September 11, 2014Jilly

Working with Tissue Knits and a Review of Vogue 8536

If talcum powder was a fabric it would be a tissue knit. Good Lord, this stuff is so amazing against the skin. I want to be married, carried and buried in it.  I bought this on a whim (no?) at Hancock’s discount bin. There is no manufacturer or fiber content information available. All it came in was white. And, I wish I would have bought the whole lot of it. The wonderful feel and absolute lightness of it more than makes up for the ginormous pain in the tuckus that befalls those who choose to work with it.

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I, oblivious to the perils of the tissue knit, just started out as I would any knit. The biggest hassle is the tissue knit curls and that it’s a very sheer knit which requires French seams or serged, of which I did not do. I lightly sprayed a bit of starch on the seams, not really knowing what else to do and that did the trick. I was going to make sleeves for this top, but decided to just keep it sleeveless for my first attempt with this type of knit.

  • Vogue 8536 is a basic t-shirt pattern, I especially love the gathering at the side

  • I cut out a size 8 and see that it could do with a narrow chest adjustment or maybe tweaking the shoulders a bit.

  • Instructions were great, really no problems and will keep it as a TNT.

  • Tissue knits can run very sheer like this one.

  • Check out Mary Ray’s version. Totally love this.

After I finished, I found Jen from Grainline Studio’s blog post on working with Tissue Knits and she of course has great tips. She recommends using a serger, a walking foot or at the least a zigzag. All the things I did not do! I just barreled my way through with a sewing machine and all in all in looks decent and certainly wearable, maybe a bit of beginners luck. However, I love this fabric so much, I plan on making more items for my wardrobe.

Will you or have you tried tissue knit? Once you feel its softness  you won’t be able to resist.

Pattern: Vogue 8536

8536

14 comments

  1. I find myself wearing my La Strada I made out of a tissue knit a ton. I was thinking of making more but those curling edges made everything take twice as long. I don’t know why I didn’t think to use starch… DUH. Thanks for the tips!

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  2. Love the feel of tissue knits. Hate attempting to sew with them, especially anything other than a ‘box’. And, find they don’t wash well either, so hate the hand washing involved. So, there you go: Love/hate. 🙂

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  3. Our fearless model eats photographers for lunch. Rawr. And sign me up for a View D! Nice top.

    Tissue knits terrify me because I feel so exposed wearing them (cling), and then there’s that whole bra dilemma. Or if I wear a cami, then the fabric-on-fabric game gets old. So nope, haven’t tried w/ the material yet.

    I did almost finish a skirt that I might actually wear, but it’s been tossed aside at 95%. It’s a super thin woven, darker material with some flow so the slight sheerness is disguised. And I have no clue how to hem it! I used a walking foot, hacked in some wonky seams because my brain couldn’t follow YouTube instructions, and _still_ fancied wearing it. After an hour of “fold over and press, then fold over and press again” fail, it went back to the pile. 😦

    The iron’s too big, my fingers are too big, the material’s too squirreley, not sure. Can’t even imagine a tissue knit!

    I bet Jamie’s got a tool for that 😉

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  4. Thank you for posting this. Lovely pose. I own a mini stash of tissue weight knits; did try Vogue 9005 but due to pattern errors, discarded that beautiful tissue knit from Mood. Tsk.
    After reading this, I’m moving the remaining pieces of said stash to the top of the heap. In Texas I will probably get to wear it through November.

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  5. Wow, Jill! You look stunning! You should do the sultry pose all the time. I’ve tried sewing thin knits that curl, but not tissue knits before. I’ve found them pretty difficult to sew.The drape on your tissue knit is gorgeous though and I love this top on you. It looks really soft and it fits you perfectly!

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  7. Jill – Nice essential top. I love the gathers on the side (and the sultry photo).

    I’ve never used tissue knits and may wait a bit to try them. I am not sure how they would work in a dress …

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