Fabric Mixer

It’s always been a little taboo to mix knits and wovens in sewing but with the comfort of knits and the fun of wovens, I decided to break the rules and realize the best of both.  I wrote this post for the Fabricmart Fabrics blog in the hopes that others would do some mixing too.

I’ve been drooling over this top from my Pinterest board for quite a while and I used it as my inspiration. I chose a super soft navy slub knit from Fabricmart Fabrics for the body of the blouse and rooted around in my scrap basket for the wovens for the yoke.  

I chose New Look pattern 6187 View C  because it’s a simple design with a yoke. When mixing knits and wovens, the wovens are best placed in the most stable parts of the top like the yoke, collar, cuffs and placket.  It helps keep the shape of the garment without losing the comfort.  For example, it’s nice to have a yoke that stays in place but a sleeve that stretches and moves.  

I made a few simple changes to the pattern.  

1.  Omitted the collar and lowered the neckline 1/2”, 

2.  Shortened the sleeve 4” and added elastic instead of a cuff.  

3.  Pieced the yoke out of scraps,  lined it in voile and added a fabric "tab" to the back of my blouse.

4.  Replaced the neck facing by lining the front yoke and binding the back neck with 2” knit strips (see the photo) and then sewing in the shoulder seam.

To make the hem lay smooth, I pressed 1/2" wide strips of knit interfacing to the hem, folded up the hem and used a twin needle to sew it in.

This was a fun project and it's comfortable and cheery.  I highly recommend breaking the rules and mixing it up!

Here are my reviews for Pattern Review.com and Kollabora.

Happy Mixing!