Chelsea Andersen top

So this is my first sewing post. I found out about this pattern (McCalls- M613) from my dear sister through an email that came to me after midnight. My crazy sister is looking up patterns and telling me that I must make these adorable tops for my daughter. She even went to JoAnns to buy the patterns on sale and mailed them to me. To return the favor, I went to my local quilt store and bought some beautiful Amy Butler fabric for her. (I am currently working on that top). So now our little girls will have the same top to wear. I guess that is the twin in us.

So, in order to "try out" the pattern, I picked up some quilters fabric, on sale, from JoAnns myself. Since my sister started working on her pattern first, she was able to tell me all of the tricks she learned. This came together for me pretty quickly. A lot of seams are formed by placing raw edges together so there is not a lot of pinning and pressing involved. The buttonholes on the front bodice are one of the last steps; however, I will be making the buttonholes before I work too far into the project next time. This last step was almost disastrous for me despite having made buttonholes in the past. I love the adorable yellow flower buttons and the belt really pulls it all together.

My daughter recently turned 4 years old and despite being on the shorter side for her age, I went ahead and made the pattern in size 4, in the hopes that she will be able to wear it for two seaons. I choose fall fabrics since the top is meant to be long and she will be wearing it with leggings or jeans or even capris. It can be layered with a short or long sleeve top or worn alone as well. The leggings she is wearing I dug out of her closet. They happen to work with the fabric, but I hope to buy her some solid ones.

She wasn't too eager for me to take her photo and there were a lot of cheesy grins and playing with her tea cup. I hope you can see some of the detail in the bodice front and back casing. TFL!