One of my favorite items to make is a simple t-shirt. It’s fast and easy when sewn with a serger. Then I use the Brother Coverstitch machine for hemming. But what about embellishing the tee with coverstitching! If you have used the Coverstitch before you will notice the back side of the coverstitch has a sporty look, similar to what we see in sportswear. For this tutorial, I am going to show you how to utilize the 3-thread Coverstitch to create this fashionable look! Let’s get started:
Materials:
- Angela Wolf Ruched-T Pattern (Click ?? here to order and use coupon code BROTHER20 for a 20% discount)
- Stretch Fleece Fabric
- 4 spools of serger thread
- Tailors chalk
DESIGNING THE LOCATION FOR THE STITCHES:
Cut out the pattern. My T-shirt pattern pieces consist of 1 Front, 1 Back, 2 Sleeves, and 1 Collar. There are not princess seams, but I want to add the illusion there are princess seams. Starting with the front pattern, on the wrong side of the fabric, draw a line from the armscye to the hem. Use a curved ruler if you need help drawing the curve .
Fold the fabric in half and use your hand to brush the fabric. This will trace the chalk mark to the other side of the fabric.
Open the fabric back up and you should see a faint line from the first chalk marking. Use the chalk to trace over this line, making it darker and easier to see. Do the same thing for the BACK pattern piece. For the collar and sleeve, draw randomly placed chalked lines.
SET UP THE COVERSTITCH MACHINE
Choose the color of thread for the decorative stitch. Ideally the color should be in the same color family as the right side of the fabric, but enough of a contrast that you can see the stitches.
Decide which stitch looks the best on your fabric:
- Stitch a swatch of fabric with a wide coverstitch (using the left and right needle)
- Stitch a sample with the triple coverstitch.
Keep in mind you will be stitching with the wrong side of the fabric facing up. Check the look of the stitch on both sides.
I prefer the triple coverstitch on my fabric, so I will set up the coverstitch machine with all three needles using 4 spools of thread. It’s a little faster to stitch from piece to piece, so start stitching on a scrap of fabric and then add another piece of fabric. This allows me to check my stitch quality and I won’t have to worry about threads falling off at the beginning or end of my garment pieces. (All of these stitches rows will be sealed in a seam, so no worries on threads unraveling).
For the full tutorial, check out my post on the Brother Stitching Sewcial blog. I always love to see what your are working on, be sure to share photos of your sporty tops using #angelawolf #brothersews
Cheers,
Brother Expert Sewing Consultant. This blog post may contain affiliate links.
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Hola Angela, this is beautiful. I love the neckline and the color too. With the instructions being clear and concise it will have a beginner sewer feeling like a professional sewer in no time!! Thank you so so much for this post. I will be subscribing you blog for more posts like this..
Hi, Angela. Quick question. I own your Craftsy Creative Sergin class and am thinking about purchasing your Sew With Your Serger: Quick & Easy Projects. Do I need both? Will I find good differences between them?
Hi Angela, I love the twisted neckline on this shirt, is there a tutorial showing how that is done. It looks pretty straight forward but would like to see how it’s done in case there is any special technique to get it so it’s not too twisted.
Thanks very much
Janice
Hi Janice,
I don’t have a video, but you basically sew the collar on the same as a ribbed neckline and instead of folding the collar in half, you scew the fold by about 1″. I will have a sewalong with this top later this summer and I will be sure to do a video 🙂
Cheers,
Angela