I went to Camp Stitchalot this last weekend, and I had a blast. My sister, who is more of a garment sewist went with me, and when I brought out my patterns and ideas to decide what to work on, she grabbed a knit nightgown pattern out of the pile and said that if I wanted to make it, she would be happy to help. And since we don't often find ourselves together, I jumped at the chance.
Though I didn't have any appropriate knit fabric on hand! But never mind that, we went to Pink Castle Fabrics and perused their knit selection before heading off to camp.
I chose Desert Blanket by April Rhodes for Art Gallery which had just arrived a day or two earlier. The new Art Gallery knits are super soft and somehow hit that perfect balance of being thin without being translucence.
Modeled by me at Camp, before hemming.
I put it together in a day, basically, from cutting out the pieces to finally hemming it. And I did need her expertise putting that neckline together. Admittedly, I sewed the neckline facing in after we left camp, but I had decided that it would drive me less crazy to do that by hand.
What I want to show you all about this is not so much this pattern, but the seam finishing:
Because there isn't any. I hemmed the sleeves and the bottom with a double needle (as we discussed in my previous post about knits), but I only folded them over once, rather than twice like you would with a woven fabric. And for the sleeve and side seams, I didn't do anything at all to them. Knits don't fray! My rule of thumb for knits is that as long as it doesn't look weird on the outside, you don't need to worry about the seams.
And it's so soft! Did I mention the softness?
Of course when my daughter saw this nightgown, she's decided she needs one, too. For her I've been looking at the knits from Bari J's new line, Emmy Grace. She's sure to love this one:
If you are just starting out with knits, probably you don't want to start with a nightgown. Skirts are always a good starting point. There are fewer seams and you don't have to deal with the potential heartbreak of setting sleeves into the garment.
We have the Ashland A-line Skirt and Culottes in sizes for both women and girls.
Or maybe the Jorna (which can be either a tank or a dress, and is available for girls and women) by Jenna Brand, which is fully lined so you don't have to deal with finishing the neckline or the armholes:
My recent discovery on the web is Peek-A-Boo patterns which has a great many patterns for kids using knits, including some for shorts and swimwear, and lots for boys, which can sometimes be a challenge to locate.
I hope you're inspired to try something new with our new knits!
