Stretch Fabric I am going to discuss is knitted fabric or a fabric that has elasticity, e.g T-Shirts, swimming clothes, etc. Some fabrics like brocade have little elasticity, so, sometimes, it isn’t counted as stretch fabric.
Stretch fabric is usually sewn using particular “sewing” machine. I think, if we just want to sell small amount of clothes or even just want to sew for our own doll, we don’t have to spend big money again to buy that particular sewing machine.
If we use home sewing machine, of course, the sewing stitch will jump, no consistency in terms of sewing stitch length.
What should we do then?
1. We can use special needles for stretch fabric. It’s a lot sold at online stores. In my place, Singer has special needles for stretch fabric. I also use Schmitz stretch needle sometimes.
2. There are also special sewing foot, yet, I never use it. I prefer needle for stretch. Using special foot for doll clothes sometimes make the fabric less flexible to sew.
Neck part
When sewing neck part, I use straight stitch. That’s my preference. You may try zig-zag stitch.
Arm hole and body hole
For arm holes and body hole (bottom of the clothes), I use zigzag. There is no reason for this preference. I just want a zig zag stitch look on those parts. 😊
Assembling parts
When assembling all parts, I use straight stitch.
Even though we use special needle, still, sewing stretch fabric needs experience, too. Some T-shirt fabric has different elasticity, so sometimes, even if we have used special needle, the result is still not good. It happened to me on the last socks sewing. Somehow, the stitch jumped even if I used needle for stretch. I used Singer brand, then, I replace with Schmitz’s stretch needle. It’s much better.
I also sew a stretch fabric before that. I thought, the fabric’s thickness and elasticity were good and would not giving me problem. Yet, when I sew it, the sew part is “curly”, no jumping stitch, yet, curly. I was making high socks/stocking. For the hole, I use zigzag but seems like the elasticity of the fabric make the fabric curly when I sew it. It’s more elastic than I thought and the thickness hampered the fabric. The fabric is like difficult to move forward. I’m still doing R&D for stretch fabric.
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If you see the bottom edge/hem, the white-cute animal one is a bit curly. I didn’t meet such problem with other stretch fabrics. I’m thinking to use teflon sewing feet and set the machine pressure.
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Some high-socks I made. The stripe one is the ‘easiest’ stretch fabric while the white with animal printing is the ‘difficult’ one.
I guess, sewing stretch fabric is the same as sewing cotton fabric. There are brands and each ‘cotton’ of theirs is sometimes special and uncommon. So, each (stretch) fabric will give us a different learning. As for doll clothes sewing, if you have find “an easy” stretch fabrics, stick with it and take a note when you have conquered it. When you sew a different stretch fabric, be careful that it can be different trick from the previous stretch fabric.