On the 23rd I had all my presents made and decided to make the muslin for that other tunic pattern. Although it was a raglan sleeve, not set-in sleeve like the first one, I thought about the modifications I had to make for that first pattern and applied them to this sleeve. The muslin fit fine, and the pattern was a Butterick Very Easy (B6135), so I decided to go ahead and make it.
I mentioned in my last post that I’d purchased the fabric for this pattern when I bought the pattern. What I didn’t mention was that the color of the fabric didn’t thrill me. So I decided to immersion dye it. I used a 5-gallon bucket to dye it blue, then rinsed, washed, and dried it. The dyeing was blotchy. Sigh.
So I decided to overdye it in purple. I made certain to stir it plenty, and even transferred the fabric to another vat and back a few times, making sure to keep the fabric from bunching each time. Again, rinsed, washed, and dried it. Again it was blotchy. Again I sighed.
As a result I wasn’t sure how the fabric would look made up into the pattern. The blotchiness could be fine or awful.
It took just a few hours to cut and sew the pattern. My overall response? The dye job was okay – not great, but okay. I really like the cut and fit of the pattern. And when I was wearing it the next day when my daughter stopped by, without a word from me she asked me if I’d made the top, and said that both the pattern and the dye job were very flattering. Since she almost never comments on my clothes, this was significant.
But I don’t know if I’ll use it again.
Why? The pattern says everywhere that it is designed for moderate stretch fabrics only. And I’m not a big fan of stretch fabrics, especially if I can’t find them without a significant portion of polyester, which is all I could find at Joann’s. Also, while my simple machine will sew on stretch fabrics, I don’t like what it does to the machine hemmed edges, and there are LOTS of them on this pattern…way more than I’d want to hem by hand. I don’t know if patterns designed for stretches can be made from fabrics without stretch. I try to do some research on that question.
Peg,
I hate dealing with jersey /stretch fabrics period. Having said that, look for a good quality ponte. It has stretch but also body although won’t work for things requiring
more than say 20% stretch or 4 way stretch/ As to using woven from a jersey pattern, usually no, they work on negative ease, where wovens do not.
For hemming you might try a double needle option if you have it. The only benefit I can see is that you usually don’t need to finish the garment for unraveling.
There are many places that sell GOTS certified organic jersey and fleece (think sweatshirts) but it is costly. Myself, I just buy sweaters and such or make woven cardi type little shrugs and jackets. It keeps me from pulling my hair out over stretchy stuff!
Thanks for the info, Theresa. I will follow your suggestion for ponte, as I really do like this pattern a lot. I don’t have the double needle option on my machine. I do have a stretch stitch option, which I admittedly didn’t use for this tunic…honestly I’ve never used it and don’t know what it does or doesn’t do.
I saw this Etsy shop has organic jersey for a very reasonable price – have you ever purchased anything from them? https://www.etsy.com/listing/226452158/organic-cotton-jersey-knit-fabric-by-the?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=organic%20cotton%20%20green%20fabric%20by%20the%20yard&ref=sr_gallery_14