Date: 11/21/10 10:43 AM

I'm not a beginner sewer, but I am new to sewing with knits. I'm working on my second knit garment ever, Burda Magazine 05-2009-103. It's a knit dress with darts in the lower back. I definitely need the shaping that the darts will give, and I'm fine with sewing darts in woven fabrics, but I'm a little nervous about the darts in the knit fabric.

I'm using my regular sewing machine (although I do have a Tiny Serger that has a 3 thread seam & no trimmer that I could use). My fabric is quite stretchy, a fine rib knit jersey.

I'm looking for any tips or hints that anyone can give me before attempting these darts.

Thanks!

Christine

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Date: 11/21/10 12:12 PM

Practice on scraps first.
I would use the sewing machine and a longer stitch 3 or 3.5.
-- Edited on 11/21/10 4:42 PM --

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Reply to berescga
Date: 11/21/10 2:15 PM

I do sew darts in knits and I use a .5 wide 3 long zig zag stitch. I often start or even sew the whole dart over some tissue paper or tear away stabilizer if a sample gives me trouble. I don't reduce the stitch at the tip. It's not usually necessary with a small zig zag. I am not a sew it on the serger knit sewer for the most part. I like to machine baste and then use the serger so that I can try it on before committing to the serger, but it's not necessary to sew knits on the serger with a little care.

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www.nancyksews.blogspot.com

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Date: 11/21/10 11:11 PM

A walking foot would work well if you have one. You will want to make sure you don't stretch out the dart.

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Reply to berescga
Date: 11/22/10 0:41 AM

Hi,

Unless your knit fabric is a true 4 way stretch (tricot), most of your stretch is on the width, across the body. This will make creating your darts much easier, since they shouldn't break under stress due to overstretching.

I would recommend you use a straight stitch, and gently and firmly hold your pinned fabric as you sew your darts. You probably know to not backstitch the beginnings or the ends, just leave a long tail. After you finish your dart, gently stretch it to be sure it won't break, and to ease the long thread tails in the dart if needed. Then tie them off and clip.

A tip I can share with you is when you mark your darts, mark the straight line from tip to tip too, so you have a true line to follow when pinning. Slippery knits love to slither all over, so anything to give you a helpful guide is a win win in my book.

Happy sewing!
MissTisha

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Reply to misstisha
Date: 11/22/10 0:52 AM

Quote: misstisha

Hi, Unless your knit fabric is a true 4 way stretch (tricot), most of your stretch is on the width, across the body. This will make creating your darts much easier, since they shouldn't break under stress due to overstretching. I would recommend you use a straight stitch, and gently and firmly hold your pinned fabric as you sew your darts. You probably know to not backstitch the beginnings or the ends, just leave a long tail. After you finish your dart, gently stretch it to be sure it won't break, and to ease the long thread tails in the dart if needed. Then tie them off and clip. A tip I can share with you is when you mark your darts, mark the straight line from tip to tip too, so you have a true line to follow when pinning. Slippery knits love to slither all over, so anything to give you a helpful guide is a win win in my book. Happy sewing! MissTisha

What a delightfully clear and simple tip - it makes such perfect sense! You should write this up in the Tips section - I've c&p'ed it into my knits file.

Thank you!

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http://jillybejoyful.blogspot.com/
a blog about creativity, sewing, vintage sewing machines, and...... life :)

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Date: 11/22/10 4:51 AM

I am not an expert of any sort, but I have sewn bust darts in knits recently. I marked the beginning points at the side seam, and the tip of the dart, interfaced with very very light interfacing to provide a bit of stability, stitched with a 3mm stitch, backstitching at the seam end, reducing to a very short stitch at the tip of the dart, sewing off the edge and knotting and trimming the thread afterwards. I then pressed it very well.

Why would you not backstitch at the beginning of the dart (the wide end)? I haven't sewn a dart before, so I wasn't sure what to do .

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Reading from Europe

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Date: 11/22/10 12:13 PM

I think these were double ended fish eye darts at the waist not a bust dart from the side.

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Reply to sewsally
Date: 11/22/10 4:29 PM

Quote: sewsally

I think these were double ended fish eye darts at the waist not a bust dart from the side.

Ah, thank you for clarifying .

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Reading from Europe

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Date: 11/24/10 6:32 PM

Thank you so much for the advice!! I'm not scared anymore, and I'm going to give it a try tomorrow. Thankfully my fabric only has 2 way stretch, and is not slippery at all. I'm pretty good at darts in wovens IMHO, and now I feel prepared to tackle them in knits. I'm so exited to be sewing knit fabrics. It sure expands what I can sew, and fit issues are not as big a deal, either.

Christine

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