I'm making a dress for an upcoming formal dinner. The fabric is a very slinky, stretchy synthetic knit so one has to think long and hard about how to finish the sleeves and hem. I decided to use a serged, rolled hem using wooly nylon on my overlocker.
In the construction of the dress I used quite a bit of clear swimsuit elastic in the serged seams (worked great!). No gaps in the cross-over neckline, no stretched shoulder seams etc. The instructions didn't call for it but it might have been hopeless without it.
So now it is time to roll the hems. On a practice piece I found everything was working correctly except that I was getting a slightly wavy result (not what I wanted). So I tried a test using a thin strip of water soluble stablizer beneath the fabric. Fantastic result. Fed really well and the rolled hem is flat.
By the by, I had thought I'd do some of the construction on my sewing machine. I put in a fine ball point needle and couldn't get it to cooperate. It stiched perfectly on a woven cotton sample piece but was skipping stitches like mad when I tried the jersey. I gave up and constructed the dress entirely on the overlocker. Anyone with an explanation is encouraged to speak up.
