Small Jersey

This thread is quite dead, but I did say I'd discuss shortening a
jersey with a tuck, and the post below was already written (though I
no longer remember where I was going with it):

On Mon, 12 May 2014 07:14:46 +0700, John B.
wrote:

My wife, who sews, tells me that "the stretchy things are hard to
sew", and refuses to even attempt them :-)

The biggest problem with stretchy fabrics is that no two stretchy
fabrics are the *same* stretchy. Sometimes a different bolt of the
same fabric that you perfected your fitting on will give a different
result.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Tucking a Jersey:

Well, this ties right in: once upon a time I made a jersey of cotton
interlock that stretched more than the fabric I'd used that pattern
with before. I never wore my jerseys skin tight, so that wasn't too
bad -- except that when I got off the bike and walked, my wallet
bumped my butt.

Well, when I ride, I'm going someplace, and I rarely change clothes
before going into a store. And, at that time, there was often a pound
of coins in my wallet. Butt-bumping was not acceptable.

So exactly halfway between the top of the pockets and the bust dart, I
basted in a 3/4" tuck, which made the jersey an inch and a half
shorter. After wearing the shirt a few times to make sure I was happy
with the new length, I zig-zagged just below the stitching and took
out the basting. The tuck looks fairly decent, but I dislike the
jersey for other reasons, so it's still around to get its tuck
measured.

One reason I dislike it is that it was made before I realized that I
don't have to put a vent in just because commercial jerseys have them
-- I never open the front of a jersey for ventilation! (Peel them
off, yes, unbutton them, no.) A woven jersey needs a vent so I can
put it on, but a knit jersey can be made exactly like a T-shirt, with
more pockets and the front pockets higher.

When I make a woven jersey, I put a casing around the waist, with the
bar tacks for the pockets worked through the bottom seam of the
casing. (The top of the casing is a fold, like a fold-bottom pocket,
which looks nicer and wears better than a visible seam.) The
drawstring keeps heavy stuff from strangling me with my neckband, and
if my pockets are too high to reach easily, I can just loosen the
drawstring.

It's three casings, actually. A gap at center front leave room for
the knot, and a gap at each side seam makes the jersey easier to
assemble and makes the drawstring easier to insert.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

Joy Beeson writes:

This thread is quite dead, but I did say I'd discuss shortening a
jersey with a tuck, and the post below was already written (though I
no longer remember where I was going with it):

On Mon, 12 May 2014 07:14:46 +0700, John B.
wrote:

My wife, who sews, tells me that "the stretchy things are hard to
sew", and refuses to even attempt them :-)

The biggest problem with stretchy fabrics is that no two stretchy
fabrics are the *same* stretchy. Sometimes a different bolt of the
same fabric that you perfected your fitting on will give a different
result.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Tucking a Jersey:

Well, this ties right in: once upon a time I made a jersey of cotton
interlock that stretched more than the fabric I'd used that pattern
with before. I never wore my jerseys skin tight, so that wasn't too
bad -- except that when I got off the bike and walked, my wallet
bumped my butt.

Well, when I ride, I'm going someplace, and I rarely change clothes
before going into a store. And, at that time, there was often a pound
of coins in my wallet. Butt-bumping was not acceptable.

So exactly halfway between the top of the pockets and the bust dart, I
basted in a 3/4" tuck, which made the jersey an inch and a half
shorter. After wearing the shirt a few times to make sure I was happy
with the new length, I zig-zagged just below the stitching and took
out the basting. The tuck looks fairly decent, but I dislike the
jersey for other reasons, so it's still around to get its tuck
measured.

One reason I dislike it is that it was made before I realized that I
don't have to put a vent in just because commercial jerseys have them
-- I never open the front of a jersey for ventilation! (Peel them
off, yes, unbutton them, no.) A woven jersey needs a vent so I can
put it on, but a knit jersey can be made exactly like a T-shirt, with
more pockets and the front pockets higher.

When I make a woven jersey, I put a casing around the waist, with the
bar tacks for the pockets worked through the bottom seam of the
casing. (The top of the casing is a fold, like a fold-bottom pocket,
which looks nicer and wears better than a visible seam.) The
drawstring keeps heavy stuff from strangling me with my neckband, and
if my pockets are too high to reach easily, I can just loosen the
drawstring.

It's three casings, actually. A gap at center front leave room for
the knot, and a gap at each side seam makes the jersey easier to
assemble and makes the drawstring easier to insert.

Fascinating, thanks. Interesting design considerations. Not being
familar with sewing I hadn't considered it a design process, but like
anything that requires custom work, it's part of the fun. Do you
normally work up a complete plan, then alter as needed, or is it more
work from an outline/sketch/mental-image?

--
Joe Riel

On Sat, 24 May 2014 22:44:19 -0700, Joe Riel wrote:

Fascinating, thanks. Interesting design considerations. Not being
familar with sewing I hadn't considered it a design process, but like
anything that requires custom work, it's part of the fun. Do you
normally work up a complete plan, then alter as needed, or is it more
work from an outline/sketch/mental-image?

Now I feel like the centipede who was asked how he managed his feet.

I modify a pattern that already fits. If I recall the genealogy of my
jersey pattern correctly, it started as a dress pattern I bought from
Friends (a very small pattern company), then became a blouse pattern,
then I took out some of the ease and made a T-shirt pattern, then I
slashed the pattern at the bust darts to make a yoke (which gave me a
place to make the vent) and added five pockets. Much fiddling with
the vent because I didn't want a zipper next to my skin; on one jersey
I attached a zipper to the outside with embroidery; I wore out that
one as a dirty-work shirt. Also experimented with making mesh pockets
to avoid double layers of cotton; never found suitable mesh, but the
mesh that was too coarse and let my keys escape was great for working
in the garden, because I frequently put such things as onion bulbs
with dirt on them into my pockets.

Early on, there was fiddling with the fit after each T-shirt was made.
Not so much fit fiddling with jerseys designed from the T-shirt
pattern. I also fiddled with the patch pockets. I've now settled on
two separate front pockets with a pencil pocket on the right side of
the left one, and determined how high on the shoulders I can set them
and still get my hand in. (A male would have the pockets somewhat
lower.) One old jersey has a single, centered front pocket divided
into two by a pencil pocket. Somewhere along the way I began making
the patch pockets with folds, rather than topstitching, at the bottom.
I'd always made the back pockets with fold bottoms because my first
jersey, which I bought at a GEAR somewhere south of Albany, New York,
long before GEAR '89 Saratoga, was made that way. Never saw another
except those I make myself even though a fold at the bottom looks,
works, and wears much better.

When I realized that I didn't need a vent, I went back to the T-shirt
pattern, then stopped making knit-fabric jerseys because linen is
cooler and I haven't worn out my winter jersey. I would like to make
a separating-zipper jersey to wear over my current wool jersey, but
washable wool fabric is extinct. Factories can get it, but not retail
customers. And I can't go out unless the roads are clear and dry
these days, so I don't need winter clothes much.

To make the linen jersey
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/...g/LINJERSY.HTM
I started with the pattern I used to make the raw-silk shirt I wear as
a shirt all winter and as a jacket all summer. (This was also
descended from the dress pattern.)

I designed the yoke by continuing the upper leg of the bust dart until
it intersected a horizontal line an arbitrary distance below my bust.
(I didn't want a conspicuous flat-felled seam running across the
middle of my excess endowment.) This carved a dip into the middle of
the lower front; the seam was horizontal in the middle, rose to meet
the dart point, then followed the other leg of the dart down. This
undulating line was much easier to sew to the yoke than I expected.
For the first linen jersey, all pockets were removed, moved, and
re-sewn.

I cut two complete yokes -- well, four yokes, because there is a yoke
in the back to eliminate the shoulder darts. I believe that is in the
original shirt pattern (checks: the shirt has a narrower back yoke,
with a box pleat in the middle. You probably have a dress shirt with
that design.) The front yokes were folded in half, meeting
fold-to-fold in center front, and hook-and-eye tape was sewn to the
slit. The tape is cotton, so I don't mind having it on my skin. I
bought only a quarter yard of tape; the rest of the slit was
slip-stitched closed, and a piece of twill tape sewn across the bottom
of the hook-and-eye tape keeps stress from tearing the slip stitches.
Also, I never unhook the bottom hook, which is only a quarter inch
from the bottom of the vent. (This hook serves the same purpose as
the buttonholed bar at the bottom of slits in nineteenth-century
underwear. Or maybe it was early twentieth; I've forgotten which book
and the Vintage Sewing Library now exists only on the Wayback
Machine.)

--------

My first pair of bike knickers was made by shortening my jeans pattern
and simplifying it by removing all pockets except the patch pockets in
back, and by replacing the waistband with elastic in a casing. It is
necessary to make the waist a wee fraction wider to get it over my
hips with no opening. I usually skimp on the seam allowances of the
side seams while making up in addition to the extra allowed in
cutting. (Narrow flat fells are more ladylike.)

I made a pair of muslin drawers from the pattern, wore them, added
four inches to the legs of the pattern, and cut the linen.

The knickers soon wore out in the saddle area. I replaced the worn
linen with an underlined patch, then modified the pattern to have an
underlined gusset based on the pattern for the patch. The next pair
wore out first a little to the right of the gusset -- I'm a
left-foot-down rider, and tend to lean to the left when coasting out
of the saddle. I patched that, and the third pair was patched during
construction. My current[1] pair wore out first on the fronts of the
thighs -- do I type while wearing cycling clothes *that* often? -- so
I think I've got the reinforcements pegged.

[1] that pair has been replaced, but I have not yet worn the
replacement.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

Joy Beeson writes:

On Sat, 24 May 2014 22:44:19 -0700, Joe Riel wrote:

Fascinating, thanks. Interesting design considerations. Not being
familar with sewing I hadn't considered it a design process, but like
anything that requires custom work, it's part of the fun. Do you
normally work up a complete plan, then alter as needed, or is it more
work from an outline/sketch/mental-image?

Now I feel like the centipede who was asked how he managed his feet.

I modify a pattern that already fits. If I recall the genealogy of my
jersey pattern correctly, it started as a dress pattern I bought from
Friends (a very small pattern company), then became a blouse pattern,
then I took out some of the ease and made a T-shirt pattern, then I
slashed the pattern at the bust darts to make a yoke (which gave me a
place to make the vent) and added five pockets. Much fiddling with
the vent because I didn't want a zipper next to my skin; on one jersey
I attached a zipper to the outside with embroidery; I wore out that
one as a dirty-work shirt. Also experimented with making mesh pockets
to avoid double layers of cotton; never found suitable mesh, but the
mesh that was too coarse and let my keys escape was great for working
in the garden, because I frequently put such things as onion bulbs
with dirt on them into my pockets.

Early on, there was fiddling with the fit after each T-shirt was made.
Not so much fit fiddling with jerseys designed from the T-shirt
pattern. I also fiddled with the patch pockets. I've now settled on
two separate front pockets with a pencil pocket on the right side of
the left one, and determined how high on the shoulders I can set them
and still get my hand in. (A male would have the pockets somewhat
lower.) One old jersey has a single, centered front pocket divided
into two by a pencil pocket. Somewhere along the way I began making
the patch pockets with folds, rather than topstitching, at the bottom.
I'd always made the back pockets with fold bottoms because my first
jersey, which I bought at a GEAR somewhere south of Albany, New York,
long before GEAR '89 Saratoga, was made that way. Never saw another
except those I make myself even though a fold at the bottom looks,
works, and wears much better.

When I realized that I didn't need a vent, I went back to the T-shirt
pattern, then stopped making knit-fabric jerseys because linen is
cooler and I haven't worn out my winter jersey. I would like to make
a separating-zipper jersey to wear over my current wool jersey, but
washable wool fabric is extinct. Factories can get it, but not retail
customers. And I can't go out unless the roads are clear and dry
these days, so I don't need winter clothes much.

To make the linen jersey
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/...g/LINJERSY.HTM
I started with the pattern I used to make the raw-silk shirt I wear as
a shirt all winter and as a jacket all summer. (This was also
descended from the dress pattern.)

I designed the yoke by continuing the upper leg of the bust dart until
it intersected a horizontal line an arbitrary distance below my bust.
(I didn't want a conspicuous flat-felled seam running across the
middle of my excess endowment.) This carved a dip into the middle of
the lower front; the seam was horizontal in the middle, rose to meet
the dart point, then followed the other leg of the dart down. This
undulating line was much easier to sew to the yoke than I expected.
For the first linen jersey, all pockets were removed, moved, and
re-sewn.

I cut two complete yokes -- well, four yokes, because there is a yoke
in the back to eliminate the shoulder darts. I believe that is in the
original shirt pattern (checks: the shirt has a narrower back yoke,
with a box pleat in the middle. You probably have a dress shirt with
that design.) The front yokes were folded in half, meeting
fold-to-fold in center front, and hook-and-eye tape was sewn to the
slit. The tape is cotton, so I don't mind having it on my skin. I
bought only a quarter yard of tape; the rest of the slit was
slip-stitched closed, and a piece of twill tape sewn across the bottom
of the hook-and-eye tape keeps stress from tearing the slip stitches.
Also, I never unhook the bottom hook, which is only a quarter inch
from the bottom of the vent. (This hook serves the same purpose as
the buttonholed bar at the bottom of slits in nineteenth-century
underwear. Or maybe it was early twentieth; I've forgotten which book
and the Vintage Sewing Library now exists only on the Wayback
Machine.)

--------

My first pair of bike knickers was made by shortening my jeans pattern
and simplifying it by removing all pockets except the patch pockets in
back, and by replacing the waistband with elastic in a casing. It is
necessary to make the waist a wee fraction wider to get it over my
hips with no opening. I usually skimp on the seam allowances of the
side seams while making up in addition to the extra allowed in
cutting. (Narrow flat fells are more ladylike.)

I made a pair of muslin drawers from the pattern, wore them, added
four inches to the legs of the pattern, and cut the linen.

The knickers soon wore out in the saddle area. I replaced the worn
linen with an underlined patch, then modified the pattern to have an
underlined gusset based on the pattern for the patch. The next pair
wore out first a little to the right of the gusset -- I'm a
left-foot-down rider, and tend to lean to the left when coasting out
of the saddle. I patched that, and the third pair was patched during
construction. My current[1] pair wore out first on the fronts of the
thighs -- do I type while wearing cycling clothes *that* often? -- so
I think I've got the reinforcements pegged.

[1] that pair has been replaced, but I have not yet worn the
replacement.

Thanks. An enjoyable read.

--
Joe Riel

Joy Beeson wrote:

:When I realized that I didn't need a vent, I went back to the T-shirt
attern, then stopped making knit-fabric jerseys because linen is
:cooler and I haven't worn out my winter jersey. I would like to make
:a separating-zipper jersey to wear over my current wool jersey, but
:washable wool fabric is extinct. Factories can get it, but not retail
:customers. And I can't go out unless the roads are clear and dry
:these days, so I don't need winter clothes much.

I bought some very nice merino wool knit from an ebay seller in NZ
about a year ago. I should probably make something with it... (It
survived washing when I got it just fine.) It was expensive,
something like $20 a meter; with shipping, I think the 2 meters I got
cost just oer $50. I'm pretty sure it's available at retail in the US
for a bit more than that.


--
sig 59