This Lekala design is marked as "Fabrics: Knit. Is stretchy: yes":
Design 5081 is a long-sleeved blouse with bust darts, plackets and a button band. I have never seen a knit/jersey/stretch fabric pattern with all these features. Patterns for knit fabrics usually take advantage of the fabric being stretchy whereas patterns for woven fabric cannot: woven styles need openings along the front as well as in the sleeves, they need shaping in the bust area - knit patterns also don't feature completely flat pieces (the front and back of this blouse) but often include some kind of draping which woven fabric does not do well.
I must say that when I first saw this pattern I just assumed it was for woven fabrics. Assuming is always a big mistake, in dressmaking as much as in other contexts! I cut out a polycotton fabric and started sewing. It was by chance that I looked at the pattern again and finally saw the 'knit' reference. Oops. But really?
The website lists this pattern 5081 when you filter on 'woven' - so that seems to point to the knit description being wrong.
For these reasons I think that this pattern was marked incorrectly but I can't be sure. What do you think?
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I would perhaps not have noticed the 'knit' claim if it hadn't been for the sleeves:
When I sewed the sleeveheads in I just couldn't make them lie flat - the curved seam around the top of the shoulder is all puckered and distorted even though I applied the normal technique: two rows of gathering and distributing the fullness of the sleeve material very carefully by pinning every centimeter. No joy.
I also found an issue with the shoulder width that is down to me. I used some of the Advanced features that allow you to customise your pattern beyond the standard measurements of height, bust, waist, hips etc - unfortunately I didn't realise that my shoulders are a bit narrower compared to their measure.
You can just about see how the shoulders dip down at the seam to the sleeves in these two photos:
So I will rip the sleeves back out and cut the shoulders a bit narrower. Only by 5-12mm or so. That should take care of the sleeveheads being slightly too big and make sewing them back in a lot easier.
At least I hope so. Fingers crossed.
I am also wondering if I marked the correct centre front because these pieces barely overlap - or do I need to do a FBA? That would be weird seeing as this is a personalised pattern.
The advantage to turning the sleeves into flat pieces again is that I can correct something I forgot to do: I didn't sew the plackets on when I should have (what a mental lapse) - it'll be good to do that first! Silver lining...
