The Fabric
It’s always fun to come up with a sewn gift of love for my great niece in FL. This sheer knit caught my eye because of the unicorns on it as I was in JoAnn’s one day. Affirming with my sister that her granddaughter likes unicorns, I purchased just 1/2 yard of this 60″ fabric. On another visit, I found a metallic activewear knit (60″ wide) in perfect colors to use for the binding – purchasing just 3/8 yard.
Sheer Knit Vest with Binding
The ‘Pattern’
Having decided that a long vest with deep side slits was my ‘design’, I knew all that I really needed was the armhole, shoulder, and bodice widths for her size. Given that I was told she is a size 8 (ready-to-wear) and tall, I decided to go with one size larger – Size 10- common in the relationship between store ‘sizing’ and sewing patterns. The ‘fit’ really isn’t much. I simply used the shoulder width and armhole of the dress to which I’m pointing in the picture. For the Back, I was able to sketch in a higher neckline, utilize the width of the back of the dress through the bodice, and extend the length down the side seams. To cut the front, I added as much length as I could achieve using half of the width of the fabric, taking care to match the horizontal ‘striped effect’ at the side seams so that they matched the Back.
Pattern for dimensions
The Construction
With metallic on the fabric, I immediately knew I could never touch it with an iron. Up to the task – my favorite pressing cloth: silk organza! This favorite does the trick yet allows you to see through the cloth to your project. I did lower my iron temp to synthetic, but kept steam on, and used a clapper after steaming. I first stitched the shoulder seams, WRONG sides together, topping with a 1″ strip of the Binding fabric. Turning under the exposed edge, flipping it over the trimmed seam allowances and topstitching with a narrow zigzag finished those seams pronto.
Silk Organza Pressing Cloth
Needle: I used a Stretch size 75 needle for this project, and polyester thread.
Binding:
Although I generally prefer to stitch side seams and then finish armholes, I felt that the lame surface on the activewear would provide a challenge on the curves of the armhole. Therefore, I decided to do them ‘flat’ before stitching the side seams. Below is the binding technique I utilized both here on the armholes and the neckline/front and hemline edges. The photo below shows both the process and end result up close.
Binding Method
Cut 2″ crosswise strips of the knit binding fabric.
Lay RIGHT side of Binding against the INSIDE (WRONG side) of the armhole. Stitch in a 1/2″ seam.
Turn remaining edge inwards to meet the cut edge, then turn the folded edge over towards the stitching line that you can see, aiming to just ‘cover’ the stitching.
ZZ this folded edge down to finish using these settings: Stitch length: 1.5 Stitch width: 2.0. As you stitch, allow the left swing of the needle to swing next to the folded edge of the Binding, and right swing to penetrate the Binding.
Side Seams
Though I could certainly have bound the side seams as well, I decided at this time that binding the lower hem would be important to give the garment ‘weight’ to hang properly, and therefore binding the side seams also … would be just overkill. There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ to these decisions, just experience and ALWAYS: if in doubt, leave it OUT!
I left approximately 2/3 of the side seams UN-stitched. For the seam ‘finish’, I simply pressed them towards the back and topstitched. At the top of the slit, I clipped through both seam allowances so that I could double turn both edges of the slit to ‘finish’ them as well. For durability, I added a triangle of the Binding fabric at the top of each side seam slit.
Side Seam stress triangle
Neckline Edge & Hem Binding
I did ease the garment into the Binding slightly around the back neck and V front, but note I said slightly. Again, the foil character negates the possibility of this Binding to shrink and shape as most cross-cut knit bindings do.
If you look closely at the first photo in this post, you can see that the color of the Binding matches at both the center front AND the lower Front hem edges. I worked at that detail. This is the type of thing that I enjoy accomplishing as I design and stitch…my little ‘high’. How about you?
Hair Scrunchy
And… I was thrilled that I had about 4″ width left of the Binding fabric with which to make a Hair Scrunchy.
If you look closely at the first photo in this post, you can see that the color of the Binding matches at both the center front AND the lower Front hem edges. I worked at achieving that detail. This is the type of thing that I enjoy accomplishing as I design and stitch…my little ‘high’.
Do you make effort to make your projects the best in any way you can? I usually do (but not ALWAYS). Chime in in the comments below.
Other Gift Sewing
I’ve been VERY busy sewing other gifts – TOO busy to be blogging on them all. 1 more BIG project, and another smaller one, so with all of next week left – I think I’m on target. Buying gifts just doesn’t fit my CHRISTmas giving requirements, so somehow, every year, I generally come up with something to make for those I love. How about you?
Matching Granddaughter ponchos with hoods.