Sewing machine fun and preparing to sew knits

Wednesday my sewing machine arrived!  I made sure to read the manual thoroughly before operating it, and am happy to say that it sews perfectly!

The first thing I did was fix a travel waist pouch that I had inadvertently screwed up (by cutting the strap too short).  When I bought the travel waist pouch, I assumed that it was meant to go around my waist, hence the name "travel waist pouch".  The strap seemed ridiculously long so I cut it short.  However, my husband soon pointed out that wearing it around my hips would be more advantageous, as the pouch would be better concealed and more comfortable.  Lo and behold, when I tried to affix it about my hips instead I discovered that I had cut the strap too short!  Luckily this was easily fixed by sewing the cut strap back on.

The exercise allowed me to make sure that I knew how to wind the bobbin, insert the bobbin, and thread the machine.  I also tested the regular straight stitch and the zigzag stitch in both forward and reverse.

I then proceeded to start on my first project, the tank top + shorts PJ set (knits).

I ironed the pattern pieces to get the creases out of them, using a clean cotton cheesecloth as a press cloth:

This is my little "press" station.

Then I pinned the pattern pieces to the fabric, taking care to do the corners of each pattern piece first.  I cut each piece out after I pinned all the pieces to the fabric.  I was SO glad that I purchased more than the yardage on the back of the pattern envelope, since the fabric definitely shrunk in the wash, and I had just about the right amount-- if I had purchased any less fabric I would have had to go to the store to buy more fabric.  (This experience proved to me the importance of following the advice in all the sewing books: you should prep the fabric before you cut it!  Otherwise you could invest a lot of time and energy into making a garment only to find that it shrinks to an unusable size after the first wash.)

A view of the pieces after pinning.  I saved the scraps for testing.

 After cutting the pieces out I transferred the markings on the pattern to the fabric using "tailor tacks".  Instead of cutting out the notches (used to match up edges later), I "marked" them by sewing a single stitch of contrasting color thread and leaving the tails out for easy removal later.  If you have more than one layer of fabric, take care not to sew them together by accident.

You can see a close-up of my "tailor tacks" here.  

Now my fabric is ready to go.  However, I'm a cautious person, so I am going to make sure I know exactly what stitch settings to use before I jump into sewing the actual garment.

Currently I am experimenting with the scraps of fabric left over from cutting the pieces out.

I changed the machine needle to a 90/14 HG-4BR (Organ) ball point needle (good for stretchy fabrics), keeping the presser foot as the standard zigzag presser foot.

So far I have found a good straight stitch to use with the super stretchy knit fabric-- stitch 02 on the Brother CS6000i, with the stitch length adjusted to 4, but I haven't had too much luck with overcasting, even with the overcasting stitch designated for stretch fabrics.  It just doesn't look clean.  More experimentation is in order...