Purpose Needle
How do I sew liquid metallic looking fabric? (used in dance costumes a lot)?
I sew doll clothes to sell, and one kind of fabric is a good seller to be used in the clothes, but it is a BEAR to sew. It looks like liquid metal. The metallic surface is bonded onto a very tightly knit black backing – you see this fabric a lot. Sometimes it is even holographic looking. I get lots of skipped stitches, even with the serger sometimes, and I have used brand new Schmetz sharp, ballpoint and all purpose needles, all to no avail. You can only stretch this stuff a little bit as you sew, because there isn’t perfect recovery due to the metallized coating. Also the seams pucker like crazy, and it doesn’t look too good a lot of times. the serger does better than the sewing machine, but still skips stitches. I’ve fooled with the tension to reduce puckering, and stretched the seam slightly as I sew, too. Didn’t work well enough.
Thanks if you have any tips!!
Try using a stretch needle, size 75/11 or 90/14. The deep scarf on the stretch needle helps keep the stitches uniform when sewing through the “liquid gold” fabric and the slightly sharper point goes through the metallic layer more easily. Also, use the straight stitch plate (the one with a single hole in it) and a rolling or walking foot if you have one. Don’t stretch the fabric as you stitch it, but make sure it feeds through evenly. For very small pieces or lots of curves I usually press the piece to freezer paper before stitching to prevent distorting it then just peel it off after stitching. The tear-away stabilizer works too, but the freezer paper stabilizes the entire edge of the fabric without pulling. A longer stitch length will cut down on some of the seam puckering.
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