I love the challenge of sewing difficult fabrics, but I have to admit, this stretch vinyl almost stumped me. Before I started working on my bodysuit, I decided to test out stitches, needles, finishes, etc. on the fabric. It’s a good thing I did because every needle I tried caused skipped stitches – some were so bad (small size needles and Microtex were the worst) that they produced what looked like a straight stitch on the zigzag setting. To make a long story short, I got the best results with leather needles and increasing the pressure foot (from 47 to 60 on my Bernina). I still experienced a few skipped stitches occasionally, but it was far less than anything prior to my changes and generally only happened when going from sewing a length of straight stitching and transitioning into a curve.
The next issue I came across was sewing directly on the vinyl. My remedy? Tissue paper. I am here to tell you, this is a bad idea. While this worked great in keeping the pressure foot from sticking, I had a booger of a time removing it from the zigzag stitches. Unfortunately, I didn’t know this was going to be so problematic, so now the entire collar seam has bright blue paper still attached. No one will ever see it, but I know it’s there! This also means that I need to come with an alternate method of stitching in the zipper… which is where I have left off. It’s time to brainstorm this one!