Sometimes you want a nice and sustainable sewing project. You’ve got some T-shirt fabric to upcycle, a cool applique that you want to make, and a bunch of gluey, plasticy fusible webbing that you feel like you’ve got to use.
HOWEVER… don’t feel like you simply have to use fusible webbing in order to successfully Ski wear fabric sew that stretchy, thin, easy to warp, easy to roll jersey knit T-shirt fabric. It is really not that hard to sew jersey knit fabric, and even to applique it, without any kind of fusible webbing whatsoever.
Mind you, I don’t think that every single project has to be 100% eco-friendly in every single way, especially if you’re upcycling (as we speak, I’ve got a washing machine full of old T-shirts soaking in enough black dye to, so if fusible webbing is the way that you absolutely want to go, then more power to you, and congratulations on keeping that upcycled fabric out of the waste stream.
Here’s what you’ll need:
It’s time-consuming.
It’s fussy.
But it’s NOT hard.
Sometimes, it’s even the best way to get the result that you want. The T-shirt leotards that I’m sewing in this particular project are cut to really follow the contours of the body, so the sewn seam that I wanted to applique across simply wouldn’t be able to lie flat. If I’d wanted to applique using fusible webbing, this would be a problem. However, this method that I’m using here works great with curved seams.
spray starch. If I’m making my own, here’s the homemade spray starch recipe that I use. If I’m buying it, I buy this brand in a re-usable spray bottle.
pins. Lots of pins. So many pins. ALL THE PINS!
ball point sewing needle. Use a fresh one, because it does make a difference. Seriously, most of the time whenever I think that my sewing machine is jacked, it turns out that all I need to do is change to a new needle. At some point I’m probably going to make a poster that says “Have you considered changing your needle?” and put it at eye-level over my work table.
