New Materials: Linen Knit

It's always fun to try out new materials, techniques, and styles.  While in Minneapolis, I found some linen jersey knit.  I've worked with woven linen fabric and some knits, but never a linen knit.  So, I bought enough to make a T-shirt as a test garment.

Most fabrics I buy go straight into the washer before I even think about cutting them out.  Pre-shinking the fabric means the final garment will still fit.  In this case, washing before cutting may have been a serious mistake.  The fabric came out of the dryer with a very serious roll to the selvages.  I decided to iron the fabric and take care of that problem.  BIG MISTAKE.

Ironing did remove most of the roll, but in the process, the selvages were stretched relative to the center.  A second trip through the laundry didn't fix the problem, nor did an attempt to stretch the middle of the fabric with an iron.  Lack of recovery (not returning to the original shape after stretching) seems to be an issue with this fabric.  After a third trip through the laundry, the problem wasn't all fixed, but it was at least better.

The roll at the edge of the fabric made it impossible to line up the pattern pieces on the straight of the grain in the usual way.  I tried to lay out the fabric straight, then applied the pattern pieces.  I'm sure there's some error in the placement, but with a knit fabric, maybe that's OK.  Also, due to the earlier differential stretching, there wasn't a consistent grain anyway.

I my standard T-shirt pattern and construction techniques, described in detail in a previous post.

Unfortunately, a fold of fabric got caught up in the neck seam.  I was able to fix the problem, but in the process, I got some small holes in the thin fabric.

I was able to fix the holes and hopefully the repairs won't be too obvious.

I'm not sure that I like this fabric.  Maybe I don't know the right ways to deal with it, or maybe I didn't have the right application for it.  I'll wear the shirt a while and see how it goes.  Linen is a wonderful fabric for summer, very cool and comfortable.  Here in the South, we've definitely got some more warm weather coming this year.

Come back next week for a post about the embroidery on this shirt.