Tilly and the Buttons duo – Agnes top and Cleo dress

Autumnal greetings to you.  Today I’m showing you a t-shirt I have made for the Minerva Crafts Blogger Network.  It’s the Tilly and the Buttons Agnes top – a really useful pattern for a plain, long sleeved, scoop neck t-shirt.  My inner child chose some whale print fabric to make it in, and when making it I realised I wanted a navy blue Cleo dress to wear over it, so I made both the top and the dress the same day.

Cleo dress with Agnes tshirt underneath

I bought the Agnes pattern in a two-for-one deal from White Tree Fabrics, so all I needed from Minerva for this was the fabric and the matching thread.  I had some clear elastic left over from a previous project.  You can read the full post over on Minerva’s blog here.

Agnes tshirt

For the Cleo dress, I used some navy cotton drill I had in my stash.  I only had 90cm, but it was 150cm wide, so I was able to squeeze the Cleo out of it.  The only adjustment I had to make with the cutting layout was that I couldn’t cut the back facing on the fold, so I added seam allowance and cut two instead.  Despite the small amount of fabric, I had enough room to add two inches to the length of the Cleo.  It’s still mini on me, but not quite as mini!

WOW! buttons

I didn’t have any dungaree clips this time, so I used these awesome buttons I got recently.  Love them!  I didn’t bother with buttonholes, just sewed through the strap and bodice front, and I anchored the straps below the button to the inside by sewing along the topstitching line through both the bodice and the bottom of the straps.  This means they won’t be flipping out, and it adds a bit of extra strength.

Love my new outfit! 🙂