Tea Top

Did you hear a loud and desperate scream of frustration yesterday? That was me. Breaking ANOTHER twin needle. My last twin needle.

I am at a loss to explain why it keeps happening. I’ve hunted all over the internet for advice on using twin needles, I sent a desperate message out on Twitter seeking twin needle tips – but I’m still none the wiser.

This was my situation: sewing stretch knit fabric, “unbranded” walking foot (read “cheap”), 4mm twin needle (too expensive to continue purchasing for random breakages) … And that’s it. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated. At least, I don’t think so.

Do you have any tips you could share with me? A font of information you could point me too? Pleeeeeease!

In the meantime, I’ll tell you about my top for Outfit 4.

I started with white cotton stretch knit fabric and a pot of “peach” cold water dye powder … which ended up being tipped all over the kitchen by a certain 3 year old … but we won’t talk about that … And, after the tiniest 1/8th of a teaspoon of dye my fabric was a pale, but very pink, pink. Not quite what I was after. So, I boiled it in a pot of darjeeling tea. (Darjeeling because that’s what we had. Mr Myrtle and I are weak tea aficionados). And, aside from quite a few blotchy browny tea bits that I’ve mostly managed to cut around, the pink was stained with a yellow hue and ended up the perfect shade of marled mushroom I was after. I just hope it doesn’t all wash out in a couple of washes ….

I’ve used the Craftsy t-shirt pattern again, from the fab course “Sewing with Knits”. This time I cut it a little looser and with a much higher neckline. Once I’d sewed the shoulder seams I popped it over my head to mark out the neckline I wanted. Something shallow and wide-ish. I cut it a little bit bigger because I then sewed on a neckband that folded inwards and took it to the actual depth and width I was after. I’m really pleased with my narrow neckband.

I did intend to sew a double row of stitches around the neck with my twin needle. One line of stitches inside the band and one outside … but my “twin needle disaster” happened when I was perfecting the stitch length on a practice piece of fabric. After much huffing and puffing I decided that I’d plough on with just a single row of stitching. It’s not so bad. I used an elongated zig zag stitch that will stretch when the top goes over my head, but looks almost straight. If I decide to give up twin needles, I’ll use this stitch again.

My cuffs are false. I mean, I folded the sleeve up and over on itself and whipped around the fold with my overlocker. When it’s unfolded and ironed flat, it ends up looking like a cuff. I think it’s very pyjama-ry.

You’ll see I top stitched with my single line of stitches around the cuff, and at the bottom of my curved hem too.

And, because there are only so many interesting photos of a long sleeved pyjama top that you can take … here’s one more of the very pretty wind chime that I was given last year. It’s made from recycled glass bottles and it makes such a pretty tinkle in the breeze.

Right, back to my slippers. One down, one to go.