Hi friends, Up to this point I've done very little sewing with knits – which is silly, really. Button-up shirts are all well and good, but frankly, I am a T-shirt kind of girl. If I'm ever going to get to the point where I'm wearing mostly clothes I've made myself, I'm going to have to learn to sew with knit fabric. So this weekend, in the interest of venturing into new territory with a low-cost, low-commitment sort of project, I grabbed an old T-shirt from my Goodwill pile and pulled out my fold-over elastic...and then I got out my favourite pair of undies and a fabric marker. Yep. I started my foray into sewing with knits by making underwear – and it worked! In fact, it worked so well I made two pair. I did it all by the seat of my pants (ha ha) – just traced, cut, trimmed and sewed as I went, adjusting my method as I worked. I machine-basted my seams first, then finished with a mock overlock (basically a very close zigzag stitch). The FOE went on using a large zigzag. I don't have a serger, just a sewing machine, so to help keep the fabric moving without stretching, I used my walking foot. Are they perfect? No. Are they pretty darn good? Yes! Especially considering that the whole venture cost me less than $3 and helped me reuse two t-shirts that were on their way out the door. I'm pretty pleased! A few resources I found helpful:

• Angry Chicken's fold-over elastic tutorial.
• Sew U: Home Stretch (which I got on supersale at Chapters not that long ago. It was only $5. It's worth having a look.)
• Sewing Undies with a Serger and FOE – I read this once about six months ago – it's what gave me the idea to re-use the T-shirts. I used a completely different method, though. Oh well...guess that's just how my brain works.

*** Last but not least, I'm super excited to announce that our newest blogger will be joining The Craft Blog team tomorrow. Lisa Fielding is a talented crafter who's just as skilled at the sewing machine as she is with paper crafts and DIY home projects – and she's got killer macramé skills, too. Her official duties as the copy chief at Canadian Living are on hold right now while she spends some time with her new son, but she'll be joining us here every Wednesday to share some of the crafty business she gets up to while she's on maternity leave. I hope you'll stop by tomorrow and say hello to her!