Hello,

Hope you are all well.

Somehow the girls are back in school and I am trying to get into the new season. I do like Autumn very much indeed however, I have the feeling Summer went by too fast and I am not ready to say goodbye just yet.

Before going on holiday, I still managed to make a couple of things for the girls to wear so, while I am already sewing a dress for Autumn, I want to share those Summer makes before it is too late.

My daughters are 13 years old at the moment and I must confess that it has not been an easy task to find age and style appropriate clothes or patterns. Children’s clothes are not quite their style anymore and grown-up ones are a bit too much or doesn’t even fit. For that reason, I was very pleased when Style Arc released a line especially for teens.

I was very pleased when Style Arc started making patterns for 8 to 16 years old and the first one we tried was the Delta Teens Top/Dress. As the name correctly points out, there is a top and a dress option, the sleeve can be short or 3/4, with or without elastic.

M opted for the cropped top version, with short sleeves (with elastic). She is a size 8 for all measurements except for height and I made a size 10 as I thought she could grow into it and as it has elastics anyway it should be fine. I think it worked out well.

I adjusted the neckline elastic to be used as off shoulder nonetheless, it can be used on the shoulders as well.

As for the fabric, I used a light weight dobby (plumetis) cotton from Minerva that we both quite like. It worked very well for this project and was perfect for the warm summer weather.

Good thing about this pattern is that with the option it is easy to please different styles and F does have a very different style from her sister! She also asked me to make her something, however, she preferred the dress version, again with a short sleeve but no elastic for her.

Her measurements put her in a size 12 except for height, which is a size 14. For the same reason as for M, I opted for the 14. She has some room to grow but the elastic makes the dress perfectly wearable.

I used a similar fabric, light weight dobby (plumetis) cotton that I had in my stash for a few years already. It was about time I put it to good use!

With one single pattern we got two different outfits to fit two different styles. The girls were involved on the process and chose the pattern/options and the fabrics as I wanted to make sure it was made to their personal taste.

I still made the girls a couple more garments but I will share those another time.

Happy sewing!

Maria x