Sewaholic Renfrew: My first knit project + Several positive comments about Craftsy's Sewing Fashion Knits course

 

 

 

It took me several hours to figure out why I am so insanely proud of the plain V-neck t-shirt I'm modeling in these pictures.  My last couple of projects have been labor intensive wool coats that I have a lot of love for, so I was thinking that this project would be a bit of a let down.  Wrong! When I became obsessed with learning to sew and then joined the RTW fast, I wondered what I was going to do when I needed to replace something simple like a t-shirt.  The answer: Just sit down for a little bit and sew it!  It turns out that you actually CAN sew all your own clothes.  Sometimes it's the little epiphanies that make you the happiest and proudest.

 

There is nothing I can say about sewing this pattern that hasn't been said a million times already.  The purpose of this post is for anyone who is as afraid of knits as I once was.  Don't be!  Holy smokes it's easy!  I wish I had recorded actual sewing time, but that would be hard for me.  I don't know about anyone else, but I can sometimes get a little sidetracked when a text comes through, or someone (ok, one person) hollers at me on Voxer, or I stop to pet my cat, or I go to look something up on the internet and get sidetracked on Yahoo.  Even though this was my first time sewing with a knit I bet actually sewing time was between 1-2 hours including when I had to run to the computer for help.

I had a truckload of anxiety about sewing with knits even though 75% of the stuff I normally wear is a knit. I've had the pattern for months but I thought learning knits would be like learning a foreign language so I avoided it.   I hopped on Craftsy and watched Linda Lee's Sewing Fashion Knits: Beyond The Basics before I even cracked open my pattern.  It was extremely helpful and if you are new to knits I HIGHLY recommend it.  She breaks down preparing fabric, cutting and marking, seam finishes, stabilizing knits, hem finishes and edge finishes.  She takes you through different ways that you can do each of those things.  After watching it through I started to get super confident and thought to myself,  "That doesn't seem that hard.  I probably won't even have to refer back to this class once I start sewing."  Just to be clear, I made it to the second set of steps in the pattern instructions regarding sewing on the neckband before I had to go running back to Linda for help.  She didn't fail me.  Thankfully you can watch the Craftsy classes as many times as you want because I'll be going to Linda's class a lot.

For my bands, I opted to sew on the band, serge the raw edge for a more professional look, and then use a double needle to stitch on both sides of the seam line.  I have to confess that I used to be intimidated when people said they used a twin needle.  Using a twin needle involves buying one, inserting it in your needle slot, threading it, and sewing like normal.  It's that simple.

There are many more knits in my future!  Don't be afraid.  You can do it!