Sewing With Nancy - Easy Does It Knits (VHS, 2000)

I'm glad that you could join me on sign with Nancy today's topic is easy desert knits I'll show you how to mix and match for a major wardrobe components tops a jacket pants and skirt to create a flexible wardrobe Viki Showcase is our first combination a knit jacket pants and top with a change of just one component the look changes as well yes you can buy all these items most likely at twice the cost but half the fun of creating them yourself discover the joy easy does it knits next I'm sorry with Nancy sewing with Nancy TVs how to sewing program with Nancy Zeeman is being brought to you by Bob the largest European producer of sewing machines Fox creative line of sewing machines and hobby lock sergers are simply the best qinger a tradition of quality and scissors and shears for home classroom and industry ging our scissors and shears are the choice of professionals Madeira thread from Germany with superior quality and smart packaging to make it a sensational value preferred by home and professional embroiderers everywhere Oxmoor house the publisher of innovative sewing quilting and craft books including books by nancy Zeeman prim drifts the source for sewing and quilting notions including products by Dritz Collins and Omni grid Nancy's notions catalog featuring specialty sewing books and unique hard-to-find sewing notions and supplies on lesson on sewing it's best starts off by an identification of all the variety of knit fabrics there are many the single knit are a single knit is a sample that I have on the top it has 25 to 50 percent stretch and it always rolls to the right side lightweight used in tops will see some tops made of this fabric a little bit later interlock is a double knit some of you who have sown for a while double knit kind of has a bad connotation of heavy polyester fabric this is lightweight a cotton or cotton polyester blend a double it looks the same on right side as it does on the wrong side again good for skirts and for pants Ponte is another double knit a little bit heavier for jackets like the jacket I'm wearing has this fabric in it a beefier weight the ribbing in this bright color has up to 50% stretch or more it's used around the banding just like a single net a file off lease has many of the same characteristics it rolls to the right side almost looks reversible again great for outerwear and sportswear and a Berber another net has a Sherpa look on the outside on a knit backing it is not reversible believe it or not from a single net to a very beefy net many of the construction techniques are the same most net patterns are multiple sized they have multiple patterns nested together you'll need to trace off your pattern size and I've traced off from this jacket pattern the basic pattern pieces that I need for this project you don't have to transfer everything every single stitching line I put a little slash where there are the notches rather than the V's I just put a little slash the grain line is very important the hem allowance at the bottom and this also needed the marking for the center front for the button placement of the jacket I have a Ponte weight fabric on the table that has been pretreated I like to pre wash it to get rid of any sizing or any shrinkage that may occur for laying out of this pattern piece I have matched the cut edges I should say the selvage is at the lower edge this is 60-plus inches wide so it's bigger than my table you'd be working on a flat surface I always place the pattern pieces on the fold first for this pattern the back pattern piece is placed on the fold and I usually use a few pins just to anchor it in this area then I'll place weights around the other portions of the pattern you certainly could use other pins but since this is easy does it nets I want to show us quickly and efficiently as possible I'll just wait down the pattern piece poor the front pattern piece I need to get the grain line parallel to the fold line measuring from the arrow to the fold and placing one pin in the fabric anchoring it down and then make it making sure the same distance that 16 inches is measured from the end of the arrow now this is a review for most of you but it definitely bears repeating if you've never worked with knits before then after doing the anchoring you could then move the pin pattern weights to the next pattern piece first of all I just usually anchor down at the grain line all the pattern pieces I'm just going to do a few pattern pinnings for you right now when cutting I'm going to be using shears about eight inch long shears and this particular shears has a micro Sur rated blade perfect for knit fabrics kind of grabs it and makes the cutting go a little bit smoother than just a regular scissors now without a lot of pins and since this fabric is stable you don't have to worry too much about shifting but generally I put my left hand since I'm right-handed along the fabric just to hold down the pattern piece to make sure that I'm cutting accurately use as long stride as possible for all your cutting techniques this jacket pattern only has a main few main pattern pieces front back sleeve and then some facings so there is very little cutting to do then after cutting we're going to do some marking the main marking will be the nips but the pattern has a 5/8 of an inch seam allowance then I would place nips at the notches I think I said that those were nips those were notches in the patterns I just placed little fourth of an inch clips and then also at the hemline place a nip if your pattern had only a fourth of interesting allowances which is also common on some pattern pieces then you may want to use some pattern dots just to place these on the wrong side of the fabric so you would know where than various little markings are to be placed either technique works out very well for the basic cutting and marking of the fabric now it's time for the simple seaming when seaming nets you need to keep taken to consideration the stretch of the fabric there's a tremendous amount of stretch in the crosswise direction some knits more than others the length is stable some angled seams for example in skirts Yves will have again some more stretch so to accommodate that stretch we're going to set the Machine differently for different types of seams I have a stretch needle put in my machine there many times a blue in color or have a little blue color around the band have to prevent skipping of stitches and generally for a stable seam I just use a straight stitch and I'm going to slightly lengthen the stitch bought ten stitches per inch as I'm sewing this for the first row of stitching if you have 5/8 of an inch seam allowances after doing this one stitch then simply trim the seam down to 1/4 of an inch you don't have to measure just eyeball this down if your pattern came with fourth of an inch seam allowances of course then you wouldn't have to worry about this now such a machine for a zig-zag stitch and zigzag over the edge encasing allowing for stretch and then gives us a test to see how it stretches now if by chance you hear a little pop on your test scene that first row instead of using just a straight stitch use a very elongated zigzag I set my width at 1 and it has a little extra stretch but yet when it's pressed open it will look flat and now for a search scene sergers and knits i meant to go together there's no easier way to create knit fabrics or fashions than to search them I have my machine set up for a four thread overlock stitch notice all four cones are matching my fabric or matching as close as possible when pinning unsearched fabrics you can pin one of two ways either pinning so that the pins are perpendicular to the cut edge making certain that you remove them before surging because the blade would Nick them otherwise or pin with the pins parallel to the edge and then just remove them as you're sewing you cannot Serge over pins so make sure that you pay special note of this keep in mind that when surging the machine trims out the excess seam allowances and then overlaps the edges are over locks the edges at work I searched across the seam and you can see what great stretched this has it's just really fast and really fun to work on nits and sergers and shoulder seams and garments you will find in ready-to-wear and might as well do it at home too that when you're surging a shoulder seam to keep it very stable to surge over clear elastic this stretches a lot and the elastic allows the shoulders seem to have great retention to come back to its original size this stretches up to three times its width or length and then just springs back into shape we have very simple seaming here this pattern called 4/4 an inch seam allowances so that's why I have the clear elastic aligned with the cut egde of the fabric lower the presser foot and search so it's no different than working with a traditional seam just surging over the clear elastic for those favorite shoulder seams and you can see again it just springs back into shape it's really fast and fun the next theme I'd like to detail is setting in the sleeve knit sleeves like almost all sleeves have a slight amount of ease in the fabric then sleeve is cut larger than the armhole button it's not not a great deal you do not have to do any easing stitch instead just sew or Serge in this case with the sleeve portion next to the feed ducks to the base of the machine I placed a few pins in the sleeve at the underarm area at the notches and at the cap of the sleeve the rest of those easing I can take place are matching it can take place as I'm doing the surging this pattern again called for 1/4 of an inch seam allowance so I'm not going to be trimming off in the extra fabric maybe just a little extra to make the edges even and as I get to the area where the sleeve is a little bit larger than the armhole I simply just meet the fabrics together kind of finger pin them and the excess fabric will ease in by the feed dogs just taking a little extra time for doing this surgery now if you didn't have a serger at this point you simply use that straight stitch and zigzag see to put the two together take a little time as you're going around the corners this curve make the and notice how this little extra fabric if I didn't align them just perfectly becomes perfect because it's trimmed off and I'm on the homestretch leading one notch and then the rest you can see working with a surge seam is a perfect combination with a knit fabric here's a very traditional knit finish we're being around the neckline make it a crewneck a turtleneck or a mock turtleneck either way work with three steps and I'll show you these right now the key of working with a rib neckline is to use the proper fabric for the neckline finish ribbing is obvious choice it has almost a hundred percent stretch it stretches quite a bit it is meant for stretching out of shape and then going back together again whether you're considering using ribbing or you could also use self fabric for the neckline finish you'll have to do a little check on that fabric for example on this interlocked fabric if we wanted to check to see if it could be used as the ribbing simply take about five inches of this fabric and if it stretches beyond two and a half inches or 50% you could definitely use it as the finish so we could use a dressier look use the interlock or for a more sporty look the ribbing finish cut the ribbing the size your pattern indicates and so the short seamed together now with ribbing fabric there really isn't a right or a wrong side and then finger press the seam meet the cut edges as well as the wrong sides making it into a tube many of you have done this many times and then simply fold in half and place a quart pin at each half point at the seam and the opposite end then match the pins 2/4 it the quartering will help us determine where to place the ribbing on the neckline so that it's equally distributed around the neckline finish and another sample I have the neckline already quartered you can see the four pins I have still the wrong side of the fabric out you can see my shoulder seam and I have the pins now I'm simply going to meet the ribbing to the neckline on this next sample the ribbing has been pinned into place pinning the ribbing to the right side of the fabric to start to surge around the edge I'm going to release the thread from the thread guide in the back there's a stitch finger in the back of the thread where the defect thread / locks to release it just simply pull those two top threads and then the back pull the chain or the thread tail that will allow you to start with a clean stitch this pattern allowed or has a fourth of an inch seam allowance so I can just align the fabric with the blade area lower the presser bar and simply stretch the ribbing to meet the neckline as when working with the sleeve we have the longer area the neckline meeting the feed dog area remember those feed dogs bite the fabric ease it into place just surge all the way around the edges this is fast sewing and go together extreme easily the main difference between a crewneck line mock turtleneck as well as a traditional turmoil is just the size with ribbing the width of the ribbing now as I'm reaching my starting point you can see my thread tails that will just surge until I slightly overlap my starting spot release the threads and surge up in a matter of a few minutes you can have that searched all the way around the edges and it meets perfectly there's one final step you could do if you wanted to add a fourth step and that is to stop stitch from the right side for a dressier finish in the neckline here's a classic jewel neckline with a streamline way of finishing the edges it's so easy you could create two tops in an evening there are really two steps of creating the neckline for a jewel neckline the first is to do some seam finishes either by serger or a zig zag sewing machine you need to zig zag or Serge the edge and the sample shows both options notice that we have only 1/4 of an inch seam allowance Allah allowed along the neckline if your pattern happened to have 5/8 of an inch please trim it in the neckline down to 3/8 of an inch before doing the clean finishing after doing the surging or zigzagging then press under the seam allowance to the wrong side a simple way of adding a special touch to make it go much faster would be to add a fusible thread into the bobbin or one of the loopers of your serger fusible thread has two plies and watch what happens when I give it a steam it shrinks and has it shrinks what causes it when it's stitched in a seam it will bond to the fabric kind of like a basting step on the top that is on the table I have zigzag the edges using the bobbin thread with the three having the through fusible thread in the bobbin when I press it then to the wrong side of the fabric it holds it in place this is a very temporary basting but works very well in these small little areas if you are working on a serger here's a close-up of the way you'd be surging surging on the wrong side of the fabric either place the fusible thread in the upper looper or the lower looper you may like to slightly tighten the tension of that looper so the thread does not go over the edge you don't want it to get on your iron either way it really streamlines this technique the next step is to put a double or twin needle in your machine a stretch needle is often blue in color as a blue tint will stretch double Neil has a blue band as you can see here the size you would use is a 3.0 or a 4.0 double needle the numbers refer to the distance between the needles you'll only need one bobbin thread you'll need to top threads though and when I work with my machine and have two threads I always have one thread unwinding from the bottom or bottom and the other thread unwinding from the top so that they don't get twisted up as they're going through the tension guides just a little hint now to do the stitching I'm from the top of the fabric the double needle has a little give in it because it the bobbin is going between the two needles and you can just slowly stitch around the edge top stitching this into place it's fast I have a 4.0 double needle in my machine right now so the stitching will be a little bit wider apart the stitching between the two threads slightly wider than a 3.0 but still looks great so after doing the surging pressing and you simply have to do the top stitching and I think you can see why you would be able to make two tops and an evening with this simple technique as you look at this stitching you can see it's very close to the edge on the underside it almost looks like a zigzag because the bobbin thread had to go between the two needles but again a very professional look [Music] there are only a few short keys to keep in mind when working with knits for seaming fourth of an inch seam allowances work best here's a straight stitch followed by a zig zag or on a serger a four thread overlock stitch is the preference on shoulder seams Serge over clear elastic for stretchability and here's a great way to finish those jeweled necklines using a double needle and two threads as you can see we call this series easy does it knits because truly they are easy here's a hint from prim grits the manufacturers of Collins quilting products when hand quilting used the patented no slip hoop with the unique tongue and groove shaping system to keep your quilt layers perfectly taut and stable simply place the fabric over the inner hoop loosen the outer hoop slip the outer hoop over the fabric and tighten the screws the tongue-and-groove molding will lock the layers in place when quilting the perfect companion is a finger pin cushion keep extra threaded needles or pins in this convenient mini pin cushion the no-slip hoop and finger pin cushion our ideal quilting mates next a hint from Oxford House the book essential sewing guide is a how-to book but also a reference book we often hear from readers that they use the mini charts including the needle in feet charts on a frequent basis in fact one reader Barbara Schaefer from Chicago tape samples next to the feet chart along with noting machine settings she writes my book is thickened spots and I suppose odd shaped yet this personalization makes this book truly an essential guide for me welcome to sewing with Nancy whenever someone asked me what's the easiest fabric to sew I quickly answer with one word knits whether that single or double myth's made of cotton wool polyester or a combination of many fibers knits are comfortable to wear and equally as easy to sew I'll start with the technique I call the easiest rugby shirt the placket is sewn with one stitching step you'll soon see why I call this series easy does it knits that's what's next on sorry with Nancy rugby shirts are a mainstay in many wardrobes for casual wear for sports wear and to make one is extremely easy especially if we take a little time to change the pattern piece the facing pattern piece if you look at a rugby shirt you'll notice that there is a placket an underlay placket and the placket is also part of the under portion of the buttonhole side I'll show you how easy it is to get this to a lineup without a lot of work and very very simple sewing I traced a size medium on my pattern for the shirt front and I placed a small piece of tissue paper over the top of the fabric or the top of the pattern this tissue paper is extending one inch beyond the center front of the shirt that's the first important measurement one inch beyond the centre front then trace the neckline the cutting line of the shirt and your garment facing is going to have the same cutting line except it'll be a one inch longer for the ruler I'm going to measure to make certain that this is this facing is about seven inches long and then across the lower edge make a line that's four and a half inches wide it doesn't have to be exact this is just a rough measurement but approximately seven inches across the shoulder seam measure two and a half inches or just the middle the shoulder seam will be about the same thing then just simply connect the lower edge with the top pitch and now you've become a pattern designer just like that you may want to also transfer the grain line this is your new facing piece the extension that was placed at the one inch beyond the center front is going to be a fold so you'd mark place on fold on that pattern piece and you're ready to cut this out the pattern piece that I have already cut out also has interfacing placed on it but let me just show you if placed it on the fold with that one inch extension before actually fusing the interfacing I do a little nipping or a clip a clip at the center front fold and as well as another clip at the lower edge will help me marking a little bit later so I take off the pattern piece and open this up you'll see some markings as well as interfacing in place I used a knit fusible interfacing a lightweight fabric requires a lightweight interfacing it's a knit fabric so we have a knit interfacing as well you can see that I've already marked the pattern pieces or with the markings and now I'm going to simply just show you what I marked and here get my cutting tools the first mark is to mark the fold the center front and I'm going to use a black pen you would use your fabric marking pen then 3/4 of an inch to the left of the center front mark place a line that's six inches long 6 inches from the cut line 3/4 of an inch and then 6 inches long now keep in mind that we always have these instructions written in the booklet that accompanies the program center front 3/4 of an inch to the left we can set this aside now and now I can mark the garment we have small samples but I'll show you we did much the same thing I placed a nip at the center front as well as the lower edge and now I'll mark the center front just to give you a bearing where we are those nips really save time in trying to find where the centre front would be just little clips you can see here that I have a strip of fusible interfacing it's about 2 inches wide and I fused it to the left of the center front I need a little stability there and then do the same marking making it six inches long from the neckline 3/4 of an inch to the left of the center front sounding like a broken record but it's the same markings we're going to stack the facing to the garment along these three fourths of an inch markings now let's meet right sides together so the first time you have to kind of peek underneath to make sure that you are lining the right pattern pieces together and then let me check underneath here you may want to place a pin through the bottom area and see how close you come out on the garment and I'll just move this over just a touch this is going to be the stitching line I mentioned it's a one-step stitching we're going to stitch with a guide and the guide will be basting tape usually use this eighth of an inch wide basting tape to put seams together to hold seam edges it's double-sided well we really only need one side and we need it as a seam guide here you can see that I'm sewing along the tape edge as I'm reaching that bottom point simply going to shorten my stitch length so to a point and then sew up the other side so it's a really one-step sewing after doing the sewing and here you can see a sample that has been stitched you can cut right down the center I've removed the tape as you can see here it's been cut and if you found that you went one stitch too far you clipped a little bit too far just research this lower edge to reinforce it when I flip the stitching or flip the facing to the inside you can see how this is forming the placket when I match the shoulder seams of the left side the two fabrics align right at the fold when I matched the shoulder seams of the right side we have the placket the extension already formed now the next step is to work with a caller you can use a caller pattern piece and use the single Natur interlock you're working with or I'm using a knit collar you wouldn't use such a contrasting color as I have here but then match the collar at the center front markings one edge is finished one edge is raw so you can tell which edges to go together and you pin the collars to the respective center fronts and I'm just going to use this on the sample you would have the back shoulder seam stitched at this point but just to show you where they're matched up I'd like you to see this then simply rap the facing around the collar sandwich in the collar between the garment and the facing match the shoulder seam of the facing to the shoulder seam of the garment and let me show you that in a actual another sample that really has a back attached I have lots of samples as you might gather this has been stitched and it has also been matched properly the shoulders seam of the facing is aligning to the shoulder seam of the garment you may find that you have to stretch this front just a little bit because of the interfacing has made it a little bit more stable this pattern called for a fourth of an inch seam allowance and so that's what we used when sewing around the neckline and you might want to before doing any trimming just turn this right side out to see how it looks and I'll do that for you now I'll just turn first of all the left side out bring out the point notice where the collar is matched now turn the opposite side and bring it to a point there are a few finishing details left we need to tack the facing attach it to the shoulder seam but here is the underside where the placket is formed and here's the top side all it is left of the buttons and buttonholes elastics are very functional at the top of skirts at the top of pants the seaming is simple with two rows of straight stitching around the top of the waistline and some creative insertion of the elastic I'll show you how I'm sure many of you have put elastic into tops of pants or skirts before but perhaps a pickup a point or two when working with elastic I like to leave room for the elastic to be adjusted as well as inserted in the casing itself the first step I always do is to press the casing under it's usually an inch and a half width and just press it even prior to doing the stitching of the side seams on one side scene you're going to leave an opening whether you Serge the seam or use conventional stitching stitch to the top fold to that fold area you could kind of see that I'm pointing to if you do Serge the seam you may want to with your traditional machine regular machine just stitch at the very top to reinforce the seam then leave the rest of the seam open until the very edge and then catch two or three stitches at the very top so instead of having an opening of an inch and a half it's about an inch and a fourth on a regular seam you will find that you'll have a straight stitch followed by a zigzag we detailed that in the first series of this first program of this series and this is a small sample just to show you that straight stitch the zigzag I reinforced the stitches at the top and then again stitched the two edges together with two or three stitches at the very top of the casing now sometimes I'd like to do a little basting stitch to save some time answers to save frustration and that's the basting of basting open the seam allowances I'm going to set my machine curl just a longer stitch length because this is going to come out in a little bit and Stitch the seam allowances down just catching those themes it was come out a little bit later but it will not interfere with the elastic as it's being sorted through the casing now after basting those stitches into place then press or follow the fold that you've pressed earlier can get rid of all these thread tails and sew around the top edge now if you press this I found many times that you really don't even need to do a lot of pinning if the knit is stable enough I'm using a heavier weight inter life and I'll just stitch around the edge at the very fold and it's not time-consuming it all just guided along the edge I'm using a contrasting thread of course you would use matching thread then after stitching along this top edge then simply follow the lower edge stitching as close to the lower edge as possible to have a secure seam this next sample shows how we've done the stitching the contrasting stitching is at the lower edge and notice the opening for the elastic this I keep always open because if I would need to replace the elastic at any time I have the perfect opening in the top of the skirt or top of the pants now for the actually elastic ninja and 1/4 of the elastic is what I'm going to be using you could use as narrow as 1 inch but then I would make that casing just a little bit tighter a snugger cut the elastic about two inches shorter than your waistline put it around your waistline to make sure it's comfortable before you actually do the sewing at one cut edge of the elastic find a piece of a scrap of a piece of fabric and zigzag securely zigzag the elastic to the scrap this scrap will help keep the elastic from threading through the inter or coming out of the elastic casing you'll see that in a minute the opposite end attached a Botkin or elastic Glide using the tip of the bat can insert it through the opening of the elastic casing and simply thread all of the elastic through the opening just keep working and working this through the fabric and pulling the elastic going a few more inches and pulling the elastic it'll take a little bit of time to do this working of the elastic but we took some time on this next sample and to show you the reason that you attach the extra fabric at the end of the elastic because as you're pulling through there's a great tendency for the free end to just slip right through that casing this extra fabric is a stopping an anchor not allowing the elastic to run all the way through now simply but the ends of the elastic together and I have this on this next sample obviously this will be inside the fabric but you meet the two elastics together zigzag and then trim as we have here the elastic is very secure to the fabric and then you trim off the extra fabric that extra purple fabric and will be very flat you're not going to have an overlap as so often is done in the elastic this will be very flat and next to the skin and the grape air pimp that we have for this ensemble I took out the basting stitches that were in this area and here's the elastic nicely snug inside the casing you may then want to get the elastic kind of pulled the two fabrics the elastic and the pants fabric together and then the last step would be to stitch in the ditch stitch in this well of the seam to secure the two together at all seams and your elastic is complete Vicki is showing us another combination of her knit ensemble the top pants and jacket have all been hemmed with ease with one two techniques that I'd like to share with you right now knit fabrics have stretched especially along the cross grain and that's where the hems go across the lower edge across the sleeve they all have a lot of stretch we've been sewing stretch into the seams with a particular Serge door seams with a straight stitch in the zigzag but now we have to use the same consideration for the hem line one of the first steps that I work with especially on a skirt or a top is to press the hem even before sewing the side seams it saves me a lot of time later on it's easier to press a flat piece of fabric than it is to press fabrics that have been sewn into a circle if you're working with a skirt perhaps it might have an inch-and-a-half hem so simply on your ironing board before sewing meet the cut edge of the fabric to the inch and a half mark on the hem gauge and press the hem gauge prevents the top edge of the skirt from making an imprint on the fabric or the top edge of the hem for making an imprint just keep advancing this all the way down at that inch and a half mark and press so pre pressing saves time and it's really fast after sewing the skirt side seams or pant side seams you may want to consider one of the fastest hem techniques that I like to use and that's with fusible web just this 1 inch or 3/4 of an inch wide strip of the fusible web not the paperback just the webbing on the wrong side of the fabric after you press the hem place the webbing in place you may want to set it down just a scant v just here so that it's not going to extend beyond the top edge and zigzag with a medium with a medium stitch length we're in place very fast not really zigzagging to clean finished the edge but rather your zigzagging just to position the webbing another option if you had a serger would be to do the same thing only attach it with a serger and here this sample shows that the serged edge ends and the web is in place you have your hem already marked and now do some pressing to fuse it into place I still like to avoid that top edge of the hem I never like to press on this very top edge so as I'm steaming I'm just kind of guiding my iron the edge along the edge of the fabric now granted this is a sample and you would have your full circular skirt but you would work in the same technique after letting this dry you can give this a stretch and you can see that the web stretches with the fabric and you would not have popping of threats this is a good hem for a top or skirt for pants jackets garments that get a little bit more aware along the lower edge I'd like to use a double needle we worked on with double needles many times on sewing with Nancy just as a refresher the size of the needle is the distance between the needles I'm using a three millimeter knit it has NIT points on it suitable for knit fabrics I pressed the hem then stitched from the right side top stitching the hem in place please check a sample step stitching a sample with slightly loosening that top tension so that again you have stretch in your hem where you need it and those are two easy ways are working with hems on knits [Music] in the second program of easy desert Nets I detailed some of the basics how easy it is to put in elastics simple hemming techniques as well as how to put a rugby shirt placket down the front keep in mind that the instructions for the placket are on the booklet that accompanies a series I'll be back with more ideas this time creative ideas I'm working with knits next on sine with Nancy here's a hint from Nancy's notions my sign with Nancy booklet collection is one of my best kept secrets the collection includes booklets containing complete Illustrated instructions for my current series plus a comprehensive subject index so you can easily find information any sewing topic the booklets are compiled in an attractive three-ring binder which opens flat for easy reference every six months you can update your collection with booklets for the newest series plus a free index for those booklets it's a great sewing resource here's a hint from ging err when you're doing machine embroidery or cut work it's sometimes a challenge to trim threads and fabric from the hoop fabric I keep my curved embroidery scissors closeby for just those occasions the curved blade cleanly cuts threads close to my work without cutting my stitching and the slender blades allow me to cut right next to my straight stitch cut work design another terrific use of the curved embroidery scissors is to trim closely to scallop stitching this is a very versatile scissors here's a hint from cream grits the manufacturers of Omni grid rulers these precision laser cut rulers give unmatched accuracy they're made of heavy-duty clear acrylic and are perfect for very cutting any color fabric from light to dark Omni grid's exclusive double sight lines are printed on the underside of the ruler for greatest accuracy in contrasting black and yellow enabling you to see the measurements you need notice the ease of measuring on this pink fabric as well as a dark print in addition to the straight cutting lines you'll find degree lines 60 45 and 30 allowing you to cut geometric shapes without the use of templates I think you can see why I use Omni good rulers on TV and at home easy doesn't Nitz as a topic for this mini-series on sewing with Nancy welcome and thanks for joining me this third program is on surging and signed with knits were also details several specialty techniques including adding an embroidery design rugby and polo shirts are natural candidates for thread accents for those of you who own a computerized sewing machine adding an embroidery accent to your project is extremely simple the only difficult part is choosing which design to use that's what's next on sewing with Nancy embroidery designs can be added to practically any fabric the main difference is the type of stabilizer that's used for knits we need to stabilize the fabric even more so than woven fabric so it doesn't stretch during the sewing process we have the knit fabric in the hoop but before I show you how to add it into the machine we're gonna go through the setup of adding the computerized unit now if you have a computerized unit follow your owners instructions for me I need to turn off my machine attach the unit and then I can turn on and I'm ready to do the other setups I've already lowered the feed dogs of my machine dropping them because the machine is going to be moving itself to stitch the design notice the specialty darning foot that comes along with the creative design and then also we're going to be working with a specialty needle the needle is going to be an embroidery needle because we're working with seven different colors of rayon thread and the fun part about this is choosing the different rayon threads that can be used to create the design the design is on a computer disk a CD a card however your machine accommodates this I happen to have this on a card and it fits right into my unit and I'm just about ready to go I forgot to mention a little bit about the bobbin thread the bobbin thread is lightweight you're going to use a lightweight bobbin thread or this as a bobbin thread and cardboard I don't care what you use just don't use a heavy thread because it's going to be needed underneath just as a little light way to support I'm going to push the card button and choose my design I'm gonna use the croquet mallet that my machine talked to me a little bit it asked me if I've lowered the feed dog switch if I had if I have a full bobbin and I'm ready to go now for the fabric and the hoop because knit fabrics have a lot of stretch now this is a Lacoste knit or an interlocked knit and it has a lot of stretch to it if we didn't stabilize it it would stretch out of shape in the hoop so in the hoop we have placed an iron-on stabilizer or a stabilizer that is just sprayed to the wrong side of the fabric and attached into the hoop itself not separately but together so that this fabric is nice and stable you noticed on the top that we showed you earlier that the design was on the pocket well rather than cutting the pocket out of out of the pattern shape at first we cut a larger rectangle so we could fit the whole fabric in the hoop after the embroidery then we'll cut out the design if you if this is not a possible for you if you already have your shape cut out I'll show you how to deal with that in just a few minutes so the hoop loaded the machine I think is just about ready to be set up and I'm going to insert the design or the insert the hoop I'm going to just take one stitch so that I can draw up the bobbin thread which I will do they'll I have a light color in here a little difficult to see one more time we'll drop that bobbin thread so we'll be ready to go I like to take two or three stitches at first place the foot in the sewing position and take two or three stitches to lock the threads and then I'll clip off the rest of the threads now this first color is going to so for just a few minutes and we'll just let it so by itself and while it's sewing I'll explain what you would do with your fabric if you're going to have it cut to shape where it's cut smaller than the coop area let's say your pocket was cut out or as in this sample we have the design in the neckline shape of the top notice that this portion of the fabric wouldn't have any stability to it so to accommodate this we used a different type of stabilizer and that stabilizer is a paperback sticky back it has paper on the topside with the grid it's proportion we put the paper and the hoop and then scored away the top paper exposing a sticky stabilizer here's a hint notice it's gridded we placed the gridded portion right at the gridded marks at the center point of the hoop I mark the center the top with a pin folded in half to find the center point and align the mark and the pin together remove the pin and apply the sticky stabilizer adheres to the fabric makes it flat so we don't have to worry about any other type of stabilizer so this is what you'd work with if the design is already cut out and was not the right size for the hoop I always make a sample run always you could use that perhaps for another applicant a later date but on this pocket we know exactly where we wanted the design to be so right now it's color one is I've been stitched so I'm going to raise the presser bar cut the thread at the design just clip it close as I said sometimes the thread is very comparable to the color of your design a little difficult to see but then also clip it at the spool and then rather than pulling it off the top I grab the thread by the needle so let me clip this once more and then pull the thread through so I'm flossing a machine now I'll quickly change thread colors to my next color the process really involves a lot of changing of threats so we'll just quickly do this adding my next color it's a taupe color it's not going to be that evident for you we'll try it one more time when you're over 40 you need glasses at this point which I don't have here we go we add the thread second thread color and I put the machine in the sewing position remember to always give the your machine a little of Pat so that you can tide make sure it's in the same position cut that thread and then let it so as I'm letting it so I would need to add five more colors and this is what the design looks like after you've been stitching at this point after stitching then you can simply place your pattern piece over the design and cut it out to add a great accent our sawing now goes from creative to functional not no longer we working with embroidery designs but the functional part of putting in buttonholes buttonholes and knits are very compatible as long as you follow a few key instructions so that is to have vertical buttonholes since the knit is stable in the lengthwise grain but yet stretches a lot in the crosswise grain my preference is to put in the vertical buttonholes if your pattern calls for crosswise just change them to vertical I'm also going to give you a few guidelines of how to stabilize that area while stitching and also after stitching so that the buttonholes say nice and perfect all through the life of the garment the first area to stabilize will be the facing interfacing we haven't used interfacing in this program until now because you've done such simple signs simply elastic and seams and so forth but the facing of a jacket will require a lightweight fusible interfacing a knit interfacing it's tricot that has the fusible sprayed on the wrong side and when it's applied to the interfacing or for the facing of the garment is very pliable and it hasn't changed its drape or shape it's just giving it a little bit of support less is best when it comes to interfacing on knits and just use that lightweight interfacing the knit interfacing so the front and the back facings all have the interfacing applied to it the button area the buttonhole area you're going to mark on your fabric but not only marking the front but for the buttonhole mark it on the wrong side and the jacket front we have marked an area with a tracing wheel where we have the center front where the buttonholes are going to be placed the reason for doing this is adding a very non-traditional non-conventional little piece of fabric and it's really elastic not fabric clear elastic is what I'm going to recommend for you to place down the buttonhole area on the wrong side of the fabric you can then machine-based it into place now the reason for doing this is this is usually swim area lastik not for buttonholes but we have found that if you place this in the buttonhole area it adds to the life of the button while keeping the buttonhole size not getting out of shape you can baste it down the front with your machine the whole length or just every few inches and on this sample I've done it every few inches and the sample I'm going to so it's based at the entire length however you'd like to do it to give it a try just position it in place on the sample that I'm going to be working with you can see that basting line down the front of the this jacket area or you could do this on a Rugby top and then I've marked the starting spots of the buttonholes now if you didn't have clear elastic you could certainly use another type of stabilizer and that would be a water soluble stabilizer like Avalon or wash away either these two products definitely help give stability to that buttonhole during the sewing process not necessarily in for the longevity but it really works quite well you sew over the top of it and then simply tear it away and then your buttonhole is ready to be cut open well let me talk to you or show you a little bit more about sewing that buttonhole into place also one buttonhole I've already checked the size of it so I know how long to make it I always make a test buttonhole sewing down the center of this area I've set my machine for an it buttonhole if you have that ability that's a great thing to do at this point so the length of this buttonhole how long I wanted to make it and just let it so now that elastic is being caught between the fashion fabric and facing we're almost finished here we go and then I would sew all the remaining buttonholes at this point they'll just sew one for you so telling you are showing you that I've sewn over that elastic on this next sample I'm going to show that we have multiple buttonholes in place down the front of this make-believe jacket and as I fold this back you can see that the elastic has been caught between those two areas now to cut open the buttonholes I'm going to use a block of wood and a cutter and this is my favorite way of cutting open buttonholes and I'd like you to do it in two steps not one step no matter what size of the buttonhole I usually put half of it on top of the wooden block put the end of the blade at the end of the buttonhole and cut so I'm cutting off the blade that way this blade is not larger than the buttonhole area then flip it to the other side remove the block and then cut the other end of it you're cutting through the elastic through the fabric through all the areas but you can cut that open very easily and it still has a lot of stability in that area so in working with buttonholes on knits the idea is to keep in mind are to have vertical buttonholes add a little stability with clear elastic or with a water soluble stabilizer and you'll have a buttonhole that will last the life of your garment use a serger on knits four quick seams as well as decorative accents this jacket showcases a decorative cover stitch around the neckline I'd like to show you now how to use this cover stitch for both function as well as for fun the function of a cover stitch you'll find in knit tops knit garments where you'll see a double knit stitch or a double thread stitch and then on the flip side the underside a cover stitch where the thread covers the seam allowances we're not trimming off any of the seam allowances we're just sewing over the fabric and ready-to-wear this is a very common stitch the way they show it in factories we can do the same if your machine can be set up for a cover stitch I followed my owners guide to set up for the cover stitch I have three threads I'm using all-purpose thread since mine it does not have a lot of stretch if you had very stretchy knits use a wooly nylon type of thread that has a lot of give and pull the machine is set up with a flatbed I have a hammer guide inserted your machine guide may call it a flatbed notice that it is continuous much like a traditional sewing machine the blades are disengaged or lowered you're not going to be trimming off any extra fabric again follow the guide in your or the instructions in your owners guide I have set my machine for a wide cover stitch the needles are extra far apart there's usually a narrow and a wide and I'm using the wide for knits for the functional part of a cover stitch you're simply going to press the hem I have about an inch to an inch and 1/4 hem that has been pressed into place what I like to do is make a top pant perhaps a skirt press all the hems and Stitch them at once I'm a machine on the guide the hem guide it's white on white so it's not that noticeable but it's imprinted with various markings so that I can have a hemming guide line I'm going to align the fold of the hem line at number two and just search do a test check your fabric as well as check the stretch ability you may want to lengthen this stitch change the differential feed whatever however your machine best works of the fabric and you'll see from the right side that I have this double needle look stitch and then from the underside it covers covers that raw edge does perfectly so that there isn't any raw edges exposed and it will wear very well you're going to be sewing in a circle and I show you how to do that but to save some time I'm just going to release this from my machine now I'm going to press a button that releases the tension of the thread so it makes that unusual noise but it's a great way to release those threads on this little top I'm going to show you how you handle sewing in a circle I'll find the right end here we go when you're sewing a ham and you get to your starting spot simply over stitch two or three stitches then pull the threads to the underside and tie them by hand and clip off the extra thread tails the way you would traditionally work with a normal seat you do the same on a serger see so that's the functional part now the fun part is like the jacket I'm wearing the decorative stitch exposing the underside of the cover stitch on this sample you can see a marking a white pencil marking on the facing or the wrong side underside where I'd like the stitching to follow it's measured exactly an inch and a half from the fold of the fabric rather than sawing on the right side we're going to sew on the underside placing that white mark underneath the presser foot there is a guide in the middle of the presser foot and just Serge over the white marking and encasing that edge I do put a few pins in there to position it take them out before you Serge over the edge gently make that curve of the corner or the shaping of the facing and continue my sample is simply that it's not a complete jacket it's a sample so you'd be sewing from one end to the other and again I'll just release this and you would sew all around the neckline but it gives a very interesting decorative stitch again duplicated from ready-to-wear I hope you'll give these a try during this series on easy desert knits I've shown you how easy it is to stitch a top pants skirt and jacket in combinations of all the above when working with tops probably the easiest neckline treatment is the jewel neckline where we simply turn under 1/4 of an inch and top stitch into place the pole or rugby shirt is a little bit more detailed but simple with that one seaming technique that I showed you how to work with jackets of knits are really simple as well keeping in mind that if you put in buttonholes to make sure that they're vertical not horizontal and skirts and pants have simple sideseams plus easy elastic in the casing the other neckline we worked with on a top was a 1-2-3 neckline rib neckline either mock turtleneck turtleneck or a crewneck they're all put on in the same technique we've made about eight pieces in this ensemble using these four colors and I have a storyboard to show you with eight pieces you can simply get about twelve different color combinations from working with the very classic black and red for more elegant wear or using the gray combination for more casual wear and then taking the black and gray and combining or mixing and matching them together with different tops here you see two of the different tops that we worked with and then another combination working with again reversing the color combinations of black and gray and combining more tops it's our fastest sew and very versatile I hope you give them a try [Music] here's one more hint before ending the series on easy doesn't it's going back to the idea working with buttonholes in its vertical buttonholes and stabilized with clear elastic after putting the buttonholes in remove the basting stitch as we have done in the top section of the sample you could also remove the excess clear elastic and then leave the elastic in the buttonhole area to give it additional stability I hope you'll try this technique as well as others on easy does it knits bye for now visit Nancy's website at www.nasa.gov for more information on this program sewing with Nancy has been made possible by grants from the following companies Bob simply the best European line of sewing machines Jing er a tradition of quality and scissors and shears Madeira threads designed for home and professional embroiderers everywhere Oxmoor house publishers of sewing quilting and craft books primp drifts the source for sewing and quilting notions and Nancy's notions sewing catalog featuring specialty sewing books and notions [Music] [Music]

Channel: PFAFF Talk

Views: 9,144

Keywords: pfaff, creative 7570, coverlock 4872, sewing machine, serger, coverlock, nancy zieman, sewing with nancy, knits, sewing knits

Id: 0ZRkpWmgpJU

Length: 60min 31sec (3631 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020