Ask a room full of sewists which fabric frightens them and jersey wins every time. It slithers off the cutting table, curls along every raw edge, and ignores every rule you learned on quilting cotton. But one fact changes everything: jersey is not woven. It is knitted. Once that lands, every odd thing jersey does makes sense and every fix falls into place. So let us answer it properly. What is jersey fabric, and how do you sew it without losing your temper?
What Is Jersey Fabric
Jersey is a knitted cloth: one continuous yarn looped through itself, row after row. A woven cloth is something else entirely, two separate sets of yarn held taut and crossing at right angles. The Oregon State University Extension bulletin The Structure of Woven, Knit, and Other Fabrics describes knits as a series of interlocking loops or stitches rather than the perpendicular yarn sets used in weaving.
That difference explains the whole personality of the fabric. A loop can be pulled longer or squashed shorter and spring back. A right angle cannot. So jersey stretches, mostly across the width, and recovers. It drapes, resists creasing, and quietly forgives a waist that changes between Tuesday and Thursday.
Two words are worth knowing. The horizontal rows of loops are courses; the vertical columns are wales. On the right side those wales show as columns of tiny V shapes, and the back shows rows of little bumps. If you knit by hand, this is stocking stitch, made by machine.
Jersey Vs Interlock Vs Rib Vs Ponte
Shops use the word jersey loosely, so it helps to know what is on the bolt. All of these are knits, and all behave differently.
Single jersey is knitted on one set of needles, so it has a clear right and wrong side. It is the lightest and drapiest of the family, the fabric of almost every T-shirt you own, and the one that curls. When a pattern just says “jersey”, this is what it means.
Double jersey is knitted on two sets of needles, giving two layers of loops locked together: thicker, far more stable, less stretchy, and it does not curl.
Interlock is a double knit in which two rib structures interlock. It looks the same on both sides, it is stable, and the cut edge lies flat instead of rolling. If jersey has beaten you before, buy interlock next time.
Rib knit alternates columns of knit and purl loops, so it pulls itself in and has enormous crosswise stretch with strong recovery. Use it for neckbands, cuffs and waistbands rather than whole garments.
Ponte is a dense, firm double knit, usually rayon and polyester with a little spandex, and it behaves so much like a woven that it makes an excellent bridge fabric if you are nervous. See our full guide to what ponte fabric is. And minky is a knit too, with a plush pile on the front.
Where The Name Jersey Comes From
The fabric is named after the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, which built a long trade in hand knitted woollen garments. Britannica still records that on the island the knitting of the traditional woollen jerseys has declined. The garment was named first; the cloth borrowed the name. Guernsey did the same, which is why a guernsey is also a sweater.
A Brief History Of Jersey Fabric
For centuries knitted cloth was made by hand, and it was slow. That changed in 1589, when William Lee invented the first knitting frame at Calverton, near Nottingham, according to the Science Museum Group. He was refused a patent and died poor in France, yet his machine was used almost unchanged for nearly three hundred years. Jedediah Strutt added the ribbing attachment in the late 1750s, which is where your cuffs and neckbands come from.
Circular knitting machines came later and made jersey cheap by the mile, and that cheapness kept it out of fashion. Jersey was underwear, not what a lady wore in public.
Then Gabrielle Chanel got hold of it. The V&A notes that before she adopted it for womenswear in the 1910s, plain silk jersey had primarily been used in men’s sportswear and undergarments, and that by 1916 the press was calling the liking for jersey a veritable craze. She used it because it moved with the body and needed no corset, which is still why we use it. After the war the cotton jersey T-shirt left the underwear drawer for good, and elastane later gave jersey the recovery it had always lacked.
How Jersey Fabric Is Made
Most jersey is knitted on a circular machine. A cylinder carries hundreds of latch needles in a ring. Yarn is fed in, each needle grabs it, forms a loop and casts the previous loop off over the top. Because the needles sit in a circle, the fabric comes off as a continuous tube, later slit open or sold as tubing for cuffs. This is weft knitting.
Fibre Content And How Each One Behaves
The structure decides how the fabric moves. The fibre decides how it feels and how much it will disappoint you at the shoulder.
- Cotton jersey. Breathable, matte, easy to press. It stretches but recovers poorly, so necklines grow. Best for loose tees.
- Cotton with 3 to 5 percent spandex. The workhorse: cotton comfort plus real recovery. Buy this for a fitted T-shirt.
- Rayon or viscose jersey. Cool, fluid, wonderful drape, slipperiest of the lot. Our guide to sewing viscose and rayon applies directly.
- Modal and bamboo jersey. Silky and soft, with the same growth problem as rayon. Lovely for nightwear.
- Wool and merino jersey. Warm, springy, good natural recovery. Expensive, worth it for a winter dress.
- Polyester blends. Tough, colourfast, cheap, hold their shape, least breathable. Poly, rayon and spandex together is the classic ponte recipe.
Jersey Weight In GSM And What To Sew At Each Weight
Knits are sold by weight in grams per square metre. American shops sometimes quote ounces per square yard, and one ounce per square yard is roughly 34 gsm, so a 5 ounce jersey is about 170 gsm. Weight predicts how a jersey will sew better than fibre content does.
- Under 140 gsm. Fine and slinky, almost sheer in pale colours. Beautiful, and genuinely difficult. Not a first project.
- 140 to 180 gsm. Classic T-shirt weight. Tees, camisoles, light dresses.
- 180 to 220 gsm. Substantial and well behaved. Start here if jersey is new to you.
- 220 to 280 gsm. Heavy jersey and ponte. Structured dresses, unlined jackets, good leggings.
- Above 280 gsm. Sweatshirt fleece and french terry, knits too, just brushed on the back.
Stretch Percentage And How To Measure It
Most knit patterns specify a minimum stretch, and that number is not decoration. Measuring takes twenty seconds. Fold the fabric across the width, the direction with most give, and mark off 10 inches. Hold the left mark at 0 on a ruler, pull the right firmly but not violently, and read where it lands. Reaching 15 inches is 50 percent stretch. Reaching 12.5 inches is 25 percent.
Then do the part everyone skips. Let go and see whether it springs back to 10 inches. If it settles at 10.5, that fabric will bag at the seat and elbows however well you sew it. Longer walkthrough: the knit fabric stretch test.
How To Care For Jersey Fabric
- Prewash before you cut. Always, and twice for cotton jersey if the garment is fitted.
- Wash cool and gentle. Heat kills elastane. A hot wash and hot dryer take the spring out within a season.
- Never wring it, and dry flat. Twisting a knit distorts the loops, and rayon, modal and heavy jerseys stretch under their own wet weight on a line.
- Press, do not iron. Steam, warm iron, lift between placements. Dragging sideways stretches the fabric permanently.
- Fold, do not hang. A hanger pulls a knit garment longer week by week. This habit alone doubles the life of a jersey dress.
Best Sewing Projects Using Jersey Fabric
Jersey rewards simple shapes. No darts, no facings to understitch, often no zip at all, because the fabric does a closure’s work for you.
- Start here. The free Wear Everywhere knit dress, the pattern I hand anyone who says knits are beyond them.
- A T-shirt that fits. The scoop neck T-shirt, once you have the neckband method down.
- Leggings. Use a jersey with spandex and follow the custom fit leggings pattern with no side seams.
- Something with drape. The cowl neck knit dress, which shows off a soft rayon jersey beautifully.
- Easy trousers. Straight leg knit pants, with video.
Tips For Sewing With Jersey Fabric
Tip 1: Test The Stretch Before You Cut
A pattern asking for 50 percent stretch will not work in a stable interlock that gives you 20, and no amount of good sewing will rescue it. Match the fabric to the pattern, not the other way round. Then sew a doubled scrap with your chosen needle, stitch and tension before touching the garment. Two minutes there saves an hour of unpicking.
Tip 2: Use The Right Needle, And Know Which One
This is the commonest cause of skipped stitches and tiny holes. A universal needle has a tapered point that pierces yarn, and on a knit a pierced yarn is a cut loop, and a cut loop becomes a ladder.
A ballpoint or jersey needle has a rounded tip that pushes between the loops instead of through them. Use it on plain cotton jersey and interlock, 70/10 for fine fabric or 80/12 for medium. A stretch needle looks similar but has a different scarf and eye, designed to stop the hook missing the thread loop in very elastic fabric. Use it for anything with spandex, and switch the moment you see a skipped stitch. Keep both: ballpoint jersey needles and stretch needles cost little and solve most jersey problems.
Tip 3: Choose A Stitch That Can Stretch
A straight stitch has no give. Sew a jersey side seam with one, pull the garment over your head, and the thread snaps. Three good options:
- A narrow zigzag. Width 0.5 to 1.0, length 2.5 to 3. It looks almost straight, but the sideways travel gives the thread somewhere to go. My default.
- The lightning bolt stitch. Marked with a small lightning symbol on most machines. A genuine stretch straight stitch, stronger than a narrow zigzag on high stretch fabric.
- An overlock seam if you own a serger. It sews, trims and finishes in one pass, and the looper threads let the seam extend.
Tip 4: Make Peace With The Curling Edge
Single jersey curls because its structure is not symmetrical. The loop heads on the face and the loop legs on the back pull with unequal force, so a freed edge relieves that tension by rolling. It is not a fault and you cannot iron it out for good, so work around it.
- Cut in a single layer, flat on the table, with pattern weights. Never pick the fabric up to cut it.
- Use a rotary cutter and mat. Shears lift the fabric with every stroke, and lifted jersey curls.
- A light mist of spray starch holds an edge flat long enough to sew, and washes out.
- Use clips rather than pins, which distort a curling edge.
- Let the serger blade do the flattening: feed the curled edge in and let the knife trim a few millimetres off.
Tip 5: Stabilise The Seams That Must Not Stretch
Side seams need to stretch. Shoulder seams do not, because they carry the weight of the garment. Left alone, a jersey shoulder grows an inch over a summer and the neckline slides off. Sew knit stay tape or clear elastic into the shoulder seam and the problem disappears. Do the same at a wide neckline. A roll of fusible knit stay tape lasts years.
Tip 6: Put A Walking Foot On The Machine
An ordinary presser foot holds the top layer still while the feed dogs drag the bottom along, so the two layers reach the end of the seam at different lengths and it ripples. A walking foot feeds both together and the rippling stops. There are other good reasons to own one, and knits are the best of them. Lowering presser foot pressure helps too.
Tip 7: Hem With A Twin Needle
The neat parallel rows on a shop bought T-shirt hem come from a coverstitch machine, and a twin needle gets you close on an ordinary one. Two needles on top, one bobbin thread zigzagging between them underneath, which is what gives the hem its stretch. Buy a twin needle marked stretch, press the hem up, sew from the right side, and see our tutorial on how to use a twin needle for the threading. If the hem tunnels, loosen the top tension and try woolly nylon in the bobbin. A stretch twin needle is worth having.
Tip 8: Cut The Stretch Around The Body
Jersey stretches far more across the width than along the length, because loops in a course pull apart sideways more easily than a wale pulls lengthways. That greatest stretch must run around the body. Get it backwards and the garment is tight across the bust and baggy in the length. Check every piece before you cut. And because any knit longer than hip length drops under its own weight, hang the finished garment for a day before you mark the hem.
Related Reading
Jersey is not a difficult fabric. It is an unfamiliar one, and the two feel identical right up until they stop. It asks for a rounded needle, a stitch that can move, a flat cutting surface and a little tape at the shoulder. Give it those four things and it hands back the garments you actually reach for.
Jersey Sewing Patterns Roundup
And here are our own free jersey and knit patterns to practise on. Hover over the picture to show the title, click to open, or right-click and open in a new tab to keep this page open too. And do not forget to pin it.
More in the free sewing patterns library and the sewing tutorials index.
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