Sewing with Knits : Tip #1

Before we get started on our dress, I wanted to relay a few tips that I have learned for sewing with knit fabrics. The first one is selecting the right knit fabric for your project.

On patterns that work with stretch fabric you will find the following diagram on the back of the pattern envelope:
To use, take 4 inches of your fabric and stretch it along the diagram to make sure that it can easily stretch along the length without too much pulling or curling. The pattern also suggests that the fabrics best for this amount of stretch are moderate stretches such as jerseys, light weight double knits, or sweatshirt knits. In other words avoid fabrics that only have a bit of stretch such as stretch cottons, and fabrics that have a ton of stretch like swimsuit material.

I hope this helps.