Following the less than perfect results of the t-shirts for my daughter, I thought I'd "whip up" a top for myself to make myself feel better about sewing knits. Well ..... Not happy.
The pattern is Vogue 7799, an OOP that I've had for years. I've made it in all its views, with my own personal tweaks, many a time. Piece of cake! Not. The fabric is a cotton rib knit that I picked up at Fabricland in the "knit ends" pile. It's a purply-browny colour. Very uncooperative stuff, to say the least. The seams were serged easily enough, with differential feed engaged. I didn't have enough fabric for the actual collar, so I decided to wrap the edge.
That took much steaming, pinning, basting, and still it stretched out of shape. It's passable, but barely. Final bit - the hems.I was almost ready to pitch the whole thing, but I just can't stand to toss an almost finished piece. I'm always determined that I can somehow make it work. I topstitched with a double needle. Stretched like crazy. Ripped out the few inches that I had started, steamed it back into shape and decided to lay a piece of washaway stabilizer on top of the fabric, carefully adjusting the bit of fabric that was coming up to the presser foot. Better, but far from perfect.
Once I was done, I tossed the top into the wash to get rid of the stabilizer, also praying that possibly any stretched-out bits would regain their shape. Not really. I'm not too thrilled with the results. Now, given the type of fabric, I did not expect this to be a thing of great beauty, but I somehow thought that it would look better. I'm actually wearing the top right this moment. It's comfortable and feels good. Possibly could wear it out of the house with a jacket over it. My intent in buying odd pieces of interesting-looking knit is to gain confidence in sewing any type of knit. I only seem to frustrate myself. Part of the problem, I think, is my sewing machine. I have issues with it, or it has its own issues, but for the moment I have to live with it, and maybe I should steer clear of odd types of knits for the time being. May-be there are incorrigible fabrics that look awful, no matter what. I have seen some pretty sad sewing on RTW items and I've always chalked it up to "factory sewing", but may-be there's stuff out there that even industrial machines can't do a decent job on
Sorry 'bout that top photo - looks like I need another session with the camera manual to make sure I'm in focus.
Boy, I sure hear your frustration. I spent all my sewing time this weekend trying to tweak my HP knit dress. After all the work and rework and rework, I still have a dress that is just so so. Arrgh. I'm ready to move on. Your hems may not be perfect, but they are not too bad, and I would wear the top because the color and texture are pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteSometimes things just don't work out how you want them to be but I always try and tell myself that it's never time wasted because there's always something to be learnt!
ReplyDeleteI hear you. Sometimes knits can be just horrible. I've had some success with pinning tissue paper to both front and back of the fabric; this helps feed it through the machine more smoothly, and can then be ripped away easily when the seam is sewn. Also, try just serging the raw ends, and hand slip-stitching, if need be.
ReplyDeleteBut if it's a comfortable top in a great colour, which yours definitely is, then I reckon it's been a success!