What do Flowers, Bunnies, and the colour Purple have to do with each other? I’m so glad you asked! I found this amazing floral fabric on the “specialty fabrics” rack at my local fabric shop a few years ago – and put it in my “stashed with no plans” category! It’s a light fabric, not see through, but comfy with some drape and good body.

I have been experimenting with mixing wovens and knits in shirt patterns this year. Some unblogged, due to the backlog of things I’ve sewn #cantpostthemall!  Since making 5 Extraordinary Girl Shirts for my youngest and I last year, including one mixing wovens into the knit pattern. I wanted to try it again.

The first knit/woven Extraordinary Girl shirt I made – with Ann Kelle’s super-cute mermaid fabric – only fit my youngest for about 2 weeks. The woven back didn’t allow enough stretch for her arms and it really didn’t work. Which made me sad, since it was SO CUTE! Ack…

This time around, I was smarter! Practice really does help.

• Added a back yoke in the knit material to help with the stretch and gathered the woven fabric in the center to add some extra ease.
• To capitalize on the long shirt-tail hem trend, I added a longer rounded hem to the shirt front and back as well. Looking at the photos – I think I could have sized up on the shoulders, my daughter is about a size 4 around – but likely needs a size 8 shoulder. Next time I will adjust the width, but leave the shoulder alone.
• Shortened the sleeves (this pattern includes long and 3/4 sleeves).

De-stashing is fun, and you might find the purple knit again on the blog. Turns out little girls’ projects don’t use much! I’ve already sewn an Exposed Zipper Banyan Tee out of it. The knit is super comfy and washes and wears really well. Now the purple Banyan is being worn by the second child. Much to the dismay of the older one who grew out of it… I’ve written an Exposed Zipper tutorial if you want to check it out.

We took these photos on a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum this summer – along with the photos of my youngest’s quilt. I try to capitalize on all opportunities for great photos shoot locations over here. Oh, and the purse! The girls have carried their cross-body purses around everywhere this summer, they are super-cute and really useful.