Stabilizing knit seams-knit T shirt-part 1

Texas Bluebonnet

Good morning May flowers! I have a dear friend in Texas who tells me that the appearance of this flower in fields and by the roadside signal the end of their winter. While she exclaims the beauty of these Texas state flowers, I am usually cold and just hoping for a peek at the sun in March.

So what does this have to do with stabilizing seams in stretchy knitted fabrics? Not a thing, but I think the color is stunning and would like to find that in a ponte knit.
 
Many knit fabrics have lycra which helps us to stretch seams for easing and compensates in areas that tend to stretch with wear. While the lycra permits recovery of the stretch it also makes a seam unstable where you least prefer. For example, a shoulder seam in a knit fabric will eventually loose its shape without being stabilized. In a knit without built in stretch this becomes even more of an issue. So, what to do? Stabilize.

Seam tape  (in this case swim wear elastic) is a standby, fusible tricot another favorite. You will find the fusible tricot in the same area as interfacings. I have only found this in black and white but that usually works out OK.   I cut the tricot 1/2 inch wide to apply to a 5/8 inch seam on the seam line.  I fuse the interfacing to front and back, then when the seam is sewn it is enclosed. The tricot tends to have some stretch in the crosswise grain, so test a piece on your fabric to make sure there is some "give" in the seam but not too much stretch. My favorite is swimwear elastic. Much has already been written about this process by people who are better able to explain than I, so here are a couple links to explain. As usual, test these applications on your fabric with the ball point or stretch needle and appropriate weight thread that you plan to use.  In addition, the swim wear elastic needs a little practice but you will like the end product. One important point with the swim wear elastic...stretch it out before you apply. This relaxes it and prevents it from ending up being too long for the seam.  A quick review can be found on pattern review from Deepika.

http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/review/readreview.pl?readreview=1&ID=486



If you are sewing one of the slinky knits a tutorial at Emma one Sock gives a nice explanation of the appropriate application.
 
http://www.emmaonesock.com/guides/slinky.asp

This talented sewer has tons of information on her site about knitwear and construction on her site.
http://www.ikatbag.com/

Gratuity Moment: my network is back up