish was the hemline. The top that's to my right is very comparable to making the jacket. The shoulder seams, the sleeves, the underarm are sewn much in the same way, but the neckline's going to be a little bit different. If you missed the tips and techniques on cutting out the pattern, doing the marking, you may want to reference-- go to NancyZieman.com online and watch the first episode, or watch it on DVD. But regardless, you're gonna cut out the knit fabric for the top because that's what we're gonna concentrate on, and then do a little stabilizing, much the same way that I did the stabilizing before. And the stabilizing is to add some knit fusible interfacing, whether it is on a roll that's about 1/2" wide or you cut strips. And on the cutting board, I have the strips that are already cut out. You can see it's knit interfacing cut on the bias. Now, sometimes I cut this on the bias about 3/4" wide for the shoulder seam, and I'll show you in a minute why. So I've pressed the hem of the sleeves, the hem of the top with this extra stabilizer. It'll make the hem lie flat. It really works out well. And then the neckline of the front and the back, I put a little stabilizer because this will be, basically, the facing. It's just gonna turn under and topstitch front and back. And then the shoulder seam, I have the wider stabilizer. This fabric happens to be-- or pattern happens to have 5/8" seam allowances, so I made this about 3/4" wide, just pressed it on. That will stabilize the shoulder seam, prevent it from bowing out in the shoulder. So after you have pressed on the interfacing, you may think, what are these little dots that you have on this area? Well, sometimes it's difficult to know which is the right and the wrong side, so after cutting out, I like to put little 'W's on the wrong side so I know what side is right and what side should be on the inside. Now, the next sample that I have shows a knit top that has been sewn at the shoulder seam, and one of the sleeves has been set in. And it's time, even before you set in that first sleeve, to turn under the neckline seam. Now, this has the tape that's done as reinforcement, and... it's about the width of the seam allowance, which is only 3/8", 1/2" to 3/8", and you just press under this width. Now, what you can do is measure or eyeball it. It just about wants to turn under at the right amount. And you press that same amount going all the way around the neckline, and then pin. And right now, I'll just pin this little portion for you. And after pressing and pinning around the neckline, you're gonna go to the sewing machine and do some settings, just like we did in the first program. Now, if you're wondering what the settings are, for a topstitching, I like to use almost a straight stitch. We call it a wobble stitch. It has a straight stitch with a slight zigzag to it, just a little bit so that it has some give. Here's a close-up of how I'm topstitching from the right side of the fabric around this neckline to stitch down the seam and give it some stability and give it a clean finish. If we look back at the top, you'll see that maybe the stitch isn't quite perfect, perfectly straight, but it almost looks that to the eye, but then it has some give around the neckline, and that's all there is to finishing the neckline when you use a medium- to heavy-weight knit for an easy top. Many of the knit sewing techniques for the top and the jacket are very comparable. Again, in the first program, we did a lot of those sewing techniques of shoulder, setting in sleeves, and sewing the underarm seam. On this top, after sewing the neckline, we did the finishing techniques, but, of course, you have to do the hem. Now, if you look at the lower hem, you'll see that there are some press marks. And we like to pre-press, on the Sewing with Nancy team, the hems prior to doing any of the sewing of the stitching of the side seams. The reason, you can press when it's flat. Now, this is the top that I cut out-- or showed you earlier that had the stabilizer at the hemline, and then whatever hem width your pattern calls for or that you'd like to use, you can press up the hem early on if you'd like. It just works out better for me to get that pressed evenly, and you can work with the fabric flat rather than in a circle. So you'd press the sleeve, the hem, and just pre-press it, and then unfold it, and then you can sew the side seams, and that's what we've done on this sample. For a stable-- medium- to heavy-weight stable knit, you really can do a simple hem. You'll have to do some re-pressing probably right at the shoulder seam because you need to give that little shoulder seam a little press so that it lies flat. And then I like to trim away the excess fabric in the hem area, trimming the seam allowance down to 1/4" or whatever you prefer so that you don't have the bulk of a double layer of the seam allowance in that area. So here we have it trimmed away. Now use your pressing gauge, however you'd like to press, and we like to use something between the fabric so that the top edge does not leave an imprint on the right side. So then after pressing along the lower edge, you can re-press that edge. Now, this hem can be done very simply because there isn't a lot of stress on this particular fabric because it's kind of full at the hemline. If we look at the top again, you'll see that on this sample, because there isn't a lot of stress, all we did is sew around a circle, topstitching the edge. Now, if you'd like to use that wobble stitch, that really little, itty-bitty zigzag, that works out well too. So just topstitch the hems, and really, it's done. Now, when we get to the jacket, if you followed along in the first program, you know that we finished most of the jacket, but the hems were not worked on at all. The jacket front in this particular pattern is double, two layers, so that the back is single, and the back is the one that you're only going to see the stitching-- the topstitching of the hem. Now, you see it looks like perhaps a double needle, which you could use, or two rows of stitching, but it's a serger cover stitch. Common stitch that you see on ready-mades where the stitching covers from the underside the raw edge. If your serger can do this, it's a great stitch to make sure that you learn the techniques of it. So let me just show you how that back is finished on the jacket. The back seam is a little longer. So it's purposely that way on the pattern. You can see the longer length. Your pattern instructions will say to wrap this up, wrap it around the finished hem, and then sew the edge. That's what I've done here. Wrapped it and stitched. And then when you turn this to the right side, it's finished along that lower edge. Now we're gonna pre-press, or you'd press along this edge and then do the stitching at the cover stitch. Here's a close-up at the cover stitch. Set up. Follow the manufacturer's instructions of doing the stitching. Serge around that edge, but here's how you do it. You loosen the top threads. Place a screwdriver, an awl, between-- underneath the foot to loosen the threads so that the threads are separated. Then put your fabric underneath and serge along the edge, guiding it along the plate. Serge along, and after you're done serging, you'll have that even stitch that will go around the edge and be covered and complete. Now I'd like to share with you a few key techniques of making the pants and skirts. These outfits are really form-fitting, casual, easy to create. A few long seams and then a unique yoke along the waistline. The yoke on this pants and skirt is comparable. It's very wide. And the yoke also has elastic waistband hidden and tucked in. But right now, we'll talk about sewing the legs of the pants and the side seam of the skirt, either serging it or sewing it with a wobble stitch. On the far sample, I have a front and back pinned together along the side seam. This pant leg has already been sewn. Like before, you can use a wobble stitch or a serger stitch to do the stitching. And I always like to stitch from the hem up if I can and then pin along the-- perpendicular to the seam edge. This pattern happens to have 5/8" seam allowances, so I'm guiding the fabric along the R, which is for the right needle, 'cause I have both needles in. And then... just keep on serging. Doesn't get much easier. Now, if you had 1/4" seam allowances on your pattern, of course, you'd guide the fabric in a different position, but these have 5/8". So the seam has been serged. It has been finished all in one fell swoop. Now, the other seam, the outside seam, I'll press-- I've stitched and pressed and-- I haven't pressed it. I'll stitch it and then press it. So here we go. I'll just do it again just to show you the speed. Now, I've already serged the pant leg of the-- the other remaining pant leg. And soon we'll do some pressing. And we're getting to the homestretch. And it is convenient, again, to pin... Perpendicular. Now, to do the pressing, you press the seam flat, and then you press it to one side, as you can see on this close-up. And I like to press over a curved surface so that it doesn't leave an imprint on the right side of the fabric. Now, this other leg, I have already turned right-side out. We'd press all the seams before this point, and then you insert right sides together. So just give me some time here, but you just-- like you're making a big tube, and you put one leg inside the other and then match the edges. It's not difficult. It just has to take a little time to do the pinning and the preparation. So I will pin, again, perpendicular to the cut edge and then around the curve. You see I'm stitching-- I'm going to pin around the curve. At the crotch seam, the inseams, I have one seam allowance going in one direction, one going in the opposite so that I disperse the thickness of the fabric, and then I'll pin the front. This is the front of the pants. And then start to serge. And I'll serge the rest of this off-camera. At the serger, I stitched both legs together front to back, making two separate legs, and then stitched the crotch seam. Now, if you'd like, you could reinforce this with a wobble stitch through the curve of the pants for obvious reasons, and then after doing some pressing, then you can turn everything right-side out. Bring the pants legs both out, and here you can see the super-small size of the pants. It's ready to have a yoke or a waistline added. The skirt is much simpler. There are only two side seams, that's it, for the skirt. Then we'll add the same kind of yoke. And the yoke on this brown pair of pants encompasses the elastic at the waistline. When you're wearing these, these will lie flat because the elastic is tucked between the layers of the yoke. It's sandwiched in place and just zigzagged along one top edge. Less is best, as I said earlier in this program. If you're wondering, how do you enclose it in there? What are some tips? I like to work with elastic. This is about 1" wide elastic. You could use a little narrower, maybe 3/4" if you wanted to. Cut the elastic to the size that you'd like. Measure it around the hipline. Make sure it feels comfortable. Then cut it with no extra overlap. Exact size. We like to zigzag this onto a scrap of fabric. Zigzag securely. Then butt the remaining elastic, or kiss it together, and do another zigzagging. Just zigzag this securely into place, and then trim away the excess fabric. On this sample, we've trimmed it way down, and it's very, very secure and flat. That's the beauty of it. This is one of my favorite techniques. Sent in by a viewer. Then you fold the elastic in half, fold it in half again, and place a pin at each fold. Now, I don't have a pin there because it's a seam. Pretty obvious. Now, the yoke or the waistline fabric, if you had-- your pattern had a waistline piece, this time, it's serged or sewn on the side seams. It's two pieces. And then I do that press marking again. Meet the right-- excuse me, wrong sides together, the cut edges, because that's how it'll be when it's finished, and go to the ironing surface and just steam... lightly press the fold. Now, just so you have a press mark so you know where the waist-- top of the waistline will fall. Then we're gonna unfold it. Now, you could pre-press this before you sew the side seams if you like. I have a very faint line. I quartered the elastic. Now I need to quarter the waistband. Fold it in half. Those will be one pin markings. And then just catch the back fabric at the fold, feel where the pin is positioned, and catch the front. There you go. So this is the inside of the... of the waistband. So here, we'll sew-- or we'll attach at the quarter marks. We'll pin the elastic at all four points. The elastic, as you might guess, is going to be slightly smaller than the waistline. So we'll pin this. Set your machine to a zigzag stitch, more than a wobble stitch, 'cause this is going to stretch a lot. Here you can see that zigzag stitching, where I'm stitching along the top edge of the elastic, stretching the elastic to meet the waistband or the yoke seam. Here the finished waistband has been stitched. That zigzag stitch is a little bit wider than the normal stitching that we did earlier in this program. Then enclose the elastic, and meet these cut edges. Enclose it, enclose it. We're getting closer. And then quarter mark it again, pinning-- placing a pin at each quarter mark. Now, meet right sides together, right sides of the skirt or pants and of the... waistband. And here you can see, at the sewing machine, I already have it pinned. I have it pinned at each quarter mark. And now, as I did before, I'm going to stretch the waistband yoke to meet the skirt. And here you can serge, use the wobble stitch, however you'd like to attach it into a circle. Keep it continuous. Well, here is a finished pair of pants, and the waistband, it will lie flat when it's on you, and you can topstitch if you'd like around the edge, but what a neat finish to our knit program. Quilts that spark conversation, engage a community, and convey pride are some of the goals of the African American Quilt Guild in Oakland, California. Please welcome Marion Coleman, who joins us via Skype to share how the group has taken on the challenge of defining a city through quilts. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy, Marion. Good morning, and thank you for having me today. It's really a pleasure to talk to you and to share with others about your quilts that your friends and you have made, and tell us a little bit about your group. The African American Quilt Guild of Oakland has been in existence for over 15 years. Mm-hmm. - And we're a small group. There are probably about a hundred of us, with about 50 active members, and we started our

Neighborhoods Coming Together

Quilts Around Oakland project as a way to express our interest and love for the city of Oakland. And what a great way to provoke interest, conversation, and you're gonna share some quilts with us right now that tell stories. Let's start with your Trailblazers quilt, the one that you've made. Well, thank you. Trailblazers is part of a series about black cowboys. Every October, the Black Cowboy Association has a parade, and I went several years ago and took pictures of black cowboys and women and started to make quilts about them. It's a wonderful festival, and you'll see young and old people coming to see the horses and the cow-people.

both laugh

Neighborhoods Coming Together

And you have done a series of quilts on this topic; correct? I have. You can see some of them in the back. One of the cowboys is standing on a horse. I always thought that he was being very playful, and I call that Riding High.

Nancy laughs

Neighborhoods Coming Together

And then there is a woman, and she's using one of the English saddles, where you sit on the side. Sure. So it's just wonderful to try to convey African-American participation in the American West, so that's what this series is about, and that's what the Cowboy Association is also continuing to do. They also participate in a rodeo in the fall as well, so the interest in cowboys and horses is alive and well. And Ora Clay from your group made a quilt called the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Yes, Ora Clay is-- she's a new member in the guild, and she is active with the Oakland Museum, and the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame really started as sort of a support group as the museum. Mm-hmm. So she's celebrating the annual awards event that they used to have-- they no longer have it-- in a downtown vintage venue called the Paramount Theatre. So she's talking about black filmmakers, directors, actors, and so forth. Lovely, yeah. - Yes. And then Marsha Carter made a historical type of quilt. Yes, she did. She's talking about the pioneering reporter Delilah Beasley. She was a civil rights advocate, and she wrote a weekly column for years. So Marsha has done a beautiful job. you can see, it's sort of 3-D. She does photo transfers, and she has a beautiful velvet hat and a lace necklace. So it feels very vintage, and it's very reminiscent of the time when Delilah Beasley was alive. One of your -- - Now, let me just-- - Sorry. I just wanted to add something about Marsha Carter. She's also a member, but she drives from another city, the city of Stockton, to come in to meet with us. That shows our commitment to keeping this art form alive. Well, and talk about commitment. Frances Porter made the quilt called Is Graffiti Art? And Frances has been quilting a long time. Well, she likes to say that several years-- Well, she hasn't been quilting for a long time. She said she always thought for a while that quilting was for old people. And, of course, let me just add that Frances is over 90, so that's really saying something when she says that she considers it something for old people and it really wasn't for her. So I think, probably about five or so years ago, she started to quilt, and she's passionate about it, as you can see now. And Is Graffiti Art? is really her first sort of narrative, arty type of quilt 'cause she really has been doing traditional blocks and quilting up until now. So I'm really proud of her. And graffiti is truly art from this quilt perspective. And you can see her sense of humor too, 'cause you can see where she talks about, "Gray hair is God's graffiti." So you can see her sense of humor in the whole thing, yeah. Well, Marion, thank you so much for sharing this great collection of quilts that tell wonderful stories. Thanks for being with us. And thank you for having me. - You're welcome. I know you've enjoyed this series and also this interview with Marion to learn about how quilts tell stories. To learn more about Sewing with Nancy online and re-watch this program and many others, go to NancyZieman.com. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now.

announcer

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,

has been brought to you by

Baby Lock, Madeira threads, Koala Studios, Clover, Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Riley Blake Designs. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.