I am on a bit of a knit kick. Well, not really just a knit kick, a Sea Island knit kick. I can’t sing enough praises for this fabric y’all. It is the perfect fabric for newborns. Heck; it almost feels like a newborn.
Part of the reason I got into sewing with such a vengeance involved the absolutely absurd prices of baby clothes made out of good quality fabrics. Brands like Kissy Kissy and Magnolia Baby make the sweetest, softest clothes at a not-so-sweet price point. I have found that I am able to make similar clothes with the same fabrics for about half the price…with the added value of pouring my love into each garment.
While scrolling around on pinterest (check out my page here: https://www.pinterest.com/dressthemdearly/) I ran across some of the most darling, smocked little boys’ outfits in knit. I assumed unicorn machines somewhere must have made that magic happen and moved on. A few days later I showed these images to my sewing mentor and asked her if a real, live human could do that too. She said she couldn’t see why not, gave me encouragement, and sent me on my way.
During a visit to the Children’s Corner Store in Nashville I was inspired to buy a Jamie pattern to make sweet church outfits for my future son. I also purchased Sea Island Knit, thinking I would be making lots of Bunny’s Knit Nighties. 
On my drive home it dawned on me that I could try to create a smocked, knit Jamie with my new-found confidence. I made a few adjustments to the pattern to accommodate the knit fabric and my tastes and had great success! If you’d like to replicate what I’ve done here are the modifications I made.
Modifications and Adjustments to Jamie Pattern
- It is EXTREMELY important to figure out which way the knit stretches and line up the pattern pieces so that the garment will stretch from top to bottom. Just line up the stretch with the arrows on the pattern pieces. The fabric will not pleat correctly if you do not do this.
- When cutting out the garment, line up the bottom front and back bubble pieces on the fold as seen in the picture below. Place the pattern piece slightly off of the folded fabric in order to reduce some of the bulk of the bubble. This is due mainly to the fact that knit is thicker than the woven fabric typically used to make this pattern.
I lined up the front and back bubble pieces along the pleat line, not the center line. This removes some of the volume from the bubble -
Because fullness has been removed from the bubble piece, you will not be able to add three box pleats as seen in the pattern. Instead, add one pleat in the center of the modified front and back bubble pieces that are each one inch wide. This also helps reduce bulk when finishing the crotch. I found that three pleats became incredibly cumbersome.
- When pleating the knit I find it helpful to draw a line on the fabric to follow as you pleat. You can see a faint blue line on my fabric in the image below. I align my mark with one of the grooves of the pleater and follow it instead of the edge of the fabric. I find knit difficult to cut straight.
A faint blue line can be seen on the right side of the fabric. I used a fabric marker to create a straight line along my fabric. I “placed” this line in a groove of my pleater to help keep my fabric straight.
- Prior to smocking, steam the pleats of the fabric and pull them straight. They will almost never come out of the pleater straight; you will need to work with them. Pleating half spaces can be helpful in holding the pleats straight as well.
- Back smock every row. Knit is floppy. Those pleats will need some help standing up.
- Complete garment as written in the pattern. It can be helpful to baste “openings” prior to sewing the collar and sleeves on. Basting the neck and arm holes before setting the collar and sleeve helps to maintain control of the fabric when completing these steps.
- When setting in the sleeves I used a method that can be found on @SarahClassicSewing’s sewing blog here https://goo.gl/3wbvYx. I highly recommend this method, it has become my go-to when setting in boy’s sleeves.
