Lazy Tips for Sewing Knits: Cutting Tools

Today’s tip is: USE A ROTARY BLADE!!!! Just do it, m’kay? I will confess that I have never tried cutting knits without a cutting mat and rotary blade, so I’m totally biased - I just can’t see how it could be done with any accuracy! 

One of the things that baffled me while watching The Great British Sewing Bee was watching everyone meticulously pin their pattern to the fabric, then cut with shears. That method is so slow, and as you cut, the scissors lift and distort the fabric. A rotary blade and mat lets you cut smoothly and quickly without pinning. 

(Look, Ma! No scissors, pins, or even weights!) 

I have a large self-healing mat, which I put on the floor so that the jersey doesn’t stretch or distort by hanging off a table. I also have a smaller cutting mat that I move around if part of the pattern piece doesn’t fit the big mat. (For example, the Tiramisu skirt piece is wider than my mat, so I slide the little mat under one corner.) That lets me cut big pattern pieces without distorting the jersey by shifting it around on the mat! 

This is the most common size of rotary blade that I’ve seen. It has a 45mm diameter, which is about 2”, maybe? It’s great for straights and gentle curves. Keep your blade sharp, especially for thin tissue knits or cheap jersey - those can be the devil to cut, and leave messy fluff stuck in the cutting mat! 

This little guy is my secret weapon for tight curves. I’m not sure of the exact size, but I think it’s less than 2cm or 1”. I also use this blade for cutting notches into woven fabrics… I’m much less likely to cut too far than with the big blade! 

Here they are together, for size comparison: 

Do you use a rotary blade to cut fabric? If you use scissors, what do you like about that method? And has anyone had good luck with rotary blade sharpeners? I have one but I can’t get my blades very sharp! 

Lazy Tips for Sewing Knits: Finding the Grainline

Oh knits, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: 

• comfy


• cheap


• easy to fit


• endless prints and fibres


• fast and easy to sew! 

I’ve blogged about countless knit tees, tanks, dresses, leggings and skirts, so I thought it might be more interested to start talking about my process. Watching other sewists on TV or in person always reminds me just how differently we handle the business end of sewing, from cutting to pinning to sewing to following instructions! 

So here’s my second lazy tip for sewing knits: Finding the Grainline!

On knits, the grainline is easy to see. The little v stitches on the right side make columns, just like on a knitted sweater. 

To fold my fabric on the grainline, I never match the selvedge edges. As I talk about last time, the selvedges can go wonky, and they aren’t reliably straight or parallel. Instead, I pinch roughly where I want to fold the fabric with both hands, and check the grainline. If the lines go straight down the fold, like above, then I’ve got the grainline. 

If the lines go diagonally off the fold, like this, then I need to shift the fold  until they are straight. 

Once I’ve got the grainline, I lay it down on the table and fold the rest of the fabric length. 

Seriously, maybe that’s too obvious to even be a tip? I’m pretty relaxed about finding the grainline before cutting of folding the fabric… As long as you are close, I really don’t find that it affects the finished garment much. Getting it roughly lined up is good enough, unless you have stripes or a symmetrical pattern to deal with! 

(Don’t go cutting things cross grain though - the direction of stretch matters! Ask me how I know…)

How do you find the grainline for knits? 

Lazy Tips for Sewing Knits: Trimming the Selvedge

I love sewing knits. Sure, I was intimidated by them at first, but once you get the feel for working with them, knits are so forgiving and fast to sew!

There all kinds of great tutorials out there on how to sew knits, but I thought I’d share some of the quick and lazy ways that I choose, cut, and handle with knits! Nothing couture, nothing fancy… just the tricks that I’ve learned along the way. In return, I’m really hoping you’ll share your own tricks in the comments! 

First up: Trimming the selvedge! 

Knit fabrics and woven both have selvedge edges. But have you ever noticed that when you prewash some knits, the selvedge shrinks smaller than the rest of the fabric?

See how the stripes match up near the scissors? But just 10” along the fabric, by the pattern weight, the stripes are already mismatched? If you are trying to match up prints, that can be a big problem! 

The easy solution is to slice off at least an inch of fabric along the selvedge. (See how the trimmed piece is shorter than the main fabric? If you are dealing with a few metres of fabric, that difference in length can really add up!)  Once your trimmed off the selvedge on both sides, you are ready to cut and sew! 

That’s my tip for now! Next time, I’ll show you my lazy way to find the grainline! 

If you haven’t sewn much with knits, are there any fears I can help you with? If you do sew knits, how did you learn? By trial and error, or by reading or taking a course?