My crash and burn during KCWC

Disclaimer: I wrote this on Thursday, a day in which I spent a good amount of time at a toddler party, got seriously head-banged and got a sunburn. I might have been crabby.

I mentioned before that I had started making this Oliver + S pattern in knit for Kids Clothing Week Challenge. This was my first time working with knit. I decided to go with the dress since I had enough fabric.

I wanted to give an update on what’s been happening with this project. First off, I’ve also never worked with an Oliver + S pattern. My first tip for you - the layout diagram for cutting your pattern pieces is actually on the pattern piece rather than in the instructions. It took me longer than I want to admit to figure that out!

For the first time I used Dressmakers Tracing Paper to trace the pattern right onto my fabric without having to cut the pattern pieces. I only used this for some of the pieces since she was the largest size I wasn’t “ruining” the piece by cutting it out.  This stuff worked pretty well. You place it between the cloth and the pattern and it works like carbon paper. You do have to press SUPER hard to get a dark enough mark, but it worked and I was happy with the results.

I was also referred to this link on Sew Mama Sew for information on working with knits. It was super helpful and I encourage anyone interested in working with knits to read it. Things started off really smoothly.

I used Stitch 8 on my Bernina for sewing the pieces together. Here’s what my seams looked like on the inside.

Everything worked really well until I had to do the hemming of the dress and sleeves. I used my "Steam A Seam",  got my double stretch needle out and fixed all my settings, but I still had this problem.

I asked on flickr and was encouraged to get the wooly nylon thread.  Apparently Joann’s doesn’t carry it. I got the Bulky Nylon thread to try since it had a stretchiness to it. It’s gotten mixed reviews on the web  but I figured I would try it anyway. I got good results when I did it on my test fabric. But look what happened when I did it on my real hem.

ARGH!

I’m so done with this project. I was really proud of what I had finished. Here’s how it stands right now.

And isn’t the neckline so cute?

And I'll tell you, that fabric is as soft as can be. I was having dreams of making myself some pj pants until this.

I just need to finish the freakin’ edges! What was supposed to be a quick project has turned out to be 3 days of stress. Anyone have ideas? I'm thinking maybe just doing a single straight line rather than the double needle?

In the meantime, I’ve rethreaded my machine - need to make a big push to get my kona challenge done for Tuesday’s PMQG Meeting.