More about the Lettuce Edged Blankets

By The Pleasant Times sewing editor, Miss Thread

Last post I mentioned I would be talking more about the lettuce edging on the blankets. It was the first time I had used knit fabric, and done a lettuce edging. I found advice at this blog, which I followed; it was very helpful. However, I came under the "too impatient" category, pulled a bit too much and had many gaps in my edging! Also, only two sides would curl under on their own (to make a nice finished edge) as the other two were not as stretchy (remember I was doing a square blanket-- two sides on the "grain" I guess). Plus, I had to be careful because my machine likes to get "stuck" on a satin stitch and build up a thread mound! This is the way I worked around those difficulties:

 First off, to get the edge to curl right and fold over on itself while sewing, I had to run the edge of the material through the little gap in the presser foot. I hope you can see it in the middle of the foot above.

 I'm not sure you can see this, but I have inserted the material in the gap.

 Now as I zig-zag, it is a little more cooperative and folds over. Notice on the material in the back, the zig-zag stitching is not all nice and satin-stitch-like. I decided instead of stretching, pulling, folding, and satin stitching all at the same time, then going over it again to fix my errors, I would just run the edge through fast with a long zig-zag stitch first. I did all the folding and stretching and did not worry about gaps on this first run-through. The, I went over it again, slower, with a closer zig-zag.

It still was not a perfect satin stitch edge, but it was a bit easier for me to do it this way. I am eager to buy some knit fabric and try my hand at it again! Maybe someday I can conquer the satin stitch on my machine, too.