Every now and then you just need to try sewing something fun! This is a 1990s pattern from a Butterick line called Busybodies.

Fortunately Clare was happy for me to give this a try. I figured we may as well go the full works – pants and top!

The fabric is a printed knit from Clear It. There is only one pattern piece for the pants – the front and back are the same. With all those gathers and that majorly dropped crotch, it works fine that way!

As it turns out – perhaps unsurprisingly – Clare has deemed these pants a little too “intense” and hasn’t actually worn them. Bummer! I reckon they would be super comfortable. The top however has entered fairly regular wardrobe rotation.

The wide cropped style is actually rather current and works really well with high-waisted bottoms.  These photos were taken last summer, and it is likely that the crop could be a little shorter than Clare’s prefers by the time this summer rolls around again.

The back is meant to close with two buttons and button holes, but in this knit they weren’t needed. I’m not really a bit fan of buttons on the back of garments, tops in particular – they can be awkward to fasten and often stick into you when you lean back on a chair.  The facings were secured with twin needle stitching that also provided a nice detail.

I also tried the top in a woven (as per the pattern). I used chambray from stash, placing the sleeve edges on the frayed selvedge, and used pink cotton from stash for the facings. It still went over Clare’s head without fastenings, so I added a pink button as a detail as well as using a triple stitch to secure the facings.

Interestingly, I haven’t really seen her wear this top much. She says it’s because most of her bottoms are denim, and she doesn’t want to do double denim.  It does work really well with the hammer pants though! Maybe the younger child will be happy to wear these once they are passed down – or maybe not. Either way, it was a fun exploration of an old pattern.