Tricot and oldish Kwik-Sews

I've finally had the chance to sew some of the Antron tricot I got from Bra-maker's Supply the other month. I got pink because it was the one color they've got that I don't already have in RTW slips (the others they have being white, ivory, and black — come to think of it, I don't think I have ivory, but I guess I figured it was so close to white, pink would be the more interesting choice). It isn't a color I typically wear, but eh.

So far I've made Kwik-Sew 2394 and 2467. Unfortunately, both of these are now out of print (and I figure it's a matter of time before that 2467 link dies). For what it's worth, occasionally I see Sewingpatterns.com selling these older patterns as downloads long after the printed versions are out of production. I've shortened both of them by 4", because the problem I currently have is that most of my RTW slips are too long for my knee-length skirts. Hey, I'm short.

The full slip has lace edging and ribbon shoulder straps from Dressew. I considered making the straps adjustable, but I think they may be a bit too thin (thickness, not width, if you know what I mean) to stay in place in the sliders I have.

 
The half-slip hem is done with my machine's "M" stitch, which sort of looks like its mock blindstitch; the technique is described in several Kwik-Sew patterns as well as their Beautiful Lingerie book.

I must admit my tricot-sewing skillset is far behind some of my other sewing abilities (such as they may be). Until fairly recently, I've avoided sewing many lightweight knits, for a few reasons:

• I feel like there are already too many lightweight knits in RTW. I can see why the industry would want to do this; they presumably save on costs and encourage the customer to buy more layers to wear.
• I don't especially like layering (takes more planning than I enjoy doing) and I try to avoid wearing very thin knits on their own.
• My sewing machine doesn't always sew thin knits well. There's no presser foot pressure adjustment, and I haven't got a straight-stitch throat plate (I don't know if one was ever manufactured for this model), so I tend to run into problems with the fabric being stretched as it's sewn, or being sucked down into the machine... and that's assuming I can find a needle that will consistently pierce the fabric rather than sort of bouncing off, or more precisely, getting through at the wrong time to form a stitch. Now that I've got a serger that does a better job, this is less of an issue, but in the past it's meant that I've avoided those fabrics and therefore I've had less experience with them.

That means I didn't enjoy sewing this fabric all that much, and I'm thinking I'll probably prefer to stick to Bemberg for my slips in the future, not least for the greater variety of colors. Also, I suspect only the black color comes very close to being opaque. Still, the Antron does work quite well as an anti-static layer, and there's a lot to be said for Bra-maker's standard colors: their tricot should match their other pink, white, ivory, or black fabrics and notions well.