Cut and Sew Construction Methods

At yesterday’s Sophisticated Stitches club meeting Tammy Noble brought a number of garments for show and tell. What was unique about these garments was that they were assembled using various cut and sew techniques. As machine knitters many of us want to “finish” a garment either on the knitting machine or by linker. However, once the garments were assembled it was difficult to distinguish how they were constructed. Further the workmanship used to construct the garments was exquisite.

The issue of cut and sew construction has been something the Sophisticated Stitches club has been working on for several months. We had a hands-on knit weave knit-along and asked everyone to make a vest. The issue of how to finish the vest highlighted the need to consider various cut and sew methods of construction.

Simultaneously, a well know celebrity, who also happens to be a machine knitter, made another celebrity a “hand-made” sweater using Brother Stitch World tuck pattern 263 and two carriages. Cut and sew construction was used to assemble the sweater. Tammy too made a similar sweater using Stitch pattern 263 and two carriages. Her sweater is featured above on this blog.

The cut and sew techniques Tammy used were (1) knitting a facing band and then hand sewing it to the garment (2) using bias cut stripes of lining fabric to face the edges and (3) encasing cut serged edges with a knitted band. The edges that required finishing was the center front openings and armholes, as well as the shoulder and side seams. The photos above show the inside of the garment looks as beautiful as its outside. The second photo shows a knitted facing and the third photos shows the bias cut lining facing.

Hope everyone will give some thought to use cut and sew as a construction method for knitted garments.

One more thing, I found it interesting that Tammy was able to figure out on her own how to knit with two carriages and 12 colors of yarn in a tuck pattern. She used one carriage to knit the “main” color and the second carriage to knit the other colors. She also used different colored two yarns in each feeder and knitted them as though they were one. Think knit two rows in main color with carriage on right, knit two rows of second color with carriage on left. Repeat. Then change color in left carriage. Again, knit two rows in main color with carriage on right, knit two rows of third color with carriage on left. Repeat. Essentially you are knitting four rows with each carriage, alternating the carriages to break up the color and cutting the yarns when changing from one “set of yarns to another”. See the top photo of the man's sweater vest. Clever…

The Sophisticated Stitches club's next meeting will be Saturday, March 26, 2011 from 10 AM to noon. All are welcomed to attend at

The First United Church of Christ, 145 Chestnut St., Spring City, PA 19475 Regards, Donna