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:

Monday, August 11th Sewing Mama RaeAnna While she was sleeping 4Kids + 1 Momma = chaos Mama Says Sew Wednesday, August 13th Sew Like My Mom Made by Sara Shaffer Sisters Friday, August 15th Rae Gun Ramblings Rebel and Malice Right Sides Facing Sunday, August 17th sewVery

Tuesday, August 12th Handcrafted by RED Two-Many Feathered Ruffles Call Ajaire Thursday, August 14th Crafty Biggers Sweeter Than Cupcakes Giggles and Beans Pattern Revolution Saturday, August 16th Thirtynine Made by Momma Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop

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!