The Stars at Night, Are Big and Bright...

While visiting my my sister in San Antonio (almost a month ago now), I finally finished her birthday present. Her birthday was on Valentine's Day, so I was running a bit behind schedule. Shocking? At least it was this year's gift! She had visited right after her birthday and picked out fabric and I hauled it all down to get the fit right. This was my reasoning for procrastination...no person to fit? No sew.

I will say, it was kind of weird using someone else's machine and sewing somewhere other than my own sewing space. I felt very uncomfortable and hesitant at first. Everything felt so different. I didn't have any scissors. Seriously, my nephew brought me the kid scissors with the round ends when I asked him for a pair. I didn't have pins either. A quick (and by quick I mean a twenty minute drive each way, my sister lives close to nothing) trip to Wal-Mart (the only option) to pick up the necessities and I was off. I got to sew on a fairly new Singer machine, a brand I still had never used. It had a side bobbin case, which scared the crap out of me. Don't ask, for I honestly don't know why. Everything I have used until then has had a drop-in case. We will ignore that my vintage machine has one, because, um, I still haven't used it (I know, I know!). Anyway. As I stated before, this was slightly intimidating, but I did get used to it. Two days later, the top was done! Check out my fancy-pants seam binding:

 I am actually very proud of that binding. It looks so good! Who knew?!

On to the pattern. I used the Amy Butler Cabo Halter, which has been reviewed numerous times on PR. I am still undecided about whether or not to post another one. As most of the other reviews say, it was pretty straight forward and easy to put together. My older sister does not sew, but I think she could have done this on her own. The instruction were clear and easy to understand, and since there was just a few pieces, construction was pretty quick. The only thing that might get tricky for new sewers is the invisible zipper, but the instructions are super clear, so I still think it is do-able. Check out all my pattern matching glory with the zipper. Disregard where the bodice pieces join (sigh):

I wish I had a picture of my sister wearing this top. The color, which I though was a bit bright when she picked it out, looks great on her. She is normally a wearer of neutral (read: boring) colors like black, brown, white, maybe some grey, so this was really exciting that she went so far from her normal color palette. I am very happy with the way it turned out, and even better is that she is happy or so she says. This is why I should sew more for adults, not for little people. Whether or not they will wear it, at least adults can lie ;)