Twin or Double needle on stretch fabric - skipped stitches

[sewingrandma]

Marty, I just finished watching a video on It's Sew Easy and Angela Wolfe did a part on stitching neck bands to necklines on stretch shirts. She recommended the microtex needle also especially if the fabric was extremely stretchy. She did say she would normally stitch on her serger but for demonstration she used a sewing machine and used a zig zag with the width being 0.5 and length at 2.0-2.5 depending on stretch. This is the stitch that Nancy Zeiman has been using and calling it a wobble stitch. I started using these settings for all the knits I sew (if I don't use the serger that is) when NZ's shows on knits was on and have great results with it, stretches more, seams lay flatter and quicker to stitch.

[kaitlinnegan]

Do you get skipped stitches on this fabric with a regular stretch (single) needle? I found with my old machine that some fabrics just wouldn't sew nicely. It can also be more challenging to guide the fabric through without pushing or pulling, particularly with very thin stretch knits.

Also, depending on your machine it's possible you might need a different kind of twin needle. Does your twin needle work on any fabric?

I don't recall having a lot of problems with skipped stitches with twin needles, but I did have a lot of tunneling. Washable stabilizer helped, but in the end I decided to get a coverstitch machine because I love sewing stretch knits so much.

You could also try using a strip of fusible interfacing on hems, which won't work if you need the hem to stretch a lot but might help with the skipped stitches.

Good luck and I hope you'll post some pictures of your finished project!