Finally! I Can Sew With Knits!

I have been desparately wanting to sew something- ANYTHING- successfully with a knit fabric. I have tried and given up on 3 prior attempts. I feel like I just won an oscar though because I need to thank the academy of amazing and helpful sewers who by way of blogs and other online postings helped me finally complete this one!

Inspiration: I have started reading several sewing blogs and Christina from Assorted Notions, whose blog and sewing both are SO much fun, posted this entry: http://assortednotions.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-couldnt-resist.html where she discussed a similar pattern to the one I used. She linked to Toya's dress made of this same fabric here:

http://trinilove.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/02/vogue-1027-summ.html and I knew I wanted this fabric and wanted to make this dress. I didn't expect to find the same fabric but on another link I found the mother load of adorable knit fabrics, http://www.gorgeousfabrics.com/shop/index.php and couldn't believe my eyes when they had this lust-worthy fabric! I already had the pattern onhand from when I first wanted to try knits. It is Threads Simplicity 3678, view A (http://www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm?design=3678)

Construction: As I continued on my quest to learn to sew knits, I read all kinds of FAQ's, how-to's and troubleshooting posts. Anne from Gorgeous Fabrics replied to my email questions with some super helpful links (

On www.besewstylish.com I wrote a post, dated Jan. 11, 2008 on sewing with knits.

There's also an article on Threads' website:

http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00013.asp

Look through the videos and see if there is one on knits there too.)

and i liked reading through timmelfabrics.com 's sewing lesson. When I was still ending up with skipped stitches, I found the tip that I needed to be sure to hold the thread tails and I think this reallly fixed things. I also switched to a ball point needle and polyester thread. Either way things went much better and YES!! I have finally learned how to sew knits!! I can't wait for the Sew U book to come out in May but until then I am pretty happy with myself. It's comfortable and covers my knees, which are two things I'm looking for in a dress for our trip to Italy next month. Even with a jacket over it I think it will be cute. Oh, here is a close up of the bodice, a photo which I suppose could also be named, "Hello Girls!"