On production sewing and hemming knits

It's been a weird last week and I have some project catch-up to do.

First of all we have had intermittent internet issues. Our whole system (internet, phone and TV) has been up and down (at one point we had nothing for three days) for mysterious reasons.

The symptoms are that once the service tech comes out and says he doesn't understand what's going on and leaves, everything starts working again as soon as he exits the driveway, only to go down again a few days later.

Such a nuisance. I remember of course when we had none of this (and I am sure had a lot more time on our hands) but being connected is just necessary to my life. I have been able to post to Instagram more or less daily on my phone that has a different provider, but the blog has been harder to do.

Enough whining.

Last weekend I had a wonderful three days sewing with some members of the Atlantic Sewing Guild at a local yacht club. There was food, there was fitting, and there was a lot of laughter.

Would more could a sewer want?

Into this marathon of all things good I took a laundry basket of necessary garments for my everyday life cut out. At the end of the three days I had made:

• 4 pairs of knit Brooklyn pants
• 6 tops from various Jalie patterns, to be reviewed individually

Not the most exciting sewing maybe but enormously satisfying to have this section of my wardrobe refreshed.

The speed of production was enabled by the fact I sewed only knits. This meant that I could whip them up on the serger fast. The only thing I did not do at the retreat was hem, using my new cover hem, although thanks to Cindy I did learn a new way to finish off that kind of hem.

Now, since the Halloween sewing is done and our racoon, Batman and owl are ready to go out tomorrow, I intend to spend as much of today as I can experimenting with different knit hemming techniques.

Sometimes I am happy with my knit hems, and sometimes I am not, so I have decided to try a different technique on each garment and to record/share the results.

This is going to be a big day obviously.

Interestingly since this idea has been percolating in my mind, I was out yesterday at a fabric sale put on twice a year by a Canadian designer who sells her left overs once a round of production is done.

I know this designer's work pretty well back from when she made tailored suits and shirts for professional women.

It is interesting to me to see how her work has since evolved and that she now pretty much makes only knits in very simple shapes - something she says her clientele prefer. Every one wants to be comfortable and no one irons anymore she says.

I had a look at her pattern blocks while I was there and was struck by how simple her designs now are - 2-3 pattern pieces all the edges and hems just turned and stitched.

Most of all I was surprised to see that the raw edges of the necklines and armholes/sleeves where simply turned over and straight stitched  - I guess the width of most of them means popped stitches are unlikely. The bottom hems were all turned over twice and topstitched with a straight stitch too.

This is pretty radical stuff for a person who had set herself up for a comparison hemming project I can tell you.

I am thinking I should give this a go too today, although I might borrow an idea from Mary from last weekend and hand wind a bobbin with Wooly Nylon before I straight stitch.

Babysteps.

Like most sewers I am terrified of a seam or a stitch opening up.

So stay tuned, hems to follow.