I am so close to finishing my Papercut Patterns Undercover Hood. All that’s left to do is bind the neck and topstitch – yay! If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram you would have seen a sneaky peak of this garment last weekend.
The one thing that confuzzled me during construction were the cuffs/bands. I was having some serious ‘I don’t get it’ moments when putting these together, so I thought I’d share the details in case anyone else suffers the same moments. The stripes were messing with my head… This method will actually be relevant for any knit cuffs too.
Please note, it’s unlikely you’ll find this technique used on RTW garments, it’s bit more spesh 🙂
Step 1
Lay your cuff on a flat surface right side up, with the top of the cuff at the top and the bottom at the bottom (i.e. closest to you). Fold in half on the vertical. You’ll then have a fold on the LHS, wrong side up, and the two edges on the RHS. Pin and sew the seam down the RHS using the allowance the pattern asks for. Making sure you match up your stripes too if you dare go to stripetown.
Step 2
Press the seam allowance open.
Step 3
Turn through halfway – with the wrong sides inside. In my case I had to make sure that the halfway point lined up with a stripe. Also, just watch the seam allowances and flatten them out again if they bunch up – avoiding bulk.
Step 4
Pin the open seam and baste in place – again, watching stripes if necessary.
Step 5
Take the cuff and insert it down the sleeve, lining up the raw edges of the cuff with the raw edge of the sleeve. Line everything up and sew the cuff to the sleeve. I basted first to make sure my stripes played nice. Don’t forget to line up your seams and notches. 🙂
And when sewing, make sure you’re only sewing one side and not catching the other also. It’s a bit fiddly, but just take it slow.
Step 6
Overlock (serge) the raw edge. I don’t like the idea of having to unpick overlocking (as detailed in, ‘Renfrew you, Renfrew me‘), so I turn through and check everything is just so (just ‘sew’ lol) before overlocking.
Step 7
Turn through and voila! A very nice looking cuff. A press probably wouldn’t hurt here too.
And that’s it! Is this how you make knit cuffs? It’s probably a bit old hat, but I wanted to get it down in case I suffer from another case of sewers confusion! Hopefully it’s at least helpful for some of you!
