Pattern Review: Simplicity 4020

I (Major Moma) sewed up Simplicity 4020 with some tweedy looking sweater knit fabric. You may recognize it from two other shirts I have made fro my kids HERE and HERE.  I bought a lot of this fabric because it would work for all of us. I like to have coordinating outfits for my kids and I.  Yes, I am one of those moms.  But the funny thing is that though they are not big fans of matching each other, they like to match me.   

When I saw this fabric I knew right away I wanted to sew it up using one of my Grandmother's 1960s STRETCH & SEW patterns. It is a dolmen sleeve jacket with a rounded collar. However, the pattern was too wide for my fabric.  And only by just an inch and a half, so that was disappointing.  Thus, I looked through my patterns and found the Simplicity 4020. I bought this years ago and have never opened it. It also had dolmen sleeves but an off-set one piece collar and a band around the waist.

source

Close enough.

The pattern is super simple and has many different variations so you can get a couple different looks.  I used my serger to sew up all of the seams.  There are no darts and it is an easy shirt with really nice results.



I sewed up a size 12. I wear a 6 in RTW, but you know pattern sizes are so much different from RTW. I cut the sleeve at the length of an 8 because I am not very tall.  It fit perfect.

front

back

I made a contrasting collar with red double knit left over from this skirt. The collar was supposed to be interfaced. But the double knit has virtually no stretch and is quite heavy so I opted not to. Normally, I would not think that was wise, but I took a risk since I had sewn with this fabric before and knew it should be fine. And it was.

Finally a little tip.  Like I said, I serged all my seams.  In hind sight, I would not have serged the neckline/collar.  When I was under-stitching the seam, there was not much of the seam to stitch down.  And now, occasionally when I wear it, you can see the serged seem where the notch of the collar opens.  It is not a big deal, and I can adjust it back.  But it would have been better if I had the full seam allowance on the inside.

I am really glad I did finally sew up this pattern.  Do you have patterns that have sat around for years without being opened?  Or am I the only one?