Coverpro 2000CPX: Decorative Stitching on Athletic Wear

If you’ve ever looked closely at a rtw piece of Athletic Wear, one of the first things you notice is all the fancy stitching along the seamlines. These decorative stitches help define athletic wear.

High quality athletic knit fabrics are primarily composed of synthetic fibers such as spandex, nylon, and polyester, but some natural fabrics such as bamboo are also available. These types of fabrics have excellent stretch and recovery, but that often frightens people away from making their own athletic wear. Simply go slow and use your clips abundantly to help the fabrics stay where you need them to.

decorative stitching via coverstitch 2000cpx

Your Janome Coverpro 2000CPX is your one stop shop to finishing your garments professionally: it hems, understitches, topstitches, and provides a decorative reverse stitch.

Before you have finished serging your athletic wear, in my case, athletic shorts, be sure to leave the inner leg seam unfinished. You’ll need to be able to lay your item flat to comfortably run it through the Janome Coverpro2000cpx. If you do serge the inner seam, you’ll be trying to coverstitch seams through a small leg hole causing your fabric to bunch, but more likely, simply not fit through the machine.

Since the Janome Coverpro2000cpx can be used with two needles or three, make some samples out of both to determine which stitching you prefer. I always prefer the 3 needle stitch so my machine is set up using all 4 spools of thread.

Starting on a scrap piece of fabric to create chain prior to starting your garment.

When starting or finishing, use a scrap piece of fabric to run through the machine, with your garment lined up right behind it. This gives you the ability to check the stitch settings prior to applying it to your garment, as well as making it easier and eliminating the worry of threads unraveling at the beginning and end of your seam. It makes your work cleaner and smoother.

Since the decorative stitches are meant to showcase the seamwork of your garment, remember that the right side, or outside, of your piece needs to be face down; your needles will be piercing through your serged seam which can be used as your guide. I iron my serged seam to one side and line my middle needle up to stitch in the ditch while coverstitching. This provides me a guide to keep my stitch line straighter and brings balance to the coverstitch on the outside on both sides of the seams.

3 Needle Coverstitich. Middle needle lined up with Serged edge.

The other main point to consider prior to using your Janome Coverpro2000cpx is the order in which you’ll be sewing the seams. Depending on the construction of your garment, you may need to serge & coverstitch in succession to make a more professional end garment; such as serging then coverstitching your shoulder seam prior to serging and coverstitching your arms sleeves on.

decorative curved side seam

Once you’re completed coverstitching over each of the seam lines on your pattern, you will have a professionally finished garment that looks exactly like RTW. Using your Coverpro2000CPX is fast & easy and adds that something extra special. This variegated pink thread adds contrast and excitement to a solid coloured garment.

Leg seam line intersecting with coverstitched hem

Now go enjoy decorative stitching all your garments!