Mother Daughter tops

When my daughter found out that I was making matching mother and son shirts, her first question was, where was hers? I could have predicted this response, and thankfully, I had an answer to her question.

I had been planning t make this blue striped top for myself for some time, ever since I saw a link to this tutorial for a stripy top made with stamps.

I love the effect of the stripes made with stamps. I wish I'd come up with the idea myself. I have had my top cut out and ready to go for a few months, but didn't think there was any point making it up yet, since it wouldn't be worn until the weather warms up. I dug around for some pink jersey, and let Miss 7 go through my stamps to see which ones she preferred to use on her top. (There may have been some gentle coercion to help her pick the ones that I wanted to use for her in the first place.) Her top is the same pattern as her brother's top, but in the original size that I traced from his top. She also wanted more of a racer back, so I traced the back around her shoulder blades once I had sewn up her top.

Head on over to the tutorial to see the complete instructions for how to make one of these for yourself, but I've included a few photos of my steps below.

I cut all my fabric pieces first, and laid them out on paper. I found it easiest to mark where I wanted my stripes on the paper, then use those marks as a guide to line up the masking tape to block out the negative space.

For each top I used three different stamps: One larger, one medium, and one small.

Applying more paint to my stamp

The paint is the same white screenprinting paint that I've been using for my Alabama Chanin inspired designs (one, two, three and four). This time I wasn't using it just to cut it off again.

I started my stamping with the biggest design, then used the middle size stamp, and filled in the gaps with the smallest one.

I made my stripes wider and further apart than Miss 7. I was aiming for the same number of stripes, but my top somehow ended up way too long, despite cutting it from the same self drafted pattern that I have used many times before, so I trimmed it down by one stripe.

I don't know why she's winking,
but isn't that toothy grin cute?

Racer back!

I really like how they turned out, but I love the pink top much more than the blue one, despite blue being my favourite colour!

I'd love to do something else using this technique, but think that more than one thing in the wardrobe like this might be a bit too much. What do you think?