Tips For Sewing Knits

SEWING with KNITS 

Knits are comfortable to wear. Knit garments are easy to fit and don’t wrinkle. Once you get the hang of sewing knit fabric we think you’ll never want to stop!! We recommend sewing knits with a serger. We sell a variety of Juki sergers with prices that will fit your budget. Just ask us about our Jukis. If you want to dabble in sewing knits before you invest in a serger, you can still sew knits successfully.

Here are some tips to get started:

1. Know your fabric: Jersey and Interlock are two types of knit fabric. Sew To Speak carries mostly jersey but here’s the difference. With jersey, edges will roll in but it will not unravel and can be left raw. Interlock edges are flat but this knit will unravel if stretched. Interlock just needs to be hemmed. Bamboo knits are very soft. Be sure to use a small needle gauge on these! Large needles can make a tear in the fabric.
2. Use a ball point or stretch needle on your sewing machine or serger. Use a stretch needle for any synthetic or high spandex content fabric. Ball point needles are for cotton knits. When sewing a finer fabric use a smaller needle gauge, like 70/10 or smaller. Do a test swatch and give it some tug to see if your needle makes a hole. If so, use a smaller ball point.
3. Use a walking foot when sewing on a standard sewing machine to sew stretchy fabric. A serger has a “differential” setting which will totally get rid of any stretching that happens during sewing. Sergers are awesome!!
4. A narrow zig zag stitch will give the stretch you need for knits if using your sewing machine to sew knits. Many machines have a stretch stitch for knits. 
5. Always sew or serger a test swatch of fabric to see how much your knit will stretch when you sew.
6. Use a double sided hem tape to secure your hem before you sew it. This will help control the rolling of the fabric and keep your hem secured while you sew. We sell a good one. We also like glue sticks for holding together narrow neck and sleeve bands before you sew them.
7. Sew To Speak sells Juki sergers. These amazing machines will make you love sewing with knits.

Stop in to see our great selection of Juki sergers. And start your research HERE!