Article: How to sew knit fabric? Our tips for beginners

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Sep 24, 2026video

How to sew knit fabric? Our tips for beginners

Knits catch your eye, but you don’t know how to sew them? In this new tutorial, we guide you through learning how to sew knits, and more specifically our new ribbed knit from the Les Mots Bleus collection.

View the Maison Fauve ribbed knit

Supple, stretchy, and comfortable, and available in a magnificent palette of colors, it is ideal for making close-fitting garments, such as the Ludmilla dress or the Pirate striped top. And with a few good techniques and the right equipment, sewing knits becomes much simpler!

The equipment for sewing knits

To get started, here is my ideal wishlist:

A serger: ideal for joining pieces and obtaining flexible and stretchy seams, but above all for strong finishes that will allow your handmade garment to last,
Special jersey or stretch needles, adapted to knit fabric. There should be no compromises here, at the risk of seeing stitches skip and damaging your fabric,
Weights, to stabilize the fabric when cutting out the pattern. They prevent the knit from stretching, thus limiting defects in transferring the pattern,
Prym Love clips, practical for holding pieces in place while sewing without deforming the material.

View the Sweat & Knit notions selection

No serger? Don't panic: your sewing machine can also help you create beautiful knit projects!

Techniques for sewing knits

In the video, we show you the right steps to work with this material with confidence:

Use the zigzag stitch of your conventional sewing machine to maintain the elasticity of the seams. You must, however, lengthen it to facilitate feeding and preserve the properties of the knit fabric.
Decrease the presser foot pressure a little to avoid stretching or deforming the fabric.
What using a serger brings you to join pieces and achieve higher quality and more durable adapted finishes
Sew hems with a twin needle to preserve the properties and the beautiful drape of the knit.
An exhaustive list of sewing notions to have on hand for sewing knits.

The goal: to learn to sew knits without deforming them, for comfortable and well-finished garments.

Which patterns to sew with Maison Fauve ribbed knit?

This new material was designed to accompany your close-fitting garment projects. Knit patterns require specific development, with specific ease, adapted to this type of fabric. Our patterns for stretchy knit fabric therefore follow these rules; they are adapted to knit fabric and have been developed and tested for this purpose, including with our ribbed knit. We particularly recommend:

The Ludmilla dress

A feminine and fitted dress, perfect for highlighting the beautiful relief of the ribbed knit. The pattern offers several great versions:

a long dress, slit on the side, with a long tie belt,
a long-sleeved top, ultra-comfortable and easy to wear every day,
a dancer-style round neck version, feminine and ultra-quick to sew,
a faux wrap version, original and easy to live with (the wrap is fixed).

You can wear the front and back either way "front/back".
The pattern has been developed for knit fabrics that have a lot of stretch; we recommend that you respect the choice of size by relying on the measurement charts provided with the pattern.

View the Ludmilla pattern

The Pirate striped top

A wardrobe staple, ideal for discovering knit sewing and making an easy-to-wear piece for everyday life. The pattern has a straight cut; the result in ribbed knit will be very comfortable and a bit loose. If you want a more fitted piece, you can choose a size down. We also recommend that you avoid sewing large buttons on the shoulder like the classic striped top version, because the ribbed knit is a lighter and more fluid fabric.