3 Sleeves to the Wind: Roscoe in Jersey Knit

Last May, I made a note that I was looking for light, short sleeved or sleeveless dresses in knit fabric to wear all summer. Couldn't find any in my closet. Fixing that omission:

The fabric is 100% cotton heathered dark cerulean/multi blue Jersey Knit, 52" wide, $6/yard. They were to send 3 yards, but Fabric Mart sent more by mistake. The fabric was probably knit in a tube. When it arrived, it was full of sizing and pressed into the usual fabric dimensions. After washing, it became a shapeless mess, floppy with no apparent grainlines. It did not look promising enough for a dress. After an attempt to make a t-shirt from Simplicity 9272 proved that the fabric stretches out very easily but has no recovery at all, it went back in my stash, along with the failed t-shirt.

The crummy looking t-shirt proved useful. It served as practice material for my serger and later for my coverstitch machine. (That's a recent acquisition that will be discussed as soon as my experience develops sufficiently.) The more useful the crummy t-shirt proved to be, the more convincing it was that the material was good stuff. The fabric must be on grain on the right side. The grain on the wrong side appears to bias across the fabric, but the knit stitches on the right side, tiny though they may be, are fairly vertical to the cut edge that has been treated to form a fake selvage.

With the grain line crisis resolved, pattern choice was on the table. After some consideration, it made sense to use the Roscoe pattern, even though it is not meant for knits. It is comfy and forgiving and has raglan sleeves that are simple to construct. The knit fabric justified cutting a size 8 (my first Roscoe was a 10). (Sizing down for knits is standard when adapting a pattern written for woven fabrics.)

The pattern was cut to view A, which is used for both the short dress with a ruffle and for the blouse. That meant removing the additional 2" I had added to the body pieces. The resulting extra fabric allowed and me to add 3" to the sleeve.

Using a ball point size 12 needle and the lightning stretch stitch, I sewed the facing on the neckline slit and assembled the blouse (sleeves, front and back). I have decided to serge the seam allowances once I am reunited with my serger. Or not. They seam fine, ha ha

Next I gathered the neck and sleeves and sewed the binding on them with a narrow zigzag stitch, trimmed the seam allowance and hand stitched bindings on the inside. Since I never have had luck with catching the binding on the wrong side consistently when stitching in the ditch, I prefer to hand stitch the bindings down on the wrong side. Using the coverstitch machine to sew them down would be an option once my coverstitching skills improve. Finally, I cut the ruffle pieces and coverstitched the hem before attaching it to the blouse, making it a dress.

The top is 54" wide at the hips. This pattern is huge. How small a size should I cut? Even the size 0 is 44" wide. A flowy, boho look works with a light cotton and with this soft jersey. Other fabrics might need to be a size or two smaller.