HOW TO SEW A T-SHIRT WITH SERGER

Hey guys, if you have a

serger

, have you been using it just to finish off the raw edges of your garments like I used to do? If so, they are missing something. I'm serious that you can sew entire garments using a

serger

which includes hemming if you don't have a serger because you've been bullied too much, I'll invite you to follow us today and reconsider because it really is simple, we're going to sew a very basic t-

shirt

, the t-

shirt

. which I'm using right now and I'll walk you through step by step in great detail so keep watching because I think you'll like this welcome back to my channel if you're new here for the first time thanks for stopping by to visit me today I'm Anita with Anita by design and I create very detailed step by step tutorials and more for beginners I love sewing and it is my passion to teach the basics of garment construction for beginners I hope you like what you see here today and if so I invite you to subscribe to my channel and then Before you subscribe make sure to hit the little bell to the right of the subscribe button to receive notifications.

When new videos are uploaded to my channel today, we will sew a t-shirt on the serger and use the new six four five eight style. If you followed my beginner sewing course then this will look familiar to you. with this because we used this pattern to make a t-shirt and a long skirt and that brings me to this if you've never sewn anything before, if you're new to sewing and you've been following this for a long time to learn how. to sew on a serger, I'm going to suggest you go ahead and watch my beginner sewing course videos first and learn how to sew, learn the basics of sewing before you come here because I'm not going to teach you the basics.

I'm just going to show you how to sew a serger and this tutorial assumes you already know how to sew so we'll use the new look 6 4 5 8 I'm going to link to I'll put a link at the bottom of the description box so you can purchase your pattern if you don't have a local fabric store and for your fabric you can buy any type of t-shirt fabric, any type of knit fabric that you want to use for your t-shirt the fabric that I carry is very special it is a gift from Malory and the CD of so here, don't worry, that's their website, they also have a podcast called sewing out loud and after each episode of their podcast they say goodbye saying see you later, so happy and that's what the t-shirt says last year at the event of common threads Mallory and ZD gave these panels, this panel of fabric to everyone in attendance and I'm so happy I was there because I got a panel and this is what I did with it.

I will include a link in the description box below for this fabric if you are interested in purchasing it to make your t-shirt and the only thing you will need is thread. I chose a matching color and I'm going to suggest it to you. Do the same because we are going to sew a blind hem with the serger and you want the fat of your thread to blend with the color of the fabric, so make sure you choose a color that is closest to the color of your most possible fabric after we have purchased all the supplies, we are ready, so let's get started.

We only need four pieces to complete the garment: 1 front, 1 back, 2 sleeves and a neckband before we start sewing the scene, the t-shirt I want to show. How do I find the seam allowance on the vibrant? Here I placed a mark on the fabric 5/8 of an inch from the edge of the fabric, so I used my sewing gauge and measured 5/8 of an inch and then I just placed that mark, then I'm going to take the fabric and place it on the work table and I'll line up that mark with the hole in the small opening on the edge of the presser foot because that's where the left needle aligns. and I'm sewing with the left needle, so after I find that, I make sure that this guide is pressed against that edge, so what's the guide that we have here, I would just push it in to make sure that it's pressed against the edge of the fabric and then when I remove it, that tells me that for a 5/8 inch seam allowance, this guide should be at the second mark and that is along the edge of the work table where the fabric cutter will start cutting the fabric remover, this is how you find the seam allowance, okay, take your shirt front and back, we're going to sew the shoulder things together.

I've made one here for you to show you what it would look like to now sew the shoulder seams together. I'm going to take the front and back at the shoulder seam to match the notches evenly. If you need it for control, you can insert pins to hold the fabric together while you start sewing. I'm not going to use pins, I'm just going to Place the fabric here making sure the edges are lined up evenly and then go ahead and there we have the other shoulder seam sewn, press the seam towards the back of the shirt, then we'll go back and pin the neck band. but before we do that, let's go ahead and sew on the neck band.

This is the neck band and we're going to fold it in half and on the short end we're going to line up the raw edges and we're going to sew. so those ends together take the neckband to the ironing station when you take your shirt and you're going to iron the seam to the side after you've done that take the band and fold it in half with the wrong sides facing each other and they're going to press this flat part all the way in and then they're going to come back here and we're going to attach the neck band to the edge of the collar of the shirt.

Okay, we have the shoulder seam allowances pressed, we have the neck band folded and pressed flat now we are going to attach the neck band to the neck line, so I turned the shirt inside out wrong side out and I'm going to take the curve of the neck and we're going to find the center front and the sides, so here we have the center back where we insert the seam, we're going to fold the band in half and then the other end is our center front, so I'm going to go ahead and just place a small cut along the edge, not too far in very small so that we have our center front and our center back.

Now I'm going to take the center front and the center back and line them up and then we'll get our sides to match the side seam of the band with the shoulder seam. We enter a little from the side and we are going to enter from the opposite side and do the same. Okay, so on the t-shirt we have the two shoulder seams, we're going to take them and join them together and We're going to do the same thing to fry it to find the center front and the center back, so line up the shoulder seam and come in and there it is the center back, so we're just going to put a little peep in there and then you're going to do the same thing for the front, now open up your shirt and we're going to take the collar pin and starting with the back, the center back , we're going to take the center back seam of the neck line and line it up with the center. back notch that we cut out on the shirt and then you can go ahead and start pinning, then we're going to go to the front so that the center front of the neck band pin it to the center front of this shirt moving to the sides.

We are going to do the same, the notch on one side we are going to pin to the shoulder seam and then the notch on the other side of the neck band we are going to pin to the other shoulder seam now that we start. To sew this, looking at this right now, you'll notice that the band is shorter than the shirt. The neckline of the shirt is supposed to be like this because we need to stretch the band to fit the shirt. I don't want your collar to be the same length as the shirt because it will be open when you put the shirt on and that's the worst look.

You don't want your shirt to be open from your neck when you start sewing. We are going to stretch the neckline while you sew, don't stretch the shirt just the neckline, okay, starting at the center back while we sew, remember we are going to stretch the neck band. I think before I said stretch the neckline, no, we're stretching it. the neck band to fit the neckline, so let's go ahead and put that under and I'm going to move the pin. This time I will lift the presser foot and place the fabric underneath, making sure everything is flat, close it down. and this time we're going to sew a 3/8 inch seam allowance, so find your 3/8 inch seam allowance before you start sewing this the same way I showed you how to find your 3/8 inch seam allowance. 5/8 inch and start sewing and I'm going to pull the neck band until it's even with the length of the neckline, removing the pins as you go and continuing to stretch the neck band.

Remember when you get to the shoulder seams, make sure the seam allowance is folded back. so if you feel like it has turned to the front like mine did, make sure the needles are down in the fabric, lift the presser foot and fold it back. You can use a pointer or any flat object to push it back. the other side and then lower the presser foot again and continue sewing. If you ever find that the fabric is starting to bunch up in this area, you can simply pull it down so that it continues to fall into the tray and when it reaches the beginning or the end, the beginning of where you started sewing, you will simply pull it through. on top and you're going to line it up so what I did was I continued sewing and I would also do it over the starting stitches and then we're going to take the tail and we're going to weave it into the yarn here and I'll show you how to do it now you can use a yarn needle or a big needle with a big eye that's what I'm going to do To use I don't have a yarn needle near me right now so I'm just going to use this needle with the biggest eye and what you're going to do is just pull of the thread, pull the thread straight and then go ahead and trim.

You've got longer threads here and then we're going to pull this through the eye of the needle, okay, and then I'm going to turn my shirt inside out and I'm going to pull this through the loops in the back so that it just I'll run it through the back under the looper threads about an inch and then I'll do that and then I'll go ahead and trim it, that's how I hide the tails of my tail threads, okay? sew on our neckband, the next thing we're going to do is go to the ironing station again and you're going to press the neckband away from the shirt and press the seam allowance toward the shirt.

So you're just going to open it up like this and press it down from the wrong side and then you can flip it over to the right side and press it down from the front, just press it down until it's flat. There's the ironed neckline. We are going to insert the sleeves using the flat lay method. Okay, then we'll open the shirt. We have the shoulder seam here. This is the back of the shirt. This is the front of the shirt. So we will grab our sleeves and we must chew or place the sleeve on the arm side of the shirt with the back facing back and the front facing the front.

It is very important that you pay attention that on your sleeves you must have two notches marked on one side and a single notch on the other side, the single gold notch is towards the front of your shirt and the double notch goes towards the back, so if I turn this over with right sides facing, my double notch is facing here the front, so this is the wrong sleeve. so I want to grab the other sleeve where the double notch faces the back of the shirt, so let's take the center of the sleeve that you should have marked and place it right on the edge of the shoulder seam and then pin .

We're going to take the double notch and match it to the notch on the back of the shirt and match the raw edges and then there's a mark here on the sleeve and you should have a mark on your shirt. joining them it is very important that you transfer all your marks to the pieces of fabric because it helps to line things up when you prepare to sew going to the front, we will do the same join the ends with the points that we have transferred and the notches I am matching the points again, okay, now to fit this on Eve instead of using the method that's in the pattern instructions, which is sew together stitches and join the stitches together, we're going to press the C the sleeve covers the center part right there and we're going to make this easier with pins, this is the method that I like to use, then we're going to pull that out until it's flat and pin it and, like enemy, we're I'm going to stretch it a little bit to make it fit and I'm going to push it into the middle and while we sew we can stretch it a little so that it fits again here is the Fleeth cap and here is the shirt.

I'm going to take the center of that sleeve and press it towards the middle of that shirt, the space that we have, and then when we sew, we'll pull it to flatten it and level it so that the sleeve is there. cap, there's the shirt, I'm going to press it down in the middle and when we do that, we're going to flatten it out and do it around the sleeve. Now we're going to go ahead and sew the seam and make sure. that you remove the pins as you sew and as you go around the curves you want to manipulate your fabric with your left and right hand turning the fabric left or right on the curve so let's get started and when you get to the areas where the sleeve is more cut that sleeve cap, go ahead and stretch it to even out, don't take your time, there's no rush,You want to make sure both layers of fabric are flat as you go around the curves you want to make.

I'm sure you're not sewing any gathering so take your time and our sleeve will be sewn and once we turn it there you have it on the front and there's the back and then we'll go ahead and do the same thing on the other side and after that we will go behind you, so in the other sleeve keep going, you are pressing the station. and you want to press the sleeve towards the flea and then we'll come back here and sew the side seams. Well, you should have pressed the sleeve seam towards the sleeve on both sides of both sleeves.

Now let's sew the front. all the way to the back at the side seams, so go ahead and pin both pieces of fabric and we'll start at the bottom hem of the shirt and sew all the way to the end of this sleeve with a 5/8 inch seam allowance, OK? We've sewn in our side seam, you can go ahead and weave the thread tails and then we're going to sew the hems, okay, our t-shirt, we're going to need a hammer foot and the vibrator doesn't come with that. foot, however, I am very excited to present to you the six baby like serger foot kit and it includes a Hemmer foot, so it comes in this nice case and inside we have a little booklet that tells you all about the six different feet that it comes with the machine so you can take a look and read about the feet to see what they are and how you can use them and this is the inside of the box and all the feet we have the blind hemmed feet we get two of them.

Oh, stitch five millimeters, which is what we're going to use today and the one millimeter blind hem feet, we get the elastic foot, which is this one and of course you use it to attach elastic to your projects. We get an elastic foot and you can use it to put ruffles on your skirts or any garment that you need to add ruffles, ruffles and that kind of stuff to gather the fabric. We get the beading foot, which is this one here if you want to add beads to your projects, that's awesome, and the lacing foot. to add cables and trim of those types of finishes to your projects, so this is very useful.

It is an optional accessory kit that you can purchase through your local Baby Lock dealer and there is a link in the description box below so you can access the Baby Lock. website to find a dealer if you don't have one near you, this is the 0.5 millimeter hemming foot we are going to use, but before you put it on you need to set your machine for thread increase and remember to plug in your converter. to the top looper, if you don't know how to do it, go and watch the video that I created in this series, which was the last one on how to thread the machine, and follow the instructions for threading how to thread your machine for that. and then come back here and to change the foot, you just press the little black button on the back and it falls, we'll move it out, then we'll take the new foot and slide it in. and there's a slot, there's a metal pin here and a slot on the bottom of the foot support and we're going to push down until it touches that and then lift it up and if it's attached, it will lift up sometimes you have to do that. play with it to get it set well, so just press, place your foot under the presser foot holder and press down until it snaps into place and then it's done, once we've folded or pressed the hem for the t- shirt let's go ahead and sew it now.

I'm using a sample, unfortunately I recorded myself sewing the hem on the bottom of the t-shirt and the camera went off before I could finish, so I have to show you a sample, so I just sewed this together, find the seam to simulate the bottom of a t-shirt, so it's the same process, I'm just doing it on scrap, so after you've sewn or pressed the hem making sure you've pressed it evenly all the way around, you're going to take the hem and turn it right side up. up and after you've done that, this is what you have, flip it up.

We have the fold here and we have an extension of fabric sticking out of the fold, so what you want to do is pin the entire hem making sure that the measurement from the fold to the edge of that extension is Even so, mine here measures about 3/8 inch, so I'll use that measurement on all sides while holding the fold. It is very important that you have a uniform distance so that your he is even on all sides. It's okay, just turn the volume all the way up and once you start pinning, you'll most likely be able to see the distance you need and you won't have to use the seam gauge if you do that, that's fine, but if you feel it. you feel comfortable enough to look at it okay now you get here where we have all this volume we are sewing two four six layers of fabric into the side seams of your t-shirt so be careful.

I'm looking carefully. I'm going to attach perpendicularly just to keep it in place and then continue until you get to the other end or where you start and there we have it, so what we're going to do is make sure that you have Raise the presser foot and raise the needles to the highest position turning the steering wheel towards you. What we're going to do is place the fabric extension under the metal guide here so that it goes underneath and then. the fabric fold is going to go between the silver metal of the presser foot and the black metal guide so let's take that and slide the extension down and then the fabric fold over that piece of black metal and when we start sewing we're going to sew at an angle up that we can straighten this out.

I'm going to remove a pin, lower the presser foot and then start sewing nice with the needle down into the fabric, lift the presser foot and I'm going to turn it to straighten it and I'm going to prep, push the pleat down to where this metal part extends above it, okay and then we'll continue to press down on the presser foot. Now you probably can't see it from where you are, but they are right where the needle is, you can see the fold where the center left needle hits the fold of the fabric, so what happens is that as we sew, the needle will hit the edge of this fold to sew the hem and as we're sewing, we want to make sure we're holding the fabric to the right so it hits against the metal guide so the needle hits the fold.

Let's continue now, when we get to this bulky area, we'll go slowly and When I was practicing with it, I had trouble with the whole bulk not feeding in smoothly, so I'll show you what I did to help guide you through. Let's slow down to the edge, okay, I'm going. To place the needle into the fabric, I will lift the presser foot and use my pointer. You can use anything flat and I'm going to press down to push the volume through all those layers. Through just a little bit, lower the presser foot and I'm going to hold it down while I guide it using my pointer to help, okay and again I'm going to put the needle on the fabric and let the presser foot go.

To push him a little, I'm just trying to help guide him and continue sewing. Okay, now that we're done with this part, we're going to keep an eye on the fold to make sure we're catching the fabric. I'm going to lift it up and yes, I'm catching the edge of the fabric. I'm going to continue sewing and I'm already over the hump. The needle went over that hump, so I'm going to turn to make sure the needle is touching. the phone and it didn't hit the crease of that one, so I'm going to lift the needle again.

I'm going to hold the fabric here I'm going to lift the presser foot up and push it a little bit and then I'm going to put the presser foot down put the needle down and it's hitting the fabric this is just what I found while practicing so I always suggest practicing your stitches before you make them so so you can figure out what you need to do to help when you got to trouble spots now we've gotten to where we start sewing but we can't go any further because the guide is under the fold so what I'm going to do is move the fabric over the fold and place it under the guide and as I continue to sew I'm going to make sure that this top edge of the guide is even with the fold of my or yes, the fold of the fabric so that when I continue it lines up and I'm going to sew overlap some of the stitches, it's Well, I have overlapped them.

I'm going to raise the needle, raise the presser foot, turn it and sew it. Okay, so let's turn it over and this is what we have and you can see those little dots. I've used the same color thread so you can't see it too, which is what you want, but you'll notice that there are these little white flecks that are due to the backing of this fabric. It's white and when the needles pierced the fabric that white background peeks out and it's just because of the type of fabric I'm using, if you're using a fabric that's the same color all the time then you won't encounter this problem it's not a problem for me at all, so what we're going to do next is press this flat, go to your pressing station and give it a good flat press.

It will do this to the bottom hem of your t-shirt and both sleeves then we will be done nicely, that's all for today. Thank you very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this video. If so, hit the like button now to get the good news. tell you how you can enter for a chance to win your very own vibrant serger. First of all, you must be American. resident 18 years or older, you must be subscribed here to my YouTube channel and my blog anita by design.com. You will click on the link in the description box below that says entry form and that will take you to my blog or you can register for a chance to win.

The giveaway is open until next Friday, March 8, 2019 at 12 a.m. m. and a winner will be chosen that same day. Well, I wish you good luck and thank you very much. See you next time bye