Thursday, April 08, 2004

Love my Serger

I worked a little more on the t-shirt hoodie last night. I put the eyelets in the hood after finally figuring out how to use the pliers. The instructions call for just turning the edge of the hood to the inside and just stitching it down to make a casing. I decided to use the coverstitch on my serger instead in the hopes of making a neater finish on the inside. The Burda instructions would have left the inside edge raw - not problem because the knit doesn't ravel, but I thought the coverstitch would look more RTW. The only problem was that the eyelets had to go under the presser foot while serging and my first attempt was rather ugly. Rip, rip, rip and try again. On my second try I used a bamboo skewer to help push fabric along where the eyelets are. That worked okay and I'm pleased with the result. Since the serger was now set up for coverstitch I decided to do the hems. Note to self - perhaps I don't need to increase every pattern at the hip. I altered the pattern to increase at the hips and waist, but now I have a bit of a tent-like problem. So it turns out Ireally didn't need to alter the pattern. It's too late to change it without taking out the hem. I should have tried it on before I did the hem, but I didn't. Oh well. Lesson learned - I probably don't have to alter for hips and waist in a knit. Come to think of it, I think I've made this mistake before but I guess it didn't sink in. I did try the top on before hemming the sleeves and oh my goodness, are Burda patterns cut for monkeys? The sleeves were two inches too long. I thought at first I made the mistake on the pattern when I traced it. I read 3 cm hem and thought 3 inches but then I realized my mistake. I double checked the pattern and no, I did only put a 1 1/4 inch hem on it. So I pinned the sleeve hems where I wanted them but spent an inordinate amount of time fussing to get both hems to be the same. Either I didn't cut right, didn't sew the sleeves in the same, or have one arm longer than the other. But my growling stomach told me to go have dinner instead of messing with the sleeves so I did.

The fabric from fabric.com and EOS arrived the other day. It's pretty much what I expected and should work for what I intended it for. I've been able to hold off from buying more fabric, but EOS is about to post new arrivals (including silk knit!) and fabric.com has some new stuff too. I'm tempted. Help.

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