At my last November trip to Sewjourn I made skirts for each of the girls from the Oliver + S 2 + 2 pattern.  The girls have had a lot of wear from their skirts.  At the time I’d also cut out coordinating 2 + 2 blouses.  I became interested in other projects, and have only just sewn up the blouses this week, almost a year later.  Good thing that the skirts still fit – as do the blouses!  There are some advantages to slow growing children.

The blouses are sewn in spotted voile from Spotlight, with trim to match the skirts (Heather Ross linen/cotton).

I didn’t have five matching buttons for the back of each blouse, so just spaced the buttons further apart and used four. Clare’s has hearts and Stella’s has apples.

There is plenty of ease in the sleeve cap, which makes the blouses sit beautifully across the chest and shoulders when worn. The back doesn’t really need to be unbuttoned to get the blouses on and off, since the front bias binding ties can be undone and that gives adequate space.

Stella’s outfit is in size 4, and Clare’s in size 8. If you look closely you can see how much darker pink the appliqued tab on Stella’s blouse is as compared to the skirt – after a year of washing, the skirt has faded a little! Clare’s isn’t as noticeable. And I have another sewing tip for anyone thinking of making two of anything in the same fabric but in different sizes. Check at EVERY stage of the process that you are only using pieces from the one size whenever you sew something together. And double check it. Especially make sure that you are matching the correct sized front and back pieces together at the shoulder seams before you sew them and before you beautifully apply the neck bias binding and top stitch it perfectly in place. Just ask me how I know. If you don’t check and double check, you WILL spend some quality time with your quality unpicker.

I’m getting close to the bottom of that cut-out-and-ready-to-sew box now. A pyjama top for Clare (cut out a year ago), a shirt for Stella (also cut out a year ago), a dress for Clare (cut out last summer holidays), bathers for me – but there is no rush to get them made – and a pinafore dress for me – also no rush to get that made, since it’s a winter fabric. I have a number of piles of fabric and patterns just waiting to be used to refill that box! But one thing at a time, for once!