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Discover the Key to Sewing Darts and Buttonholes in Knits

Minimize stretching with stabilizers.

I’ve been a licensed master cosmetologist for many years. When I was in school, my instructor would always say, “When you learn how to control the hair, you can style it.” This is also true when working with certain types of fabrics, such as knits. If you can learn to stabilize the knit, you can minimize the amount of stretch to sew darts and make buttonholes that won’t wave or continue to “grow.”
These techniques work best on stable knits, but you can test to see what works on others.
There are many types of interfacings that can be uses as stabilizers. I have three favorites: fusible tricot, which is available several brands under the names Fusi-Knit, French Fuse, and Easy-Knit; fusible Pro-Tricot Deluxe; and the weft-insertion types, including Pro-Weft Supreme. Many of these interfacings are available from