[with love Heidi]

I am thinking of making up my first hopscotch top but I have some concerns about seam stabilisation.

The front yoke seam instructions ask you to stabilise the seam with knit interfacing or lightweight nonwoven interfacing or stabilising tape(?). I am concerned that the interfacing will limit how easy the top is to get on and off. I am also concerned that it could be scratchy/annoying against the skin. I was thinking of replacing the interfacing with bias tape as this would have some ‘give’ in it and probably be less irritating against the skin.

I would appreciate your feed back on what you use.

Thanks

[Nicole]

I use scraps of interfacing to stabilise all the time when I sew with knits. It is great for shoulder seams too.

I use a interface called sheer weft and it has a little give in it.

I think if you skip this step the top get get quite floppy at the front. I would wonder if bias would be a bit thick?

None of my girls have commented on it being scratchy and one has very fussy skin.

I hope this is some help,only my opinion of course.

~Nicole!

[Jennifer1568]

The lightweight woven interfacing that I used is soft and stretchy. It is more comfortable than bias tape would be. It is not bulky or itchy. My daughter has never had any problem with the stretch. That part doesn’t have to stretch much; it is the neck that has to stretch going over the head, maybe. I think it is sort of hard to get the yoke seam to look straight and smooth. It is slightly gathered. The part of the yoke seam that has the gathers and where the bias enters the yoke seam gets bulky. You have to be careful that the bias goes into the seam at the right angle and that both edges of the bias are caught in the seam. You can’t stretch the bias too much or it lays weird. A lot of people recommended making the neck bias longer by and inch of two. I think that making that piece longer does make things easier. When you sew the front to the yoke, you should try to make a very straight seam. On time I tried top stitching the neck seam to see if I thought it would look better and lay better. I don’t think it does. I think using a stretch needle makes a difference.

I love this pattern; I have made a dress, 2 tops, and two nightgowns using it. On the nightgowns I made lettuce hems.

[Nicole]

I lengthen mine a wee bit http://www.flickr.com/photos/motherof5/5141383591/in/set-72157625309800074

[Jennifer1568]

I was thinking about it and the yoke seam must have to stretch when it is put on like the neck seam. Maybe my yoke seams are sometimes wobbly because the interfacing does not stabilize the seam enough.

[Nicole]

I think I top stitch mine….http://www.flickr.com/photos/motherof5/5609351471/in/set-72157625139726453/,yes I see I did with my latter ones,it must have stretched a bit.

[with love Heidi]

Thanks for all the feedback (and so quickly!). I might get some light weight interfacing as the stuff I’ve got is great for the bucket hats but is probably too thick for this.

thanks again

P.S. Thanks for the tip on lengthening Nicole.

[paula]

Here is where I purchased my fusible knit stay tape:

http://shop.emmaseabrooke.com/category.sc;?categoryId=3

[with love Heidi]

Thanks for going back through theses posts to add whaere you get the tape.