Birds of a feather flock together - having made tops for my youngest and eldest daughters out of the same hummingbird fabric. However I think they would rather be plucked , quartered and roasted before they were seen together in them !
My daughter wanted a simple sleeveless button up collared blouse - we saw heaps of this style on our school holiday shopping trip and lots of bird prints too .
I pulled out all of my old Topkids pattern books and found a pattern I could convert to what she wanted.
This one is issue 26 from Spring 1993 ! I used to absolutely love my topkids pattern books . They are like burda magazines ( with the same kind of instructions and no diagrams ) but the patterns are almost exclusively for children. I made dozens and dozens of the patterns and had only a handful of the Big 4 patterns for my children. I loved the magazines so much they were a part of my fire plan ( after grabbing children, pets, important documents, etc etc if there was time I would take my magazines- that is a bit sad but hopefully other sewing fanatics would understand .)
I have always wanted to sew this pattern but my daughter did not want the interesting parts of the pattern - the shaped hem and added flaps with the extra buttons.
The pattern has you finish the neckline and armholes with single fold bias binding ( made of self fabric ) . I also was able to do french seams everywhere so I think my youngest daughter was pleasantly surprised by the end result . She certainly wore it right away when we went to friends for tea and she was quite happy to pose for the blog ( I didn`t even have to twist her arm or anything else for that matter.) If anyone has young children and babies I would recommend getting old copies of these if you see them. The baby clothes are seriously cute .
I can now also say that having sewn more chiffon I am no longer afraid of it .
Well now my blog is starting to look like an Alfred Hitchcock movie I must leave the last word to Bob the Second.
Honestly while the girls got on with the serious business of pecking and scratching Bob POSED for the camera.
Cheers Janine. P.S My family are back from France and it is wonderful.
