So I Was Thinking......

....and after conferring with Kay I came up with a way to steek cotton. Now, more than likely someone else already came up with this scathingly brilliant idea. I don't knit with non wool fibers often and purling is not my favorite thing to do along with sewing pieces together. So step by step, inch by inch, here's how it went last night.
I marked the center of the steek with contrasting thread. (okay, that's normal) Below shows the neckline and front steeks. (For clarification this is a top down seamless set-in sleeve construction.)
I flipped to the wrong side and applied fusible webbing. I would recommend using the roll version because you can get various widths with perfectly straight edges. Did I have any wide enough last night? No. I cut my own from sheet fusing. A light touch of the iron was all it took. I toyed with the idea of using my 1 1/2" barrel curling iron. Maybe next time.
I sewed down each side of the steek with a ridiculously small zigzag stitch. I don't want these stitches going ANYWHERE!
Don't you hate it when the kids borrow the car and leave the gas tank empty! Arrrgh! Since I haven't used the sewing machine in 10 years (no exaggeration) it took me longer to figure out how to load a filled bobbin than to complete the project.

A view of the underside after sewing (albeit blurry)
Snip, snip
SWEET! (the white stuff is leftover from the center marking thread. I've picked it all out. I was too excited to do so before it's photo shoot.


I haven't picked up the stitches around the neck or button band yet. Don't forsee any problems either. The edge is stable--no stretch which to me right now seems like a plus with the way cotton stretches out of shape. So the only problem was reloading the bobbin! I hope to finish this one up this weekend and offer a FO pic soon.