Sewing stretch fabric without it puckering

The way to stop stretch fabric from pulling or puckering is to sew with the right side of the fabric facing you.  I call this sewing “topside”.  You may need to practice a little before you let yourself loose on a garment, but basically what happens is that the feed dogs (they are the metal teeth that move up and down under your sewing machine needle) move up and down and they can cause the fabric underneath to move out of alignment with the top layer.  This means the fabric twists on itself. 

Therefore if you have the right side of the fabric on the underside as you are sewing, it will tend to twist the fabric. 

You can see a lot of garments that have twisted hems in fashion stores.  These garments have been sewn without any care of workmanship.  When I had my shops, I taught my team how to sew topside.  When customers picked up they were pleasantly surprised to find the hem looked better than it was originally.

I way to sew “topside” is as follows:-

1.  Cut the new hem length, making sure you allow for the hem allowance.  I usually leave 1″/2cm to 1 1/4″/3cm as a hem allowance on stretch fabric.

2.  Overlock the edge.

3.  I always mark my hem allowance with a little dash from some chalk so I know where to fold.  My technique for marking a hem allowance is illustrated in my book.

4.  Pin up the new hem with the pins pointing down.  Pin head should be facing the top of the garment.

5.  I use my button hole foot to sew stretch fabric.  It has little grooves under the foot and it tends to stablise the fabric better than a foot with a smooth edge underneath.  Depending on the fabric if you use a smooth foot, it can tend to grab the fabric and twist it as well.

6.  Place the garment with the right side of the garment on top and put under the sewing machine foot.

7.  Begin sewing at a side seam, but on the back leg or back seam.

8.  You should be able to see the ridge from the overlocking.  Place your needle in the centre of this ridge.  With my buttonhole foot, I find I can have the inside edge of the left hand side of my sewing machine foot on the edge of the overlocking and I always sew in the middle of the overlocking.  Practice does make perfect.

9.  If you want two rows of stitching move the fabric across so the first row of stitching in sitting under the centre of the left hand side leg of your sewing machine foot.  Sew around the hem making sure you keep the first row of stitching under this position all the way.  You don’t have to watch your stitching.  Watch where the 1st row is in conjunction with your machine foot.

10.  If you have twin needles then use them instead of overlocking.  The twin needle with create a zig zag effect underneath, which will stablise the fabric edge.  You can get a variety of sized twin needles.

 Happy sewing

 Judith aka Genie