The Agony Begins

The agony begins! And its only SWAP garment #2. The lesson is humility.

I am making a simple panne stretch velour sleeveless shell. Two days later it is still not done. I am trying to finish the neckline and armholes as simply as possible. I made something similar a couple of weeks ago, and someone suggested using Steam-A-Seam to turn under the edges, then sewing them down. I did that, and it worked fairly well, but the fabric stretched during the "Steam" part the shape has gone all wonky. This time I thought I would try to be a little more sophisticated.

My sewing mentor suggested running twill tape around the seam allowance, turning under and stitching. I thought twill was too hard for the edge and would not go around the curve very well.

The lady in the quilting shop suggested using a stretchy, clear, plastic-looking tape. Since the neckline is a bit bigger than it should be, I though that would be a good idea. NOT. Turned out awful and the machine would not sew through the tape and the velour without gathering the whole shebang into a bunch.

Lesson: Trust your mentor. Back to the twill tape option. I sewed it all onto the neckline thinking I was testing on an armhole. Turned it under, basted all in place. Tried on. The edge rolls outward and looks dreadful. Even if I sew close to the edge I think the finish will look cheap. So much for this advice.

My next option is to cut off the seam allowance and bind with self fabric, cut on the crosswise. Is this what I should have done all along?

My experience with knits is minimal. Unless I get some better advice from the forum, I will fold the binding, line up with the cut edge, stitch on with a narrow seam allowance and turn the seam down and the binding up, then stitch it down on the right side through all layers. Needless to say I am still sergerless.