Butterick 5495 -- Cotton Jersey Knit top

I'm not reviewing my recent creations in order of being created, but this is the knit top that I mentioned in my last post. The fabric is a fun cotton jersey that I bought from Gorgeous Fabrics. (By the way, for those interested, that's where I got the green, black and white knit for my recently reviewed dress.)

Again, my experience with knits is limited, and this one is so lightweight and soft, it was like sewing on kleenex. However, that makes it sound like it was difficult, and it really wasn't. As for the pattern, I did do a little tinkering. Changes I made:

• I chose the short version, and still took 3" off the length as I wanted more of a top, less of a tunic.
• I traced the pieces (there are only 4), and started with a 12 at the shoulders, tapering out to the 14 as I worked my way past the bust to the waist area. The back piece is incredibly narrow, and completely utunic-like, in my opinion. Once past the bust area, I pretty much just took at the nipped in at the waist feature, straightening out the side seams. In the picture, you can see on my dress form it is still a bit tight, and that's how it fits on me.

• The V. Holding up the pattern tissue, it didn't seem that low cut. Um, well, when I tried it on, whoa! I ended up whipping together almost 3 inches, and still wore a black cami underneath.

 Before I started, I read the other reviews on Pattern Review, and several mentioned the facings, but I didn't really mind how they were designed. You can see that I serged the edge, and hand basted it to hold it in place during the construction stages. This cotton jersey made a lovely crease, so perhaps that helped.

I'm not sure if you can tell in the close up, but there is a little loop that draws together the front, forming the gathers. It is inserted through teeny holes, and I didn't have any need to do any extra stitching to close up the holes. It fit in quite snugly.

All in all, I love this fabric, and will probably wear this quite a bit, and the gathers are pretty flattering over my currently roundish tummy.