Burda top made on the Janome Coverstitch machine

I am so happy. Make that so very happy. I have spent most of today playing with my new coverstitch machine in the way I like best – actually making something.

I started by cutting out the Burda top from the Februrary issue  yesterday afternoon. Actually I started by spilling all my pins on the floor and having to enlist The Management to clear them up as I can’t crouch/kneel down at the moment. In fairness he made a much better job of getting them all up than I would have done! Because of my current knee problem this was cut out on the kitchen table, which I am finding a great height to work on (it is 90cm off the floor) so I now know I would like  new cutting table at this height – I really couldn’t consider using the kitchen table as a permanent work space. The fabric is a single knit, viscose jersey which I had left from the stock I had for sale. I am no longer selling fabric mail order so will be clearing some fabric on e-bay or Etsy at some point in the future.

Janome & Juki – a wonderful pair

My plan was to use only my overlocker and coverstitch machines – but I did cheat a little and did a quick line of stitches to gather the sleeves on my sewing machine. Has anyone else had doubts over how accurate the stitching guides on the overlocker are compared with sewing machines? I decided to check.

Doubting Kim had to check the seams actually are 1.5cm

I used some scrap and the pattern cutting square to mark a 1.5cm line on the fabric with a marker pen (purple – you can just see it). I watched the fabric edge at the marker on the overlocker as I sewed – not the marked line – and was amazed to see how close the inside stitching line is to the marked line. I had more faith that this would actually fit after this test and will be much happier to use the overlocker for making whole garments in future.

Clipping at hem turn to reduce bulk.

 

I think I used all the features!

I sewed the sleeve seams first, and then attached the neck binding using the chain stitch feature from the coverstitch machine.  I still felt I needed to stretch the neckline a little to prevent the thread breaking, but I suspect that wasn’t really necessary and I will stop when I have confidence in the machine. I re-threaded to use the narrow coverstitch feature around the neck to hold the binding down. Ideally I would have liked to have been closer to the edge of the binding but as the foot on the machine is metal I couldn’t really see well enough. Note to self – buy a transparent foot.

I continued to use the narrow coverstitch on the sleeve hems, but adjusted again to use the wide version around the bottom hem. I really didn’t need to change but wanted to try everything I could.

The whole garment didn’t take very long to make, despite spending a fair time making samples before going into the garment with every change of function. I also spent a while trying to work out why it had stopped sewing properly before finding that I had somehow ‘unthreaded’ the looper. All good experience. I was very pleased with how things were going during my sampling, and was feeling very smug – until I pulled a ‘loose thread’ and completely undid my work. Ooops! Now I understood the importance of tying those ends off – I am very glad I paid attention to my Craftsy course with Angela Wolf!

I tried the top on so that I could get The Management to take a picture (Bailey he isn’t – I must get someone to teach me how to get good pictures of myself) and found it so comfortable I have kept it on. A success – and I am really looking forward to doing more on the new Coverstitch machine.

A success!

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