I recently had the honor and privilege of working with designer Crystal Whitlow on her newest autumn collection, Sunflower Fields. Crystal has so many fun designs for children that I immediately thought of an "auntie and me" mini collection. I'm a sucker for a good floral print and loved the idea of scaling her sunflower designs for different sizes.
I've made the McCall's 7542 twice before, once in an embroidered denim fabric and once in a blue and white shirting, and know I love it. However, I wasn't a fan of the neck facing and the bell sleeves were difficult to hem, so I decided to try my hand at using bias binding in it's place. I was fortunate to find a similar top pattern for little girls, McCall's 7799, and topped off our coordinating outfits with bow tie for him McCall's 7223.
I ordered four different kinds of fabric printed on cotton poplin to create these looks - 2 yards of Large Sunflowers (red) for my top, 1 yard of Sunflowers and Fauna (red) for her top, 1 yard of Elf Red Speckles for our sleeve and bias binding, and 1 yard of Sunflower Stripes for his bow tie. The fabric was a dream to work with, I love how the bell sleeves hold their structure, and each pattern came together quickly. However, I did find cotton poplin bias binding hard to work with and would choose a lighter weight fabric for bias binding in the future.
Tip: I watched Lauren Guthrie's "The Ultimate Guide to Bias Binding" parts 1 and 2, a few times, to learn everything I needed to know about bias binding to successfully install my binding. Thank you for making and sharing these resources Lauren!
