Ruffle Top without the Ruffles

For past 3 weeks, I've stared at the fabric I bought in preparation for Kids Clothes Week that I wasn't able to finish because I had Kenley. A good excuse, but still that fabric has been haunting me and wanting to be sewn. And the project that I wanted to complete more than anything else was the Ruffle Top by Elegance and Elephants.

Have you noticed that I keep gravitating toward blue floral fabrics for most of my sewing projects?  I can't really explain why other than that seems to be my style, and luckily, Maisie is too young to protest. 

I had seen a few versions of this pattern circulating through a few of the sewing blogs I follow and fell in love. And the best part is that I won this pattern from Petit à Petit & Family. The funny part is that I had not even remembered signing up for the giveaway when I was emailed that I won. I was actually going to buy the pattern that week. I was pretty excited that I won. I have been dying to sew it for Maisie. It was obviously the first project I wanted to get done after having Kenley. 

I tried out two new sewing techniques while completely this project. The first was creating my own bias tape to cap off each of the sleeves. It was not as hard or as scary as I thought it would be and now I know I can do it. I can check it off my sewing milestone list. 

The other was sewing piping into a seam. The original pattern calls for ruffles along the panel seams, but I choose to use store-bought piping instead like a few variations I saw online. I love how the orange pops against the blue floral. 

Please no judging me on my horrible sewing around the keyhole packet. This picture is to show how I lined the bodice, and of course, seems to highlight my lazy sewing as well. 

I also liked a more open collar than what the original pattern calls for, so I in order to create that I just created a bodice lining with the center panel of the front and the back. I sewed the outer back and front to the lining back and front, respectively, before I began the patterns tutorial.

The pattern and tutorial were very easy to follow. I had a little trouble figuring out the sleeves, but I blame that on my sewing inexperience. I also would have liked the pattern sizes to be color coded instead of different black dash lines, but again that is just a personal choice. Piecing the pattern together and cutting it out was very straight forward.

I am very happy to be sewing again and I am really happy to have finally completed this top for Maisie.