T-shirt Binding and Bar Tacks

I know, I know. I've been promising a tutorial for, like, ever. Well, as it turns out, even though I have an admittedly atrophied degree in Technical Writing, I tend to procrastinate when it comes to writing instructions. I guess because it's kind of a lot more work than just describing an outfit. Nevertheless, I feel the need to share the sewing knowledge love, so here I am. Bear with me here, as these may be the worst instructions ever.

*ahem*

I get a lot of questions about my knit sewing. These comments usually go something like, "I could never do that!" I always counter that, "yes! You can! Knits are easy once you know the techniques to use!" But no one ever believes me. Sniff. And, like, I understand, because if you are used to sewing with fabric that doesn't move around on you, knits can come with quite the learning curve. So I thought I'd try to do some tutorials so I can show that, yes, it's possible to sew knit garments that look professional. No voodoo needed. I swear!

I am starting with...

How to Sew a Single-Fold T-Shirt Binding in the Flat

Why? Well, because these days there are a lot of tips & tutorials out there on how to sew with knits (see and excellent post by Patty Young here), but I haven't seen too many for this type of binding, which I do a lot. Also, it's one that you can do on a regular sewing machine.

By "in the flat", I mean that you will sew one shoulder seam, bind the neckline, and then sew the second shoulder seam. This technique is as opposed to "in the round" where you would sew both shoulder seams, sew your binding in a circle, and then attach the binding to the neckline. Both ways have their plus and minuses, but as I am lazy and hate to measure, I am partial to this one.

P.S. You will have to supply your own T-shirt or tank top pattern. Check out the Kwik Sew or Jalie websites for some great choices.

Once you have cut out your pieces, lay out your front and back side by side.

1. Sew one shoulder seam. I like start with the right shoulder seam. Why, I don't know, but this seems to be the one they sew first in RTW, so I just follow blindly. Baaa.

Here you can see the T-shirt back on the left, and the T-shirt front, which I have appliqued, on the right. If I had not appliqued the front, you would still be able to tell which one it was because the front piece's neckline almost always comes down lower than the back piece.

I like to use clear elastic to stabilize my knit shoulder seams. It gives the shoulder seams strength while keeping them nice and stretchy. I like to buy the 1/4" heavy duty clear elastic from Sewzannes for this. I just order 10-20yds at a time and keep it on hand.

To attach the elastic to the shoulder seam, lay it on the wrong side of the back shoulder seam as you're stitching the seam. I stretch mine a teeny bit as I'm serging so that it has the right amount of give, but this may vary depending on what machine you're using.

Make sure you press the shoulder seam towards the back.

This is what your T-shirt will look like now. The right shoulder seam is sewn, but the left one is still open. Do not freak out. We will sew it up later. I promise.

This is what it looks like from the top. Now you will sew the binding on, starting at the back neckline.

2. Sew the neckline binding on.

For this neckline, I cut a 1.5" wide binding strip along the entire width of my fabric, selvedge to selvedge. Whatever I have left after this project I will put in my ribbing bin and save for another project.

Starting at the soon-to-be back left shoulder seam, align one of the long raw edges of the binding strip with the raw edge of your neckline, right sides together. Sew the strip along your neckline with a 1/4" seam allowance. If you are using a sewing machine, the 1/4" seam allowance should begin at the left most edge of your zig zag stitch.

Continue around until you reach the other end of the neckline. Make sure you stretch your binding strip as you sew, but don't stretch the neckline. That's how you get a crappy wavy neckline, which let's face it, nobody wants. (duh)

This is what your neckline should look like now.

This is how it looks from the underside. Don't worry about how shoddy it looks right now. Knits often look funny when you're sewing them, but once you steam press, everything goes back where it should be.

3. Fold the neckline binding under. Starting at the back neckline again, fold the raw edge of the binding strip over the seam you just sewed.

Keep folding it over until you have wrapped it all the way around the seam allowance.

This is how it will look from the top. If you'd like, you can steam press now. I personally don't like to do that until after I've top stitched the binding, but that's just personal preference. You can try to press it now, and if, like me, you find it utterly futile and aggravating, feel free to move on to the next step.

Now we are going to top stitch. As I have mentioned before, I am a somewhat lazy sewer (wha...? You surpris-ed?). For this binding I didn't want to a) re-thread my coverstitch, or b) set up my twin-needle. So, I'm going to use a single needle to top stitch. Strictly speaking, I would not try this w/o my beloved Left Edge Top stitching foot. If you do not have one of these feet sent from Heaven, I recommend you use a zig-zag, twin needle, or "stitch in the ditch".

I like to set my stitch length a little longer when I top stitch, especially for knits. For this neckline I'm going to use a 3.5mm stitch length. I also set my stitch width at 1.5mm so that my stitches fall a little closer to the inside edge of my binding.

4. Top stitch the neckline binding close to the inner edge. See that red mark on my Left Edge Top Stitching foot? It corresponds to a groove on the underside of the foot. That groove is what guides the foot directly along the inner edge of the binding. If you choose to stitch in the ditch of that seam, I suggest you cut your binding slightly wider to make sure that you catch it underneath when you stitch.

This is what your neckline should look like now. This would be a good time to hit it with a good shot of steam and press it into submission. If you like, you can also trim the underside to make it neater inside. But, if you are like me and super lazy, you can tell yourself, "hey this is just my own kid, why waste time?" and move on to the next step.

5. Stitch the left shoulder seam. Again, I have laid down some clear elastic along the backside of the seam to stabilize it. Make sure your binding edges are matched up so that when you open up the seam your neckline is even. Also, make sure you do not trim your threads. You will need them in the next step.

This is what the shoulder seam should look like from the inside after you've sewn it. Notice I have not trimmed the inside of the binding. That is because I do not care. So there.

Yay, look how pretty from the top! Okay, see that pesky serger tail on the inside edge of the shoulder seam? Now we are going to take care of that. (P.S. If you are using a sewing machine, you should also have a long-ish tail of your two threads, which you will use in the same way.)

6. Bar tack the left edge shoulder seam. You will start by pulling the thread tail to the back, inside shoulder seam. Finger press the seam allowance to the back, over your thread tail.

This is what it will look like from the top.

Cut off a small piece of tear-away stabilizer to put under the shoulder seam.

Place it under the shoulder seam. The stabilizer will help the feed dogs move the fabric along from the underside of the bulky neckline binding.

Place the shoulder seam on your machine with edge of the neckline "hole" facing toward you. Starting at the top stitched edge of the binding, sew a few stitches forward to the "hole" edge, then backstitch back to where you started. That's it.

Ta-dah! A perfect bar-tack! Okay, you're not quite done. You do need to clip your threads and tear away the stabilizer from the back.

Look, now it's so pretty. You're done! And that's how you sew a neckline binding "in the flat". Not so bad, eh? Please let me know if anything was unclear, and I will be happy to edit the instructions.