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This is a flat (without history) import of (some of) the content from our markdown module. We've imported this without history because the repo contains our blog posts and showcases posts content prior to porting them to strapi. Since this contains many images, it would balloon the size of this repo to import the full history. Instead, please refer to the history of the (archived) markdown repo at: https://github.com/freesewing/markdown
6.2 KiB
6.2 KiB
Step 1: Close the shoulder seams
- Place the front and back on top of each other with good sides together. Align the shoulder seams.
- Serge the shoulder seams, or stitch them with a narrow (~2 mm) zigzag stitch at the standard seam allowance.
Step 2: Set in the sleeves
- Place your now attached front and back with the good side up.
- Identify the front and back sides of each of your sleeves. (This is how you separate the left sleeve from the right.) On your paper pattern piece, the front side of the sleeve is to the left.
- Place a sleeve on top of the front and back, with the good side down.
- Align the top of the sleevecap with the shoulder seam. Make sure that the front and back of the sleeve are aligned with the front and back pieces of your shirt.
- Pin sleeve in place along the entire armhole. There’s a bit of sleevecap ease, which means that the sleevehead is slightly longer than the armhole. Ease in the top part of the sleeve head while pinning.
- Sew/serge your pinned sleeve in place.
- Repeat for the other sleeve.
Step 3: Sew knit binding to the neck opening.
A more extensive how-to on knit binding can be found in the Aaron Instuctions.
- We are going to finish the arm and neck hole with knit binding (note: not a knit band. There’s a difference, and it’s explained here).
Place (the start of) your binding
- Put your T-shirt down with the back good side up, and place your binding strip on top of it with the good side down (as in, good sides together). Your binding should start at the center back of the neck opening.
- Align the long edge of your strip with the edge of your fabric so the strip lies on top of the fabric (not in the opening). Place the corner on your starting point.
- Now shift your binding strip 1cm beyond your starting point. This little extra will guarantee we can join the two ends later.
Sew binding in place
- Place your presser foot 3 cm along the knit binding, so a 3 cm tail will be left unstitched. This will help us join the ends of the binding later. Then, sew 1.5 cm from the edge around the neck opening, stretching the binding gently as you sew. (Note: this is not the standard seam allowance.)
- Stop sewing 3 cm before the end, leaving a tail like we did at the beginning.
Mark and sew binding ends
- With about 6cm left to go before we complete our circle, it’s time to sew the ends of the binding together.
- Take one of the edges, and stretch it along the 3cm separating it from the start point as you would while sewing. On the binding, mark where the binding reached the start point. Do the same for the other end.
- Fold your T-shirt in whatever way makes it more easy for you to place both binding ends with good sides together, aligning the marks. Sew them together at the marks.
6 cm is not much, but should be enough to get both edges comfortably under your sewing machine to sew them together.
- Now that your binding ends are joined together, it’s time to finish the last 6cm of binding. Sew it down, staying 1.5cm from the edge as you did before.
Fold knit binding to the back and sew down
- Fold your binding fabric around the fabric of your T-shirt to the back. This is how we’ll sew it down.
- While the fabric is folded double at the front (hiding the fabric edge in the process), there’s no need for that at the back. We will merely trim back the edge later, given that knit doesn’t ravel. If we were to fold back the fabric at the back too, it would only add bulk.
- Now you’ll sew the binding down. From the right side of your fabric, sew along the inner edge of your binding (furthest from the edge), making sure to catch the binding at the back in the process.
- You’ll have to, once again, stretch your binding a bit while doing this. But this time, there’s an extra caveat to look out for.
Beware of the uneven feed
As your feed your binding through your sewing machine, the feed dogs will pull the bottom layer (back of your binding) forward.
In a perfect world, all layers will follow smoothly. But more often than not, the top layer (front of your binding) tends to lag behind a bit. This causes your binding to not neatly fold around the edge of the fabric, but make ugly wrinkles.
So watch out for this, and if you see it happening, stretch the under layer a bit extra to compensate. On the inside of your T-shirt, trim back the knit binding just outside of your seam to finish up.
Step 4: Close the side seams and sleeves
- Fold your Teagan T-shirt double at the shoulder seams with good sides together.
- Align the side seams and sleeves and pin them together.
- Serge/sew the side seam and continue sewing to close the arms all the way to the sleeve hem.
- Repeat on the other side.
Step 5: Finish hem and sleeves
- Fold the hem upwards, to the inside, and sew it down. If you have a coverlock, use it. If not, use a twin needle or zig-zag stitch to keep the seam stretchable.
- Repeat for the hem on each sleeve.
Fold only once, to avoid bulk
Knitwear doesn’t ravel, so you can simply fold this over once and sew it down, then neatly trim back the fabric.