Simplicity 4206

If anything, kids birthday parties are a great reason to sew.

One of M's friends loves butterflies so when the party invite arrived I thought I would make her something featuring butterflies.   

With rarely any time to sew these days, I'm all about the quick and easy projects.  I've never seen M's friend in a skirt or dress so decided to make her a top.  I remembered I had this Simplicity pattern from the Sewing for Dummies range which I bought when I first started sewing.

The top is basically just a peasant style top which I've made before (as a dress) using the Leila and Ben Sweet Little Dress pattern.  I don't have the bigger size pattern (besides my printer has run out of ink so I couldn't print off a PDF pattern anyway) and still can't believe that I am sewing size 7 and 8 for M now!

I loved making this top.  It was quick and easy and turned out pretty cute.  It was waaaaaay too short though which has me wondering if that is how most Simplicity patterns are?  I made a top for myself using Simplicity 4589 and that also ended up being way too short. 

Anyway, I was debating whether or not to add a contrast band to this top for some extra length and in the end I decided to which meant another trip back to Spotlight where I found the contrasting stripey fabric.  Unfortunately I don't particularly love this butterfly print but I didn't have much choice, no time to order gorgeous butterfly fabric from the states :(
 
I could probably have made the band an extra inch longer, it still seems short.  Even so, it's now a much better length than it was and looks fine on M. 

My photos are terrible - sorry about that, no time for nice pics I'm afraid.  These days it's an iPhone photo or nothing!  Believe it or not, this was the best photo I could get of M modelling the top for me.  She was cranky and most unhappy that I pulled her away from playing with her Zhu Zhu pets. 

Since finishing this top I've made it again and will blog the next version in the next couple of days.