I’m always amazed by what a difference fabric can make to the overall look of a finished project.

This is a fun little top I made a couple of weeks ago with a yard or so of cute red and white dot fabric.   Do you recognize the pattern?

Take a good look.

No?

Well, here it is in its original form:

Yup, it’s the same top as the little white top with the flowered capris but the mood is completely different, thanks to the fabric I made it up in.

The reason for the change was that I’d really fallen in love with another tunic in the book, “Designer Smocking for Tots and Teens“.  Unfortunately, it was sized for tweens and it’s going to be a long time before my niece will be able to wear a size 10.   And I’m not nowhere near that patient.  So I took a bit from column A (namely the fabric and the smocking design) from the tween top, combined it with a bit of column B (the Flower Power pattern) and came up with this hybrid.

The smocking plate is simple stepped Van Dyke and it was very easy to do.  It’s one of the few smocking stitches that’s worked right to left and it has a lot of stretch, so I did decide, once it was smocked, to backstitch the waist and chest bands with rows of red cable.  Otherwise I think it would have stretched out of shape really quickly and left the top looking baggy and sad.

I like this pattern.  It was super quick to smock and with only three pieces (the front, the back and two straps) it was very fast to cut out and assemble.  In fact I liked it so much that I’m making it again, using a tiny floral print to make a pair of summery pjs.  If (when?) I get the buttonholes done, I’ll be sure and show you so you can see how different it looks from this top, too.

The only thing I didn’t combine, at least according to these pictures, is an iron. Oh well, I’ve been so busy lately, I’m just proud I managed to get any pictures up at all 🙂