Jersey Dress – Simplicity 5556

After making my first ever T-shirt I was eager to try my hand at making more knit sewing patterns.  

Simplicity 5556

As it turns out I recently got vintage Simplicity 5556 pattern, which just so happened to be both a knit and jiffy pattern.

The pattern featured a top-stitched dress or tunic with back zipper has low round neckline, short raglan sleeves and fabric tie belt. There was also an option for elastic waistline casing pants.

I decided to make the dress since I thought it would be fun to have a jersey dress.

Since the pattern is from 1973 so it also works as one of my #VintagePledge patterns for the year.

The Fabric

I did a once over in my fabric stash and I decided to use a polyester knit (I think) fabric that had a sort of pastel patchwork print on it. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite print, but it had a sort of spring time color to it.

Plus, if the dress didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be heartbroken that I used up all this fabric.

Alterations

The pattern itself was almost my size. While it had the right bust size, it wasn’t going to fit in the waist.

Since this was a knit dress and I knew there would be some ease in the dress. So,  I just decided to add a quick ⅝ “ to all the seams. This was a quick approximation, but it seem to do the trick.

This dress also included raglan sleeves, which is the first time I’ve made a garment with raglan sleeves. As with the side seams I added ⅝” to the sleeves as well. This worked great, the sleeves fit nicely.

The dress could be a tad looser, but it’s pretty comfy to wear. I especially like the look of it with the matching fabric belt.

When it came to making the belt, I didn’t have quite enough fabric as the pattern piece for the belt, but I just used all of the remaining fabric I had left. While it’s not as long as the pattern it works just fine.

Following the pattern instructions I pinked all my seams and used my twin-needle for top-stitching around the collar, sleeves and bottom hem.

Thoughts

I love it! It’s super comfy and the print is growing on me. I like that it’s a casual dress for running errands or just hanging around the house.

I wish there was more flare to the skirt and maybe that it had a more vintage style to it. Okay, I know the pattern is vintage by date, but I feel it could easily pass as a modern piece. Besides I’m used to making more 50’s and 40’s dresses.

Overall though I really like it and might just make it again, since it only took a day to make.

Pin It