See It, Sew It, Share It: Sweetheart Style

Hi!  Welcome to See It Sew It Share It.  Today I'm sharing a ready to wear item from one of my favorite stores, Joyfolie.  I have been a fan of Jessica Haley's designs since she started making infant shoes and blogged about them.  It's been a long time and her company has come a long ways since then.  I'm not even sure her original blog is still around.  I do know that her designs are loved by many mamas including me!

My daughter and I have several items pinned on Pinterest, so when it was time to pick something for this series we turned to our secret board!  Right away my daughter started picking Joyfolie items but she is most interested in things made with comfy stretch knit material.  The Brianna Top is made with ribbed jersey and cotton gauze material.  I knew right away I could recreate this top using all knit fabric.  

Finding a pattern was not too hard, there are a few babydoll type patterns that would work.  I chose to use a free pattern by Climbing the Willow.  The Izzy Top pattern starts at 18 months and goes up to size 12.  Since our inspiration top has a sweetheart skirt I had to modify the pattern.  It's such a super simple pattern and the modifications were really easy.  

Lets get started:

First gather all your tools and material suggested in the original tutorial.  Decide on your size, print and tape your pattern together.  You will find the skirt pieces for front and back are one piece with different cut lines.  Since my front will have a sweetheart shape and the back will remain the same I printed a pattern piece for both the back and front.

The first modification is to create the sweetheart shape.  To do this I simply made an arch at the top.

For the bottom of the front skirt piece I also arched the bottom to give it the high/low style.I did not make any alterations to the back pattern piece.

After cutting my material I sewed the bodice together following the original instructions .My next modification was when I attached the skirt pieces.  Since I was sewing the skirt pieces to the top of the bodice I finished my bodice bottom seam.

I then joined my skirt pieces and gathered per the original instructions.  Since my fabric was a very light weight stretch knit I did not hem the bottom.  It will not fray but if you want to hem or use a rolled hem you will do this after you join the side seams, before you gather.  After gathering my skirt pieces to match the bodice I pinned the skirt to the top of the bodice using lots and lots of pins!  I left about 1/2' of the raw edge sticking out from the top.

And that's it!  You're done.

I enjoyed making this top and my daughter just loves it!  Thanks for sticking around, I hope you enjoyed my Sew It Sew It Share It series.

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Hacking free patterns is such a great way to expand your sewing wardrobe and re-create those looks you love buy can't shell out the cash to pay for.  You can check out another great hack of the Izzy Top in last month's SSS Post.