Hellooooooo!  Oh how the time flies, huh?  Back-to-school season is always extremely busy around here for two educators.  Throw in a couple of birthdays, an almost 3 year old and a rapidly approaching due date and you’ve got about 2 months of madness.

But when my good friend, Delia, asked me if I’d review the new Five and Ten Designs Volume One eBook, I couldn’t resist.  Have you heard of Five and Ten Designs?  5 awesome indie pattern designers teamed up to create 10 different looks from one basic pattern piece.  It’s a brilliant concept and is perfect for anyone who is interested in learning how to alter or manipulate pattern pieces to make something totally creative and original.  The book includes bodice pattern pieces for sizes 12m to 10 years and each of the 10 looks is so incredibly different, you’ll want to sew them all!

So really the hardest part for me was deciding which look to sew up first.  Because I’ve made Yuki a few dresses recently and she rarely wears them, I ended up picking up Look No. 2, which is a ruffley top with a super cute tie closure in the back.  I LOOOOVE how cute this top is (designed by Jessica, the Sewing Rabbit).  But I had a really hard time imagining Yuki wearing something so ruffley.  So I decided to give the pattern a try without the ruffle.

I made this top in size 2T.  It comes together really easily and is even more simple if you omit the ruffles!  I also used store bought bias tape (as opposed to making my own), so that made it an even quicker project!  This top is probably cuter with the ruffles from the original design, but I think it suits my daughter better this way.

The pattern instructions and photos are clear and easy to follow.  I did, however, notice as I was creating my pattern pieces that if you follow the directions as they are, your front pattern piece will be slightly longer than the back piece.  I emailed back and forth with Jessica, the awesome designer behind this look and she was super open to my feedback and helpful in working out exactly what the problem was.  It’s such a minor thing really, but if you are making this top, I would follow the directions to draft your front pattern piece and then use that measurement for the back as well (this will make sense if you’re actually making the top, but otherwise, you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about :P).  If you use the front pattern piece to make the back, it’s helpful in making sure that not only the length is the same, but the angle of the side and the curve along the bottom.

Gahhh – I adore the back of this top . . .

I also added 2 inches in length to the top because the pattern looked a bit short compared to other 2T tops we own.  Since every kid is different, I’d recommend checking the length of the top before cutting your fabric in case you need to add or take off some length.  And I probably could have taken a bit more off the width of the shoulders as well, since it came out a bit wide for my daughter’s petite frame.

All in all, this was a fun top to sew up and Yuki loved wearing it, so win win!  And I still have 9 more looks that I could sew up with the entire eBook!  I highly suggest you go check it out.  I think you’ll be blown away by the huge range of looks you can make with just one pattern block.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you’re all doing well, whether you’re already back to school or enjoying the last few days of summer break!

*The Five and Ten Designs Volume One eBook was generously given to me for this review, but all opinions are 100% my own.*