SPRING TOP WEEK Day 1: Rae's Pink Top

: : the lovely Kricket models again! : :

: : Akward bathroom mirror shot so you can see it on me (am 24 weeks preggers in this shot, taken a few weeks ago, but you can't really tell...) : :

This top started out as a copy of the orange knit top that I made for Kricket for Christmas this past year. I botched the neck though and decided instead of the cowl neck to go with a plain scoopneck with ruffle embellishment. I also skipped the elastic at the empire waist, although I might end up going back and adding that when my girth becomes less pronounced post-baby (hopefully).

Here's the closeup of the pleats and ruffles again. I used this technique to attach a 1" strip of knit fabric around the neckline.

As I mentioned the first time I made this one, I combined a basic Sew Wendy t-shirt pattern (from the book Sew U: Home Stretch) with the sleeves and bottom (armpits down) of a McCall's pattern (am link lazy; see the orange top link above if you want the exact number). I moved the t-shirt part over 3.5" from the fold to make 7" worth of extra fabric in the middle. That excess became seven 1/2" pleats, and then I added the neckline and went from there. For a solid-color top, adding just a little bit of embellishment really changes the look!

The top went to Italy with me! Here's evidence from the Vatican Gardens. Although is there not something about this picture that looks green-screened?

And you can see that Mr Rae does indeed wear his shirt, although the same cannot be said for little E, who screamed bloody murder when I tried to put it on him the other day. It's not a total loss yet...we discovered that we can get him to wear things using Hulu clips of Kermit and Elmo as bribery. And a little part of me just died there admitting that outloud...