the knitting the edge 139 becomes jointed to the edge 125 and the left hand part of the edge 130 as indicated schematically by the arrow w and the edge 140 becomes joined to the right hand part of the edge 131 and the edge 128 as indicated schematically by the arrow x the edges 139 and 140 are completed when knitting reaches the course 141 course 141 represents the transverse center line of the fabric piece 2 and knitting of the remainder of the piece 2 from the course 141 onwards is performed by a procedure which is substantially the reverse of the procedure outlined above for knitting up to the course 141 during this stage of the knitting a fabric area 142 similar to the area 137 is knitted between the fabric areas 105a and 107a and a tubular hem 115 similar to the hem 114 is knitted on the area 109a in the knitting of the final fabric area 110g and 111g the needles made inactive along bc and jl during knitting of the areas 110a and 111a are brought back into action progressively to join the edge 118 of the area 110a to the edge 143 of the area 110g as indicated schematically by the arrow y and to join the edge 122 of the area 111a to the edge 144 of the area 111g as indicated schematically by the arrow z during this procedure the fabric areas 110a and 110g become joined to form part of the front portion 5 see fig1 with the portions 112a.