I’m more than a little excited to bring you this post today. The very talented Suz of Sewpony Vintage has been working her magic again, in the form of a new pattern, The Little Betty Top. As much as I love to sew with woven fabric, my daughter is 2 and knit tops are the thing I most often reach for when dressing her – so comfortable and fuss free. A knit top with some personality is what I’m on the lookout for and Suz has ticked these boxes for me with her new pattern.
After seeing two long sleeved versions of the Little Betty yesterday (see day 1 of the pattern tour here), I’m showing the short sleeved version today. This pattern comes with sleeveless, short sleeve and long sleeve options and is sized from 6 months to 8 years.
It’s true to say that I enjoyed sewing this pattern up so much that I really couldn’t stop at one.
This is Miss A (2) wearing a size 2 and my niece Miss B (6), who is wearing a size 6 with size 7 length. The Little Betty top features a shoulder ruffle, a placket with button closure and a wide ribbing band. The placket gives a real look of professionalism to the top and is very simple to do.
The floral knit is from a women’s tank top that I bought specifically for this project. The range of interesting knit fabrics local to me is very poor, so I need to get creative with sourcing. I cut the sleeves so as to use the existing hem of the tank top instead of adding ribbing as is given in the pattern. Other than this change, I have sewn the pattern as directed.
I used the testing version of the pattern to sew these two tops – Suz has since lowered the neckline a little at the suggestion of a few of the testers.
There are some basic ‘working with knit’ skills that are required here: attaching the neckband, creating the ruffle and adding the placket, however nothing is over complicated and Suz’s instructions are very clear (with colour photos). If you’ve sewn a basic t-shirt, this would be a great next step project to build confidence with knits. Suz provides some handy tips for sewing with knits in her pattern instructions and in addition to this there are plenty of online resources, including two very comprehensive ‘sewing with knit’ series over at Made by Rae and One Little Minute. So, no excuses!!
This next photo comes with a confession…….
Yes that’s me, having an absolutely lovely time with the girls. We were away at an extended family catch up weekend and I had everything planned to photograph this post. My niece would be there, I brought the tops, made sure their denim skirts were matching, I even brought my sewing machine in case of some unforeseen sewing emergency. I did not however, remember to pack the camera!!!!!!!!!! Disaster – or so I thought (we were 4 hours away from home and my camera). Luckily, my very clever and not so forgetful cousin Kellie Giesen obligingly played blog photographer – and didn’t she do a fabulous job. Pity she doesn’t live closer to me so I could use her photography skills more often 😉 Thanks for saving the day Kellie!
Anyway, back to the tour…. To learn more about the pattern visit Suz’s blog and to purchase visit Sewpony Vintage. Suz is offering the Little Betty Top pattern for the discounted price of $7AUD from now until Jan 21, with the code LITTLEBETTY1. Be sure to head over to Dandelion Drift, my partner in the pattern tour today, to see what Teresa has been sewing with this pattern. There will be plenty more Little Betty inspiration in the coming days of the pattern tour, stay tuned to the Sewpony blog to see glimpses of them all.
Thanks so much for having me on your pattern tour Suz, it has been a pleasure.