Little Stitches Week 5 - Pattern H - Easy Empire-Waist Top

Welcome back for another week to the Amy Bulter "Little Stitches" Sew-Along. Forgive my two week absence. You've heard about the craziness. All of that aside, this week I, again, made something for Caroline and Ehren's new daughter Arden.

Pattern H - Easy Empire-Waist Top - Difficulty Level: 4

Again, Care and Mayah helped me pick out the fabric from the "My Happy Nursery Line" from Cloud 9 Fabrics. I took them fabric shopping as a treat while Arden was still in utero and this pattern was one that made me fall in love with, and ultimately buy this book so I couldn't wait to dive in to it!

The bodice assembly is easy peasy, just trim your seam allowances and use an awl to get your corners sharp when you turn it right side out.

One of the trickiest parts of this pattern was attaching the trim to the bodice. Working with curves can be a challenge for even the most experienced seamstress. (No offense to you fabulous male sewers out there. You count too!) My advice is to be patient, go slow, and pin and iron the hell out of it.

You can hide small imperfections on the backside of the curve through diligent ironing. And use your basting stitch as a guideline.

My Baby Lock doesn't have a clean 1/2" line so I marked one with masking tape, but when sewing curves like this, especially when you're topstitching and the stitching will show, it can be easy to lose your guideline. I marked my guideline with my trusty disappearing in fabric pen. Just make sure you wet the in down after you're done stitching and before you iron because water makes the ink disappear but the iron will make it permanent!

Finally, when you're making the elbow slit in the sleeve, mark your slit and trim you seam allowance close, then rely on your trusty iron to get the slit flat when you turn the sleeve.

I absolutely adore this top! And I made the bloomers to match but more about that next week. The outfit comes in four pattern sizes, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months and 9-12 months. Since I wanted Arden to have stuff to grow into I made this in the 9-12 month size so it will be a while before she'll be modeling it for us. But I promise an update when she's wearing it.

So what are you working on? Link up your latest projects here and show everyone what you're making. You can share your projects in any state from start to finish. Remember, you can also share your "Little Stitches" Sew-Along projects anytime in the Undercover Crafter Sew-Along Group on Flickr. See you next week when I'll be unveiling the bloomers I made for Arden. This week I'll be working on making her the bloomers found in Pattern E.