Sewing jersey material together on sewing machine?

Question

hi just started to sew with a machine and when trying to make a shrug the material seems to stretch real bad so i start at one end with material even by the time i have gone along the seam at the end the top piece of material is much shorter.can anyone help please

Answer 1

Also you need to use a Ballpoint needle for knits. They can be purchased most anywhere they sell needles. Probably using one of the stretch stitch (honeycomb) or zigzag will work best for you.

Good luck.

Answer 2

when sewing stretchy material on an ordinary sewing machine - you'll get better results if you use a zig zag stitch.  play around on some scrap material to see which sizes and tensions work best.  I found a larger stitch works best for me - and let the material feed itself through the machine - i.e. don't force the material through under the machine foot when guiding the material.

Answer 3

If you can, try lightening the presser foot pressure (not all machines have adjustable pressure), using a zig-zag stitch, *slightly* stretching the fabric while sewing to compensate,

using stabilizer on the seam and/or using zigzag or another

stretch stitch.

You will need to experiment with scraps to get things just right for both crossgrain and lengthwise grain sewing, as the two grains handle differently in jersey.

You also need to match the notches on your top and bottom

fabric and keep them together as the fabric feeds.  There is a method of handling fabric that's taught to ready to wear sewing machine operators that's *extremely* useful in sewing knits.  You'll see Margaret Islander do it in any of her sewing videos (see if your library has them or rent from Smartflix) or buy at http://www.islandersewing.com, or you can get the basics from an article Jeffrey Diduch did for Threads:

issue 87, Feb/March 2000.