Although I probably wouldn't use a machine on particularly special or delicate knits, I've found that you can use a sewing machine anywhere you need a quick, strong finish. As long as your machine has an adjustable zigzag stitch, you'll be able to sew nearly any handknitted fabric.
Wool is dry-clean only (unless it's washable wool), so don't go tossing it in the washing machine before you begin sewing. However, it still needs to be pre-shrunk before you cut. If the bolt of fabric says it is “needle ready” or “London shrunk,” it has already been pre-shrunk and is ready to sew.
Tips for Sewing With Tweed Fabric
- Seam Finishing – because of the tendency of tweeds to fray or unravel, seam finishing is a must.
- Stabilize shoulder seams with twill tape to prevent stretching.
- For very loosely woven or hand-woven tweeds, stabilize the fabric with a fusible tricot interfacing.
- Use hem tape or lace to finish hems.
Uses of Wool Fabric
Heavy-weight wool fabric makes lovely jackets and capes. Light-weight wool fabric is suitable for skirts and pants. Wool felt is great for felt crafts, applique and dolls. Good quality wool felt doesn't pull like acrylic felts.This shrinkage, called felting, occurs when wool is exposed to hot water and agitation. If you accidentally toss a wool garment into the washing machine, it's possible to stretch it out again with a process called blocking. Place the shrunken wool item in the water and allow it to soak for 30 minutes.
The needles are punched through from the wrong side to the right side on the loom, so on the selvage edge, the side showing "blooms" on the selvage holes is the side the mill intended to be the right side. That said, if it's finished on both sides, then either side is the right side.
Cashmere is a protein fibre that comes from a Kashmir goat. It is a very warm and soft material. But like other protein fibres, it does shrink and can be shrunk so much as to virtually turn it into a felted blanket.
A French seam is a seam that encloses the seam allowance on the inside of a sewn item so that no raw edge is visible and eliminates the need for another form of seam finish. It is used most commonly on very sheer fabric so the seam blends with the fabric. A french seam is most common on a straight seam.
As we've already discussed, high heat can cause merino wool to shrink. As long as you're careful to use a low-heat dryer setting then tumble drying your garment is safe. Both can be hot enough to cause your wool garment to shrink.
To prevent felting and shrinkage, you must be careful to avoid agitating your wool while it's in the hot dye bath. With wool dyes, the auxiliary chemicals allow level dyeing without stirring the fiber.
Vertical invisible seaming
- Place your knitted pieces side-by-side with the right side facing up.
- Insert the sewing needle under the first horizontal bar on one of your pieces.
- Pull the yarn through.
- Insert the needle under the horizontal bar on the other piece.
- Pull the yarn through.
- Repeat steps 2 to 5 until your seam is complete.
To create a flat seam, you hold the two knitted pieces together with right sides facing and work at the very edge of the work. You move the needles through the fabric from the front to the back and then from the back to the front to create running stitches.
Top sewing in knitting generally means stitching like a whip stitch over the outer edges of the 2 pieces being joined - this allows you to open the seam out, almost edge to edge afterwards to avoid bulkiness on seams, esp.
To create a flat seam, you hold the two knitted pieces together with right sides facing and work at the very edge of the work. You move the needles through the fabric from the front to the back and then from the back to the front to create running stitches.
It's easy to knit a hat on straight needles. A hat knit in the round is usually cast on at the brim edge, joined, then worked in the round all the way to the top of the hat, with shaping for the crown.
HALF MATTRESS STITCH SEAM (CROCHET) 1. Put the 2 pieces next to each other, right side up and edges together. 2. Bring threaded needle up through centre of first edge stitch on one piece.
