TECHknitting: Sewing shut hems and facings (part 5 of better cuffs and bands).

includes 4 illustrations--click any illustration to enlarge
Today's post is about sewing shut a hem or facing: it is part 5 of the series "better cuffs and bands."

After the last post in this series (about knitting shut hems and facings) you may wonder whyyou might want to sew shut a hem. Here are three reasons to hunt out a large-eyed, sharp-pointed sewing needle and get sewing.

First, and most obviously, it is not always possible to knit shut a hem. Knitting shut a hem only works for items started on the same edge as the hem (a bottom hem on a bottom-up sweater, a top hem on a top-down sock). Knitting shut a hem on the cast off edge isn't feasible.

Second, you can't knit shut a hem facing made of a different color. Why would you would want to knit a hem facing of a different color?

plain old good looks. Have a look at the top of the man's sock in the photo below. From the outside, this is a practical black sock, suitable for business wear. But on the inside, it features a flaming red hem facing which makes its wearer smile when dressing.

Another reason why a hem facing might be a different color when you reduce bulk by knitting the hem facing of a thinner yarn. The birthday sweater (click HERE) from the last post had a thinner hem facing than the outside of the hem, and so do the socks, above--the red of the hem facing is a thinner sock yarn than the black of the sock body. It would be unusual to find a perfect color match between a thinner yarn and a thicker one, so this bulk reduction trick is often going to land you with a hem facing of a different color.

At the black arrow, you see that knitting shut a hem draws a little "collar" of the hem stitch (hem made in red) to the fabric surface (knitted in green). In the illustration, the red of the hem facing shows as a little collar around by each green stitch where the green and red come together in the blue "knit-together row." The knit-together row is illustrated in blue so you could see it easily, but even if the knit-together row were green, like the rest of the garment front, that little red collar of the red hem facing would still show around the base of every stitch in that row--not a nice look. Therefore, you cannot successfully knit shut a hem when the hem is knit in a different color than the garment. (Although, to be fair, you could get around this by knitting the top row of the hem in the original color!)

The third reason to sew shut a hem or facing instead of knitting it shut is that a sewn hem is less likely to flip.

How to do it, bottom up

Begin the hem by casting on via the long-tail method. Alternatively, if you prefer to sew down live stitches, use a provisional cast on and plan to remove it before sewing up time, placing the live stitches back on a small gauge of circular needle.
Knit the hem. You may use the same yarn as you will use for the body of the garment, OR use a thinner yarn for bulk reduction (recommended).
If using thinner yarn, knit the facing loosely on the same number of stitches as you will knit the garment, using the same size needles with which you will knit the garment. The thinner yarn, knit loosely, should make a hem slightly narrower than the garment, which will help prevent flipping.
If using the garment yarn for the hem facing, knit the hem as deep as you would like it, then purl one row. If using the garment yarn for the hem facing, also consider casting on and knitting the hem on slightly fewer stitches (5% or so) than the garment, increasing to the necessary number of stitches TWO rows before the purl row. Again, having the hem slightly narrower than the garment helps hold in the flip.
If using thinner yarn for the hem facing, switch to the garment yarn when you are one or two rows shy of the ultimate hem depth. This helps prevent the hem from peeping out. Work a row or two in the garment yarn, then purl one row.
The reason to purl one row is to make a nice fold, shown here.
After the purl row, you will be knitting the first row of the garment--that part which is on the public side of the hem--the garment front.
If knitting the bands in ribbing, the facing should have been knit in ribbing also, in opposite patterns, so that they nestle together when folded. However, ribbed bands aren't as often lined as stockinette ones.
If knit it in stockinette, sewing the hem facing to the back of the garment will prevent stockinette rolling as well as hem flipping.

If working top down, finish the garment, knit a fold line, then knit the hem, then bind it off (recommended) or just work on sewing the live stitches. Again, consider using fewer stitches or using thinner yarn and knitting the facing loosely. The facing should not bind, and should be bound off loosely, but the aim is to make it slightly narrower than the circumerence of the body, to help prevent flip.

Whether working top down or bottom up, the below illustration shows the situation if the hem was bound off.

On the illustration below, the knitting has been finished. The hem (white) has been folded up over the back face of the garment fabric (purple). The "knit" side of the hem shows, while the "purl" side of the garment fabric shows. Thread a sharp pointed needle with a thin yarn (in the picture, green). In real life, of course, you would not use a green yarn to sew up a white hem to a purple garment, you would use a sewing yarn as close as possible to the color of the garment face--the sewing thread is green in order that it shows in the illustration.

The action of sewing is as follows: with the sewing needle, reach under one arm of the long tail casting-on at the very edge of the hem, then pierce (skim) through the top of a purl "bump" on the target row--the row TO which you are sewing the hem. Draw the needle through, and repeat this action, adjusting the tension of the green yarn as necessary. Be gentle in your adjustment, you want to avoid any puckering on the outside.

If you are sewing down live stitches, the sewing action is the same, only you must take each stitch off the knitting needle on which it is held before sewing--a bit more tricky than sewing down a bound off edge.

The photo on the left side of the illustration below shows the back of a sewn hem. The hem is made of the same yarn as the garment face, but sewn shut with dark yarn, to show the path of the sewing. The right photo of the illustration below shows the front of this same hem. Even though this swatch is stockinette, the sewn hem has tamed the both the stockinette roll and the hem flip. You can also see that the sewing does not show on the outside--this is the front of the same swatch on which the hem is sewn shut in dark yarn.

One final point: Hems combat "hem flip" best when the hem facing is slightly shorter than the outside of the hem and when the hem is sewn shut very slightly (1 row) ABOVE any ribbing or garter stitch on the outside of the hem.

* * *

This post is part 5 of a series. The other posts are:

TECHknitting

Pages

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Sewing shut hems and facings (part 5 of better cuffs and bands).