Stitching on knits

I have a medium-weight linen shirt that contains just enough spandex to make
it slightly stretchy. I want to do some surface embroidery on it, and I'm
looking for recommendations for stabilizing the fabric. I'm thinking of
basting (not ironing) onto the wrong side a piece of interfacing, stitching
through both layers, then cutting away the excess. Any other ideas?

--
Jacqueline
Carmichaels PA

"Inspiratons" had an article on this, and their suggestion was waste
canvas. No, not for cross stitch (although you could use it for that)
but for the tracing as well as the embroidery.

The knit sweater (lovely baby sweater in this case), had a full "skirt",
so the waste canvas was cut at intervals in order to accomodate the curve.

Hope this helps! I have done embroidery around the neckline of cotton
knits. I just tried to maintain even tension as I worked the little
flowers. I didn't use a stabilizer of any sort, just tried to keep the
knit in a non-stretched "mode" as I stitched. However, all of this
depends upon how large an area you want to stitch, what type of
stitches, etc. etc.

Dianne

Jacqueline wrote:
I have a medium-weight linen shirt that contains just enough spandex to make
it slightly stretchy. I want to do some surface embroidery on it, and I'm
looking for recommendations for stabilizing the fabric. I'm thinking of
basting (not ironing) onto the wrong side a piece of interfacing, stitching
through both layers, then cutting away the excess. Any other ideas?

From: "Jacqueline"

have a medium-weight linen shirt that contains just enough spandex to make
it slightly stretchy. I want to do some surface embroidery on it, and I'm
looking for recommendations for stabilizing the fabric. I'm thinking of
basting (not ironing) onto the wrong side a piece of interfacing, stitching
through both layers, then cutting away the excess. Any other ideas?

I have stitched on a lot of knits -- most of it t-shirts & sweatshirts but
some nicer stuff also. I have always done as you describe -- basted a
**woven** interfacing to the wrong side of the garment, done the stitching and
then cut away any excess interfacing.
Unlike Dianne, I can't work in hand. The first time I tried to stitch a
small motif around a neckline that *could* have been done without the
interfacing, I was unable to work the motif "in hand" due to the pain. I put
interfacing on the garment and extended it so that there was enough so that the
whole thing could be put into a hoop. Now, I do all my surface embroidery in a
hoop or frame and use an interfacing on all knits.
One other thing to consider. Depending on the amount of embroidery,
placement of the design and type of fibers used, you might want to put some
sort of facing fabric over the stitched area once you have completed the
design. I once did a design on the front center of a shirt that used a lot of
metallics and the stitching on the inside itched like made against my skin!!!!
I had to put something over the stitched area so that I could wear the garment.
Keep us posted on what you decide. So few people do surface embroidery on
garments that I like to hear about it when others start a project :-).
CiaoMeow ^;;^
..
PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ Queen of Kitties
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!
Online Photos at http://community.webshots.com/user/tiamary

(Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply )

... One other thing to consider. Depending on the amount of embroidery,
placement of the design and type of fibers used, you might want to put some
sort of facing fabric over the stitched area once you have completed the
design. ... I had to put something over the stitched area so that I could
wear the
garment. .....

Sorry to reply to my owm post but this time it really is necessary. I
forgot to mention that I am speaking of putting something over the stitching on
the INSIDE of the garment. If you use any sort of metallics or stiff fibers
that might irritate your skin, you should consider using an interfacig that
covers the stitching on the INSIDE of the garment. One would hope that folks
would sort of just know that's what I meant but you just KNOW someone is gonna
post and call me on this :-)! CiaoMeow ^;;^
..


PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ Queen of Kitties
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!
Online Photos at http://community.webshots.com/user/tiamary

"Jacqueline" wrote in message
...
I have a medium-weight linen shirt that contains just enough spandex to
make
it slightly stretchy. I want to do some surface embroidery on it, and I'm
looking for recommendations for stabilizing the fabric. I'm thinking of
basting (not ironing) onto the wrong side a piece of interfacing,
stitching
through both layers, then cutting away the excess. Any other ideas?

--
Jacqueline
Carmichaels PA



I don't know if this is would work for you, but I have been embroidering on
silk gauze for a project. I traced my design onto Sulky stabilzer (the
water soluble type) and sandwiched design, fabric, second piece of sulky in
a hoop. When finished all you have to do is soak away the Sulky. For
something that was going to get a lot of wear, I might think about using
interfacing or tearaway on the bottom layer.

Nan Scott

Yeah, I pretty much figured you meant on the *inside* of the shirt. I do
have an aunt, though, who wears her "around-the-house" T shirts inside out
every other time. In her way of thinking, when she takes it off to wash it,
it'll be right-side-out the next time! (Thankfully, she's just related by
marriage, not by blood, so there's no danger to me of inheriting her logic
genes)

--
Jacqueline
Carmichaels PA
"Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply " wrote in
message ...
(Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply )

... One other thing to consider. Depending on the amount of embroidery,
placement of the design and type of fibers used, you might want to put
some
sort of facing fabric over the stitched area once you have completed the
design. ... I had to put something over the stitched area so that I
could
wear the
garment. .....

Sorry to reply to my owm post but this time it really is necessary. I
forgot to mention that I am speaking of putting something over the
stitching on
the INSIDE of the garment. If you use any sort of metallics or stiff
fibers
that might irritate your skin, you should consider using an interfacig
that
covers the stitching on the INSIDE of the garment. One would hope that
folks
would sort of just know that's what I meant but you just KNOW someone is
gonna
post and call me on this :-)! CiaoMeow ^;;^
.


PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ Queen of Kitties
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about
their
WHISKERS!!
Nothing is complete without a few cat hairs!
Online Photos at http://community.webshots.com/user/tiamary

Tia Mary-remove nekoluvr to reply wrote:
Sorry to reply to my owm post but this time it really is necessary. I
forgot to mention that I am speaking of putting something over the stitching on
the INSIDE of the garment.

Actually, when I read your first post, I thought you meant over the
"outside", until I read far enough to get the gist of what you were
talking about (itching so that you couldn't wear it).

So, ya done good with the follow up! grin
Dianne