Mccalls M6844 was supposed to be an easy sew. There is a video tutorial on this pattern by Crafty Gemini plus this was voted top pattern in pattern review. All these prompted me to pick this one for my may MAGAM.
This was the first time sewing knits for me and I scoured the internet to find tips for knit sewing. I picked a black ponte knit from Joann's. Ponte knit is supposed to be one of the easier knits to sew.
I started off by washing and pressing my fabric and cut out the pattern for view A.
Initially everything seemed to be going well. I was thinking to myself I am going to finish a garment in a weekend Wow!! But things never go the way you think do they ;)
I reached the collar part of the cardigan and things start going south. The pattern called for interfacing the collar. Many of the reviews advised against this but I went ahead and interfaced. Wanted to see how the pattern looks as it was built. Maybe the fault was in using regular interfacing instead of one for knits ( I did not even know there were interfacing specific to knits !!) or maybe it is my machine. I noticed that the lower side of the fabric was moved by the pressure foot different from upper so I was doing my best to stretch and sew to make then even Ughhh
Finally I somehow got the collar in, and then found that it was not staying floppy like in the picture. I tried pressing clipping notching, pressing again and it still would not behave. Off to the internet again - posted question on pattern review and to Anne, fellow MAGAM participant who had done a beautiful version of this pattern in April. She was kind enough to respond and give some tips and so did pattern review experts.
I under stitched and top stitched the collar and pressed and steamed a lot and this is the result. I am not a happy with this pattern :( and am still scared of knits.
One tip which I really liked was for hemming- I followed Crafty Gemini's tip - Stitch at half your hem allowance and then fold at the stitch for the hem. Hem folding went much easier after I followed this tip.
This was the first time sewing knits for me and I scoured the internet to find tips for knit sewing. I picked a black ponte knit from Joann's. Ponte knit is supposed to be one of the easier knits to sew.
I started off by washing and pressing my fabric and cut out the pattern for view A.
Initially everything seemed to be going well. I was thinking to myself I am going to finish a garment in a weekend Wow!! But things never go the way you think do they ;)
I reached the collar part of the cardigan and things start going south. The pattern called for interfacing the collar. Many of the reviews advised against this but I went ahead and interfaced. Wanted to see how the pattern looks as it was built. Maybe the fault was in using regular interfacing instead of one for knits ( I did not even know there were interfacing specific to knits !!) or maybe it is my machine. I noticed that the lower side of the fabric was moved by the pressure foot different from upper so I was doing my best to stretch and sew to make then even UghhhFinally I somehow got the collar in, and then found that it was not staying floppy like in the picture. I tried pressing clipping notching, pressing again and it still would not behave. Off to the internet again - posted question on pattern review and to Anne, fellow MAGAM participant who had done a beautiful version of this pattern in April. She was kind enough to respond and give some tips and so did pattern review experts.
I under stitched and top stitched the collar and pressed and steamed a lot and this is the result. I am not a happy with this pattern :( and am still scared of knits.
One tip which I really liked was for hemming- I followed Crafty Gemini's tip - Stitch at half your hem allowance and then fold at the stitch for the hem. Hem folding went much easier after I followed this tip.
I think this looks great for your first knit garment! It's so smart of you to do your homework and look things up and ask for help. Keep going it gets better.
ReplyDeleteThe lovely thing about knits is that they are more forgiving and easier to work with (most of the time) than wovens. Seems like there was an awful lot of pressing when you made this garment, and I find with knits, steaming and fingerpressing work better than actually pressing the iron down on the fabric. it tends to push the garment out of shape - especially on the hems.
ReplyDeleteYour sweater looks wonderful. Keep going with your knit sewing - it takes practice with different kinds of knits to get the "hang" of it.