I'm so exciting to be rounding up this series of No Fear sponsored by Nature's Fabrics, 5 out of 4 and myself. ;)

Before we get to the last of the content, (sewing on neck and arm bands), I want to congratulate my 3 winners. The winners are #'s 42, 7 and 38, picked in that order by random.org from my linky party.

All winners have been e-mailed, but sometimes those go to spam, so be sure to double check and make sure you weren't the winner! Link up is all the way at the end of the post.
On to today's content.

The 5 out of 4 Versatility Pattern includes a super simple tank top pattern. The instructions include how to do a knit binding. I actually hate knit bindings and think they can be really hard! So instead, I use bands.


For reference of my frustration and annoyance at knit bindings, I have done the neck band with a knit binding. I top stitched it with only my sewing machine. I actually had to trash one version entirely because I poked a hole in the fabric when I was picking out the stitches that just looked wonky. My machine just doesn't like this method very much. It does help if you have a heavier weight binding as the looser and softer it is, the more likely it will shift and make you crazy. Now there isn't anything "wrong" with my binding. But it isn't as smooth as my bands. And also, bands take less steps and I'm all about quicker, faster and easier!

Knit bindings are REALLY easy if you have a cover stitch machine. You can see part of the garment that I chopped up with beautiful cover stitch stitching here. But most of my newbies won't have a cover stitch machine, so we won't cover that now.

You've actually already sewn on a band if you made your pants with a yoga waist. Did you realize neck bands and a yoga waist are the same thing? They are. And that was so easy, right?

So we're going to do the same thing with these arm bands. You are going to make your bands 2" by the length indicated in your pattern. Sew right sides together along the short side to make a circle. Fold in half WRONG sides together. Mark in quarters, pin in place. Sew on. The advantage to knit bands is you don't actually have to top stitch these. They will work exactly as is. When I sew them, I like to have the garment inside out and then sew looking down into the hole. I rarely use my free arm and this allows you to sew even the tiniest armholes in the round.

Easy peasy and you're done. But if you want to top stitch, they should work really nicely since you're sewing through 3 layers of fabric. Just be sure to check your top stitching stitch to be sure it isn't going to distort your fabric.

Congratulations, you should now have No Fear of knits. Go forth and sew all the things. :D