Saturday 16 August 2014

Pintucks and lace: a Sunny top


I'm thrilled to be part of the sewVery Sunny Pattern tour! The Sunny is an A-line dress or top which can be made with or without a ruffle at the neck. Both versions have an elasticised, low back and ties which fasten in a bow, courtesy of some ingenious loops. This is an easy-to-sew pattern that offers a lot of bang for something that can be sewn up so quickly. The PDF comes with very comprehensive instructions accompanied by photographs, making it suitable for beginning sewists as well as those with more experience.

Unlike some PDF patterns this one is a breeze to print and tile, with only 8 pattern pages. I really appreciated this when putting it together! (I once bought a Burda pattern online, which had - I kid you not - close to 100 pages. Needless to say, I never even printed it.)

 

Having already made a Sunny dress for the testing phase of the pattern, I thought I'd jazz things up a bit by adding pintucks. Were I not so mathematically-challenged this would have been a simple alteration, but it took much scratching of the head, chalking and re-chalking, sewing and resewing, before I finally achieved what I was hoping for: four neat(ish) pintucks down the centre of the front. I like the effect.


In my last post I wrote about the difficulty of getting R to wear shorts. Because she won't wear shorts or pants, many of her looser-fitting tops - the ones that don't look good with skirts - have sat unloved in the wardrobe, including some of my favourite sews - such as this and this. Too sad. I didn't want the same fate to befall her new Sunny top, so I used a secret weapon: lace. I already know she loves the crossover straps and the bow at the back - as do I - but I'm hoping an extra bit of frilliness will provide enough incentive for her to wear the top. And now that I think of it, a little straightish skirt would go really nicely with this style of top - maybe that will be my next project.


R loves her Sunny top. She wore it all day after I photographed it, even though it's winter and the maximum temperature that day was 13 degrees. I call that a success.

Oh, and because I got impatient and sewed the elastic in without doing a fitting first, you might notice that the top is a little looser around the chest than intended, but it will be easily fixed. And come summer, I know this little gingham-and-lace number won't be languishing in the wardrobe with the other tops!

This is the second-last day of the Sunny Dress & Top blog tour, but if you'd like to check out some wonderful versions of Veronica's pattern, here's the list of participants:




To celebrate the launch of the Sunny pattern, Veronica is giving away two copies to two lucky winners. You can enter via the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can also get 20% off the pattern until the end of the tour using the code SUNNY20. So get in quick! You can buy the pattern here.

Thanks for having me on your blog tour, Veronica!
 


12 comments:

  1. Again, you have done an amazing job! I love the pin tucks and the eyelet trim at the bottom! So unique! There are about a dozen different ad-ons or ways to embellish the Sunny pattern that I keep thinking of and wanting to try, but I never would have thought to do pin tucks! A straight skirt would be perfect with the top. Ella wore her modified Tilly skirt often with one of the tops I made her. Thank you so much for testing! You were a joy to work with, and I so appreciate you being on the tour and sharing your kind review of my pattern!

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    1. Thank you so much Veronica, it was a pleasure being part of the team :)

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  2. Pintucks - yum! Such a cute detail, and yep, this little cute detail may take a while to make! Adding lace is a great idea, too!

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    1. Thanks Jenya - I know how much you like pintucks :)

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  3. Love the eyelet and the gingham! Great job Marisa.

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  4. Love the pintucks! Great Sunnies :)

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  5. LOVE the top Marisa, and you have done a really nice job with the pintucks. I wish I could buy the pattern but have recently splurged much too much.

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    1. Thanks Asmita, I'm in the same position - splurged on japanese pattern books and now feel like I'd better not buy anything new for a while! At least you can enjoy sewing up some cute little baby things now - lots of free patterns for those online :)

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  6. The pin tucks are such a lovely modification! and the way the back ties up is so charming - I can see why your daughter loves it so:) Glad to hear it will get much wear as your weather warms up - it is so pretty!

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