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How To Sew Sweater

This document provides tips for sewing with sweater knits: 1. Prewash the knit fabric to preshrink it and determine your care method. 2. Use a ballpoint needle suited for the fabric weight and a stretch stitch to accommodate the knit's stretch. 3. Take care not to stretch the knit as you sew by lengthening your stitch, using a walking foot or differential feed, and gently feeding the fabric under the presser foot. Finish raw edges to prevent fraying.

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Allen Latrell
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128 views6 pages

How To Sew Sweater

This document provides tips for sewing with sweater knits: 1. Prewash the knit fabric to preshrink it and determine your care method. 2. Use a ballpoint needle suited for the fabric weight and a stretch stitch to accommodate the knit's stretch. 3. Take care not to stretch the knit as you sew by lengthening your stitch, using a walking foot or differential feed, and gently feeding the fabric under the presser foot. Finish raw edges to prevent fraying.

Uploaded by

Allen Latrell
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HOW TO SEW SWEATER KNITS

1. Be sure to prewash your material however you plan to wash the finished
garment. Many sweater knits come with a hand wash and lay flat to dry
recommendation, so do that first if that’s how you’ll plan to treat the finished
garment. If you’re lazy, like me, and just want to be able to wash and dry your
clothes by machine, wash and dry the fabric before you get started, realizing
you’re taking your chances

2. Use the right needle. As with other knit (stretchy) fabrics, it’s a good idea to use
a ball point needle. These needles push fibers apart and go between them instead
of poking holes through the fibers. Ball point needles are easy to find at any sewing
store, and come in different weights to correspond the weight of the fabric you’re
sewing. Pick a smaller number (like 9) for delicate sweater knits and a higher
number (14) for heavy sweater knits.
3. Use a stitch that will stretch. Anytime you sew on stretchy fabrics, your stitch
must be able to stretch as well, or you’ll end up with popped seams once the
garment is worn. Many sewing machines have a stretch stitch, which often looks
like a lightning bolt, that is specifically made for sewing on knit materials. You can
also use a zig zag stitch, a double needle, or even a standard serger stitch, as
those stitches will all allow for some stretch.

4. Avoid stretching out the material as you sew. The single most frustrating
thing about sewing with sweater knits is the tendency to end up with wonky
stretched out seams, like the one you see below on the left.
 Lengthen your stitch length. A short stitch length almost always stretches
out the fabric as you sew.
 Don’t sew too close to the edge of the fabric, or it will get chewed up. Try
cutting out your pattern with extra seam allowance so you can stay at least
5/8 inch away from the edge.
 Use a walking foot (often called an even feed foot).
 Up the differential feed setting on your machine (check your manual to find
out where to do this). This causes the machine to feed the material under
the presser foot faster, which can prevent stretched out seams.
 Decrease the pressure on the presser foot (only available on
nicer machines).
 Sew a little faster. This may seems counter-intuitive, but sometimes going a
little faster helps the machine feed the material more evenly.
 Be sure the material is not getting stretched out in front of the machine. Try
using your fingers to gently push it under the pressure foot as you sew, and
NEVER pull it from behind the presser foot.
 Use a lot of steam to help shrink stretched seams back into place.
 If all else fails, you can place a piece of tissue paper under the material as
you sew to help it feed more evenly. I don’t love doing this, as you have to
pick the tissue paper out of the seam afterward, but it works as a last
resort.

5. Finish raw edges if needed on sweater knits that tend to fray


easily. Unlike other knit fabric, most sweater knits will fray. If you have a
serger, it will automatically finish the raw edges as you sew. If you don’t have
a serger, try a “double zigzag” approach. Cut out your pattern pieces with
extra seam allowance. Sew the seams with a narrow zigzag, then sew a wider
zigzag down the middle of the seam allowance. Trim close to the wide zigzag
and press the seam allowance to one side.
6. Consider reinforcing shoulder seams or any other seams that will get quite a
bit of stress. I generally sew clear elastic right into the shoulder seams to keep
them from getting stretched out and misshapen, especially when I’m using a
lightweight or very stretchy sweater knit (you can usually skip this step if you’re
sewing on a very stable knit). Don’t iron directly on the clear elastic though – it’s
very easy to melt it.

7. Hem using a double needle or hem band. You may zigzag the hem, but a
double needle looks MUCH more professional and is so easy to use (just google a
tutorial). A double needle hem looks like this:

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