Butterick 5242, View A

Boy, I had some sewing mojo going this week! Sewing with jersey has been as challenging as I thought it would be but I'm glad I went for it. The dress turned out very nicely, nice enough to wear out of the house even :o)

The fabric is a grey, very light weight jersey with a lot of stretch.

The pattern itself, Butterick 5242, was fairly simple and the directions were clear and easy to follow. The top is lined with stitched down pleats. I used the same fabric to line it.



Once the top was assembled enough for a fit, with lining, underbust facings, and lots of basting, I realized it was very low cut. Overlapping the center fronts a little more to cut down on boobage flash made it too tight across my back. I let the side seams out 1/4". This did help some - back fat is not so noticeable.



It also gaps a teeny bit so I tried clear elastic on the seam allowance for the first time ever. This is definitely something I need to research more/practice to get right. My first attempt failed miserably! Instead of giving the top a snug fit where the front overlaps it scrunched it and ended up wonky and unattractive.

The skirt also has pleats in center front - instead of sewing them down as the pattern directs, I left them loose for the extra room. Turns out I should have stitched them down - the fullness tends to make more of my tummy rather than less.

The sleeves needed to be sewn twice - the jersey slipped (stretched) enough to create a small pucker. It was distracting and had to go. Just a side note: ripping out a seam on 3 layers of light weight jersey is not fun.

I used a double needle for the first time on this project and I'm happy to report it was a success. The sleeves and the hem were finished with this method.



The serger was used for all seams after sewing them on my regular machine first - I'm not confident enough to serge jersey without it.

Lessons Learned:

I like sewing jersey!

I'm a 14 around my chest but a 12 across the shoulders and from the shoulder to breast point. I need to remember to adjust the pattern before I cut the fabric next time.

Next time I make an over lapping V-neck I'll be sure to check how low it goes - this one is waaay too low for school. Nothing a little cami underneath can't fix tho and it's an opportunity to add a little color as well as modesty :o)

Because of all the layers of fabric in the front (I treated the facings and one layer of interfacing as one layer to avoid hand sewing - lazy and a mistake) using the serger on this seam made it very stiff and wavy. Thank goodness I had a straight seam and some room after serging. I made another row of stitching about 1/8" away from the first seam then cut the serger stitches. fixed most of the wave problem and feels better next to my skin.

All in all this was a success, I learned a ton from this project and I can actually wear the darn thing!