15 Tips for Sewing with Knit Fabric (without a Serger)
Sewing with knit fabrics is a beast of its own. I do not recommend using knits for your first few sewing projects because it can be quite frustrating and discouraging to sew with if you don’t know the basics yet.
Knit fabrics are difficult because they can stretch out while going through the feed dogs of your sewing machine, leaving you with ugly, wavy seams (I call them ‘bacon seams’). You also need to make sure you adjust your machine stitch settings to account for the stretch of the fabric. If you don’t, the thread will snap as soon as you try to wear your knit garments.
Now that I’ve scared you by tell you how difficult knits are to sew, I want you to know that you can do it! It will be a challenge, but if you love wearing knit fabric clothing as much as I do, it’s a skill that is worth learning.
I’ve compiled a list of tips to help give you some confidence to get started on sewing those stretchy knit fabrics. But, there is no better teacher than trying something for yourself. Start with something like a basic T-shirt and then level up as you get better at using knit fabrics.
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1. Use a jersey or stretch needle
The first thing you need to adjust when working with knits is the sewing needle in your machine. You need to use a ballpoint jersey (generally used with jersey loose-knit fabrics) or stretch needle (generally used for high-stretch fabrics) with knits.
These needles help to prevent skipped stitches, avoid snags and thread jams in your sewing machines, and prevent damage to the material since the rounded point of these needles can easily slip through the knitted structure of the fabric.
2. Use a walking foot
One of the biggest problems you’ll run into with stretch knit fabrics is the tendency for them to stretch out during the sewing process. A good walking foot makes a big difference and might be all you need to prevent ‘bacon seams.’ (I recommend getting whatever walking foot matches your sewing machine model since the generic brands usually are not as good)
A walking foot is a specialized foot that moves the fabric through the machine more evenly, preventing bunching and stretching. By adding feed dogs to the top of the fabric, it ensures that the fabric layers move together smoothly.
A walking foot is actually meant to mimic the way a serger (also called an overlock) feeds fabric through the machine evenly. So, if you have the budget for a serger and plan to sew knit fabric a lot, it might be worth the investment. I do not have a serger, so I can’t give you recommendations here, but it may be something to look into if you really enjoy working with knits.

3. Stabilize the fabric (with tissue paper or wash away tape)
Okay, maybe you don’t have a walking foot, your walking foot just isn’t doing a good enough job, or you need to work with a thick sweater knit fabric (sometimes walking feet don’t lift up enough to work with thick fabrics easily). In these cases, you’ll need to temporarily stabilize the fabric to keep if from stretching out while you sew without permanently reducing the stretch.
There are any number of ways to stabilize knit fabric, but my two go-to methods are using tissue paper and using wash away tape.
Wash away tape is a thin tape that you attach to the seamline of a sewing project. Sandwich it between the two fabrics on the stitching line, so that It sticks to the fabric on both sides, holding them in place and keeping them from stretching out.
Once your project is finished, the tape will dissolve in water. I find this method to be the most useful for hems and also when I want to match patterns or stripes because it keeps the fabric exactly in place.
The tissue paper method is even easier. All you have to do is place a sheet of tissue paper underneath the fabric as you’re sewing (some people recommend putting it on top instead, so test out what works better for your sewing machine). This causes the fabric to attach to the more rigid paper as you’re sewing, keeping it from stretching out. This method is also great for preventing skipped stitches with particularly troublesome fabrics.
I always have a lot of tissue paper scraps left over from tracing patterns, so it’s easy to keep a pile of it handy for when I sew stretch fabrics.
4. Reduce presser foot pressure
The other adjustment you can make to keep your fabric from stretching out while you sew is to reduce the presser foot pressure. The more the pressure foot is pushing down on your fabric, the more that top layer will slide back and stretch out, causing problems with the seam.
On most sewing machines, there is a dial on the side or top of the machine for you to reduce the amount of pressure being put on the fabric (this is a feature that is also really useful for fabrics that are exceptionally thick). Refer to your user manual to figure out which knob to turn and which direction will reduce pressure.

5. Use a zigzag or stretch stitch
When sewing with stretch knit fabrics, you typically want the final garment to be stretchy too. The problem is that thread is typically not stretchy. A normal straight stitch will end up snapping if you try to stretch out the fabric after sewing.
To deal with this problem, you need to use a zigzag or lightning bolt stitch (the lightning bolt stitch is usually better, but is not available on older sewing machines). This way, when you stretch out the fabric, the stitches can stretch with it.
6. Test the thread tension
If you are finding that the thread keeps jamming or snapping when you are trying to sew, you will probably need to adjust the top thread tension.
Many modern machines have an auto-adjust feature, so you might be able to skip this, but with many knit fabrics you will need to reduce the tension slightly to prevent puckering the fabric or causing snapped thread. If the thread is constantly jamming, you may need to slightly increase the thread tension.
This is something that I highly recommend testing on scrap pieces of fabric before starting to sew your main project because it can vary a lot depending on the fabric you’re using and you specific sewing machine. When testing, use small increments and try to find settings where the stitches sit flat and look the same on both sides of the fabric.
7. Test the stitch length and width (make sure it stretches with the fabric)
You always want to test the length and width of your stretch stitch before working with your final fabric. You want to use a small enough stitch that it won’t make visible gaps or puckering when pressing the seam, but it also needs to be big enough that it can stretch with the fabric.
Increasing the width of the stitch will generally make the seam more flexible and able to stretch more, while increasing the length can reduce puckering or help you get through all the layer of thick sweater knit fabrics.

8. Use spray starch to keep the edges from rolling
Jersey fabric is probably the most commonly used type of knit fabric, especially for home sewists. Unfortunately, the edges of jersey knits have a tendency to curl in on themselves, making it difficult to sew even seams or press and hem garments. While I haven’t found this to be a serious problem with all jersey fabrics, it happens often enough that it’s worth mentioning.
If you find yourself frustrated by curling jersey edges, the best solution I’ve seen is to use spray starch. This is actually a tip I found on Evelyn Wood’s sewing YouTube channel a while ago, and it works.
Spray the edges of the knit fabric with the spray starch. Then wait a few minutes for the starch to soak in before ironing it. I prefer to use a press cloth when doing this, to avoid gumming up my iron, but that’s not strictly necessary.
9. Avoid too much ironing
While the general rule is to iron your fabric before cutting it, and make sure the pieces are ironed before sewing, over-ironing knit fabric can cause unnecessary stretching. Knit fabrics have a natural elasticity, and applying too much heat and pressure can alter their shape temporarily (or sometimes permanently).
If the fabric is not too wrinkled, you don’t need to iron it before cutting out pattern pieces. If it does have wrinkled sections, consider steaming the fabric, or ironing the fabric with a press cloth over top, so that you don’t stretch out the fabric.

10. Use a rotary cutter to cut pattern pieces
Depending on how stretchy your fabric is, it can be better to use a rotary cutter instead of scissors. Pinning a pattern to fabric and lifting the fabric to use scissors can end up stretching out the fabric depending on how skilled you are at cutting fabric.
While not strictly necessary, a sharp rotary cutter (emphasis on the sharp) will typically give you cleaner cuts with less fabric distortion compared to scissors. However, dull rotary cutter is much worse and will end up pushing the fabric around too much, so I recommend changing your blade before cutting knit fabric.
I prefer the Olfa brand for rotary cutters, they have good quality blades that haven’t let me down yet (I use the 28mm blade most of the time, with the 18mm blade for small curved sections). You also need to use a cutting mat with a rotary cutter, so there is an upfront investment. If you don’t want to get a rotary cutter and mat yet, that’s totally understandable, but it’s something you might want to think about to make your life easier down the line.

11. Stabilize shoulders with stay tape
Knit garments also tend to stretch out over time. The shoulders will start drooping and the neck might get stretched out a bit. To give your knit clothing more longevity, use knit stay tape along the shoulder seams, some neck seams, and other high stress areas (such as pockets seams) to stabilize them and prevent them from overstretching and drooping.
Stay tape is basically just little strips of lightweight fusible knit interfacing. You apply it to the seams in question the same way you would normal interfacing. Since the stay tape is knit, it has some flexibility to it, but it’s typically low stretch and limits the stretchability of the fabric it’s applied to keeping it more stabilized overall.
However, you cannot use stay tape if the final seam will need to maintain a high level of elasticity. It can only be used in areas that will remain fairly stable and won’t need to stretch too much.
For example, you probably can’t apply stay tape to a typical T-shirt neckline because that needs to stretch all the way around your head, whereas a boat-neck shirt, is usually wide enough. Shoulders are areas where I pretty much always apply stay tape because they tend to be stable areas.
12. Use knit interfacing to stabilize larger areas (or places that need buttons, zippers)
While stay tape is great for stabilizing seams and small areas, it’s not great for stabilizing large areas, such as buttons, zippers, and facings. While many knit garments will simply leave these elements out, you will occasionally need to create sections that are sturdy and less-stretchy.
In these cases, you’ll need to work with knit interfacing. It works the same way as other types of woven and non-woven interfacing, by fusing to the fabric you’re working with. However, it will have a small amount of stretch that lets it work better with stretch-knit fabrics.
When using knit interfacing, pay very close attention to the direction of the stretch. It usually only stretch across the interfacing, so you want to make sure you match that up with the direction of the stretch in your fabric.
13. Consider using a double needle for neat hemming and top stitching
Hemming knit fabrics is its own unique challenge if you need it to maintain its stretch while still looking nice and neat. You can use a stretch stitch (or one of the fancy zigzag stitches that come with your sewing machine), but it’s important to remember that this will be visible on the front side of the garment.
While I don’t mind visible zigzag stitches on my more casual pieces, I like to have a more polished finish for my more fancy clothes. Since most of us don’t have an industrial coverstitch machine, the best choice is to use a double needle. This creates two parallel lines on the front of the fabric, while creating a zigzag on the back that allows the fabric to maintain its stretch.
When hemming, the double needle also ensures the fabric is evenly held down and prevents the edges from curling. It mimics the look of a cover stitch (which you’ll find in almost all of your store-bought clothes), adding a polished look to your final project.
14. Consider pre-shrinking your fabric
Pre-shrinking your fabric can save you from future disappointments, especially with knit fabrics. This is because knit fabrics are more prone to shrinking than most woven fabrics. I have had more than one knit shirt get relegated to ‘pajama’ status because it came out of the wash a little smaller than when it went in.
All you have to do is wash and dry your fabric in the same manner you would your final garment. So if you plan to wash with hot water and high heat, the fabric can shrink accordingly before you cut your fabric pieces. It’s best to get an extra ¼ yard of your fabric to ensure you still have enough after it’s finished shrinking.
If pre-washing sounds like a pain, you can always cut a swatch of fabric and wash that first. Measure it so that you know how big your swatch should be, then measure it after washing to see if it shrank.

15. Test the stretch of the fabric (with the sewing pattern stretch guide)
Not all knit fabrics will work with all patterns. Fortunately, most modern knit patterns come with a stretch guide on the back. Fold your fabric in half and test it against the guide to make sure it will stretch enough. You don’t want to sew a whole garment only to find that you can’t fit it over your hips because it doesn’t stretch enough.
