Sew Carrie Sew: serge

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Minerva ITY Knit

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Minerva ITY Knit

This beautiful print ITY knit has so many of the colors I love! I was thrilled when it arrived at my door! It is even more beautiful in person! It was gifted to me by Minerva.com in exchange for a blog post.

Because of the print, I decided to go simple. I love hi/lo tops and dresses, so I used one of my TNTs - McCall's 6957 - view B. I love the fit and flare shaping of this pattern!

The only change I made was to add sleeves. I love elbow length sleeves. Many of my TNT patterns are marked with that length.

I did a bit of print matching by making sure the aqua floral was center front and that the sleeves matched. Most of the construction was done on my serger with a 4 thread set-up.

I love using pre-cut fusible stay tape on the shoulders, hems and necklines of my knits. After fusing the tape on, I serged the edges using a 3 thread set-up. Then I simply pressed the hem under by using the stitches as a guideline and top stitched.

Here I styled it with leggings, but it's actually long enough in the front that I can also forego the leggings. I wore it to an outdoor setting, thus the flats, but it can also be styled with heels!

Of course I couldn't resist making a matching mask. To stabilize the knit for the mask, I fused a tricot interfacing to it. The lining/filter pocket is 100% cotton.

This dress is easy to make and fun to wear!

Did I say that I love sewing and wearing ITY knits! 😃

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Friday, March 13, 2020

Flutter Sleeves!

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This simple top became a bit of a challenge!

I'm really not a pastel kind of girl, but I fell in love with this beautiful

double brushed poly knit print

at the International Houston Quilt Festival in October 2019 when I spotted it at the SoSewEnglish booth.

There was only one bundle left, so I tucked it under my arm as I continued to shop. I didn't even know how much yardage it was!

LOL!

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! Right?

There was just enough for a simple top, which was perfect because that print needed to speak for itself!

I'd heard about this wonderful knit, but that was my 1st time seeing and touching it!

It is SEW soft!

It's like wearing secret pajamas!

It will also make wonderful luxurious feeling pajamas!

I used my TNT (Tried and True) pattern - Butterick 5954. It's out of print now, but I found it here.

You can see from some of my markings that I've hacked and used it multiple ways!

It's really time to preserve this pattern by fusing some inexpensive woven interfacing to the back of it!

This time my hack was the sleeves. I decided I wanted flutter sleeves for this floaty fabric!

Did I say it it SEW soft!!!

My Kai Scissors worked magically on this fabric!

After ensuring that I had the dark blue flower placed the same way on each of the flutters, I discovered this cut in my fabric!!

NOOOO!

I have no idea how or when it happened!

Not only was I shocked, I was upset! I'd spent so much time making sure the flowers were placed nearly perfectly on the top as well as the sleeves!

I took a really deep breath and walked away!

A word of advice: Don't sew when your'e frustrated, upset or tired!

After 2 days of thinking about it, I decided to mend the hole by hand.

Because the back of the fabric is a bit "spongy" - I decided that hand stitching

was the way to go!

After stitching it, I steamed it and used my clapper on it. It's not perfect, but it will be hidden in the flutter when I wear it! So I'm kinda happy with the repair.

I did most of the construction on my Juki MO 1000 Serger.

I stabilized the neckline, sleeve hem and body hem with a strip

of fusible tricot interfacing that I cut myself.

Don't skip this step!

I was out of it, but you can also use fusible Dritz Stay Tape.

After adhering the strips of interfacing, I serged the edges - then top stitched a 1/2" hem.