Woven pattern with knit material

Can you get a pattern for knits of that amount of stretch, and still get the look you want? That would be your best way to proceed.

Tried that.....cannot even come close in a knit pattern.........guess I will just interface the facings, and hope for the best...........

All my knit patterns were derived from woven patterns. Not one of them worked the first time.

And I have to re-fit my knit patterns when I use a knit of a different stretch.

(Not *all* my knit patterns -- my briefs pattern was derived from a Lucille Rivers lingerie pattern. But I have a woven-brief pattern derived from that pattern -- the third beta fits fairly well. Then I didn't make any more, since all I wanted was to prove that I could do it.)

Joy Beeson

Any tips on what you do? Would love to hear them.......

Pat, can you tell us what sort of pattern you're trying for, and what kind of knit and stretch you've got?

Very stable knits, like interlocks, can often be substituted directly into a pattern for wovens, though you may find yourself playing with ease amounts when you do your first fitting. A pattern designed for a very stretchy knit, like a swimming suit, will be smaller than the body it's intended to cover ("negative ease") -- that's probably not the sort of knit you can successfully use a woven pattern for, at least not without some redesign.

Just offhand, I'd probably not do facings on a knit garment... I usually use a binding unless I do a facing as a decorative element.

Kay

I have a tunic pattern, drop shoulder, set in sleeve(just past the elbow), fingertip length..... and a very simple elastic waist pair of matching pants. The knit is about 40% crosswise stretch, maybe 5% lengthwise. These are educated guesses you understand. The knit is fairly light weight and drapey looking.

The outfit is for my sister. I am cutting it on the size 20, so I do not want anything even approaching negative ease for her as she has jolly jelly rolls like I do. I made her a pair of pants off this pattern from a woven stretch fabric that was a lot more stable and she loves them and they fit.

I fumble around a lot -- fitting is my weakest point, but if I keep trying, I'll get a pattern that fits, then I can keep using it until my doctor gets fussy about my cholesterol and sends me to a nutritionist.

I buy lots and lots of fabric that's cheap enough that I don't mind wasting it, and nice enough that I don't mind wearing it.

Sometimes it works backward -- the first time I bought spun silk, I tried the pattern out on cotton print left over from a project that didn't work out. It turned out so well that I save the cotton shirt for when I want to look nice, and wear the spun-silk shirt to keep warm. Or I'll throw it on over my house clothes to dash out for bread and milk, which is what I wanted a open-down-the-front shirt for in the first place, after all.

I guess the moral is that good cotton beats cheap silk.

If I recall correctly, I took out horizontal ease when designing my T-shirt patterns, and left the vertical measurements alone. Certainly I added only in the horizontal direction when converting the briefs pattern to woven fabric, and when I adjusted my jersey T-shirt pattern to make up in a stretchy interlock I suspect of really being one-on-one ribbing, I did it by removing vertical strips of the pattern. (One strip through each shoulder, and one through the neck.)

When I hang the pattern for the back of my ankle-length jersey slip on the same nail as the back pattern of my ankle-length woven daygown, it appears to be three inches shorter. But then a slip is *supposed* to be shorter than a gown. I don't think I'm quite interested enough to try the gown on over the slip. (Besides, it's supposed to be worn without a slip; that's the whole point of a daygown.)

I adjusted my jersey T-shirt pattern to make my boy-knit ribbing shirt by starching the fabric and ironing it before cutting it, so as to flatten the ribs into an approximation of jersey. This in effect took out lots and lots of narrow little vertical strips, without the need to true up the shoulder seams. (If you try this trick, the fabric must be laid out flat to dry *before* you dampen it with starch, to avoid stretching it in unintended ways.)

I always test the fit of my neckbands on my head, choosing the shortest length that I can get into. When I put sleeve bands on, I measure the actual fabric on my arms at the point where the bands are to go. According to the notes on my neckband template, "banana" wool jersey, "Villa Olive" cotton jersey, and lime-yellow interlock all required a neckband 17" long, while black interlock takes 14 1/2".

The wool-jersey jersey came out tighter than the cotton-jersey jersey, which is an annoyance -- I'd intended to wear it over a short-sleeved jersey, but it has to be the bottom layer.

Joy Beeson

Ok, here are some of the issues I'd think about in doing this: Light knits tend to drape closely, while heavier knits tend to skim.

Ease is always a bit tricky -- if you cut the same pattern in the same size with a very drapey fabric, a medium fabric and a not-so- drapey fabric, and the medium looks good, the one in the very drapey fabric will look like it was cut for a cheap retailer and the heavier fabric will look like circus tent. Especially because we're apparently heading back to a more body-conscious fit right now, I'd be wary of too much ease in the pattern with your knit. Does your sister have a garment made of similarly draping fabric that you can measure and see how much ease is in it, and then measure your pattern?

Because knits tend to weigh more per square yard than the average woven, elastic waist pants sometimes need a bit more oomph to keep them up. And stabilizing the crotch curve is often useful on knits, especially those that are not very resilient and tend to "sit out". You've got enough stretch on the crossgrain that you may wind up taking some ease out of the side seams.

Some knit pattern possibilities:

-- look at Paradise Tunic(my computer is hiccuping -- more in a second message)

Some possibilities should you

Another possibility:

(lightweight knits only)You're probably pretty safe with a knit that drapes much like one of the suggested wovens in your pattern if the pattern has about asmuch ease as a knit garment your sister likes the fit of. I'd probablynot sew the side seams without a pinfitting session. Kay