Do you have a fear of sewing hems on knit fabrics? Don't fret, many of us do too! In this post, I'm excited to share with you a quick and easy tip to sewing a hemline on knits with no stress at all! The secret is the use of a coffee filter as a stabilizer - seriously, it works! After trying this, I'm pretty sure you'll never go back to your old method and you will have the confidence to sew knits without fear!
This exciting sewing tip is being shared with you as an excerpt from the full Sewing With Knits MasterClass course. This is one of our most popular courses, if you haven't already checked it out I encourage you to take a peek and pick up a copy of the course today, or join the Sewing With Cinnamon community for more sewing tips, tricks, and community interaction.
Now onto the tutorial... All you need is a plain coffee filter (white or natural) and a knit fabric project to test this out. It can be any sewing project, it doesn't have to be just for dolls. Although, if it's larger than the coffee filter, you'll probably need several to get the job done!
Wasn't that amazing? Are you ready to try this out yourself?
Applying this method can help you approach sewing patterns designed for knit fabrics with confidence! Be sure to check out our Summertime Styles With Knit Fabrics to see more patterns where you can apply your new skills! Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
We'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment and tell us - your favorite "Sewing With Knits tip" or share with us your biggest Sewing With Knits challenge!
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Thanks, everyone!
The Pixie Faire Team
508 Comments
One of the more helpful tips I got was from one of the PixieFaire classes — using the product Steam-a-Seam. It helps to hold the hem edge together so it’s easier to sew and the fabric doesn’t stretch as much. It can be a bit fussy but it helped me a lot. Knits aren’t my favorite to sew with, I’ll admit! But I do have lots of coffee filters sitting in the pantry…now I can put them to good use!!
Using a stabilizer is a great idea. I don’t have coffee filters, but I do have lots of scraps of embroidery stabilizer, some wash away, some tear away and some uses the heat of your iron to disappear. I could use that scrap for this. Thanks for the ideas and thanks for the opportunity. Happy stitching!
I have a few favorite tips from the sewing with Cinnamon knit course. Using stretch lace and a twin needle to hem a t-shirt and using a steam iron to “shrink” the seam back into place. They both work well.
I think I just paanic when it comes to knits, I dont do too bad if I sew it on the serger.
I find that using a double needle can help it to stretch and not break, if you straight stitch with one needle it won’t stretch. Plus it looks like a coverstitch!