I recently came up with a neat trick for dealing with a knit garment that I was making with a pattern for woven garments. The fabric was wayyyyy too stretchy for my liking, especially at the waistline, shoulders and sleeve edges, and stay-stitching alone would not improve the situation. With a knit garment, if it's a good, drapey jersey, sometimes just the weight of the fabric can drag the whole garment down.
I learned this the hard way In a fashion draping class, I was making a long sweeping evening coat in a heavy, black jersey, and no other fabric would do. But when you get almost 2 yards of heavy jersey hanging vertically, you need some serious help. My teacher suggested narrow twill tape to reinforce seam lines. It worked like a charm. Clearly, I have a long history of trying to achieve the impossible with knits.
This dress was much less heavy than my black evening coat, and I wanted something prettier to support it. I happened to have a narrow 1/8" cobalt blue ribbon that matched the dress closely and an equally narrow strip of ultralight fusible web. I fused the ribbon to the shoulder seams and raw edges of the sleeve opening and skirt waist. Then I stitched the ribbon in place. The ribbon was narrow enough that it curved easily, so that I didn't need to cut it and arrange in strips around the curve. The fusing kept it in place until I could stitch it down. Presto! I had pretty, yet strong and almost invisible support for these areas that far outperformed stay-stitching.
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The ribbon is fused, then stitched. |
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A narrow ribbon curves easily. |
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Happy stitching.