My sister, the sailor

Waaaay back in late September, I made my lil’ sis’ a top for her birthday. It’s a bit of a late top, really. I was a couple of weeks late for her birthday in making it, and now I’m a couple of months late in posting it post-make. (Terribly enough, she’s kinda used to me being late with birthday presents. Best intentions, poor time management and easily distracted. Sad but true. Sorry, sis!)

Anyway, this one’s the Bonny Sailor top from Cake patterns.

First time I’d made this pattern, and I ended up making two at the same time – one for my sister, and one for me. (You’ll get to see the one I made for myself sometime soon, I promise!)

The pattern is quite interesting – a princess-seamed knit top with (or without) a sailor collar. It calls for having buttons down the front as well, but I kinda prefer it without. Easier to wear under cardigans, and less risk of them accidentally ending up in the wrong place on one’s chest. 😉

After a fair bit of rummaging through my stash, debating which my sister would like the most, I finally settled on this red-on-red-stripe semi-slinky-feeling medium weight knit I bought at the (amazing) Levana textile factory shop a while back. (Thanks Mum for helping with the decision!)

For contrast-colour fun, I used a narrow navy blue satin ribbon to edge the collar and the sleeves.

The pattern went together reasonably well. It has the Cake style sizing, with connect-the-dots markers for bust, waist, and length, so you can customise it to your actual measurements. For the main part, the instructions were reasonably easy to follow. I did have some issues with the neck binding, and with what appears to be an error with the pattern (although it may have been my mistake?), but I’ll go into those on the post about the one I made for myself.

(For now, you can just admire my lovely sister and one of the cats at our parents house. 🙂 )

My sister seems to like it, and I hear reports that it’s been worn a few times now, so I’m gonna take that as a selfless-sewing win. Yeah!

(PS My lil’ sis’ isn’t really a sailor.)