Sewing crêpe, satin and peach fabrics, or You vs. the Pucker Demon

Crêpe, satin and peach fabrics come in several types and fibres, but they always remain difficult fabrics to sew. In particular, most machines have trouble sewing a straight seam along the length of the material - it puckers. Yes, it means the tension is too high, but no, it is not actually too high, and…

Hemming jersey

How do you hem your fine jersey? Why, with a twin needle on a sewing machine or a coverlock machine, of course - I hear you say. This is indeed a common technique and is essentially the same - and it requires you to fold your fabric beneath the surface and to stitch exactly on…

Sewing fine jersey with a twin needle

The finest jersey doesn't do well on a regular sewing machine - you can never get a flexible enough stitch that doesn't go pop when the jersey stretches in wear. For this reason I normally use one of my long bobbin machines to sew it, and with great success. To me, this is the only…

Flexible stitch: stitch length and other adjustments

It is summer again and I am sewing a lot of fine jersey. If you look through my blog, you'll notice that I am rather obsessed with flexible seams - seams that stretch with the jersey instead of ripping under strain. I found that different machines, different mechanism types have varied success at this task,…

Flexible stitch with Vesta TS

Normally I sew my fine jersey with Singer 48K because it makes the most flexible stitch of 60% stretch even on a very thin material. But it's Spring, the sun is out and I don't want to sit indoors, especially now that I rescued a garden machine - Vesta Saxonia. She sews quite well, really…

Buttons and buttonholes with a transverse shuttle machine

Impossible! It doesn't do zig-zag. True. But possible. 😁 I made a pair of long-sleeved tops out of fine viscose jersey, so I used my Singer 48K to get that flexible stitch with 60% stretch. Now I need to make buttonholes in the cuffs. I'm fussy about the feel of my clothes, so I did…