Lutterloh 203

I have made this skirt a couple of times in a stretch cotton and worn it a lot. It is VERY basic and sews up really quickly. It is a two piece skirt with a side zipper, back darts and a waistband facing. I purchased this brown fabric which I liked the colour/pattern of but once made I realized it did not match anything in my closet as brown is not one of my colours.

So this skirt has sat unworn for over a year as I could never find the right fabric in which to make a top to go with it. That is until recently when I came across this rayon knit for $2/metre. I immediately thought of the Sorbetto top which is such a quick sew and now I have a casual outfit to wear for the rest of our extremely hot summer.

I must remember to wear a t-shirt bra with it though as the fabric is quite thin. I am glad the skirt finally gets to come out and play as it is so comfortable.

The next thing I have on my sewing table is a McCalls woven shirt pattern. I have never made a shirt before so I am looking forward to the fitting challenge.

Knit Sorbetto

Life just seems to get in the way of my sewing and when I do sew it seems to be very slow going. I never understand how people just crank garments out in a few hours. I lose my concentration  quickly and hence make mistakes so its slow and steady for me. 

The extreme hot weater is upon us and I HATE it...... The EDS makes it very hard for me to control my temperature and I am ALWAYS hot!!!  In summer I cannot wears anything with a sleeve and I know at my age and size a lot of people don't want to show their arms but all I can say is"not me"......  I do realize that it isn't the best look in the world but hey I need to be comfortable and cool foremost.

My closet was in need of some knit tops that are lightweight and can be worn around the house. Most that I had certainly had seen better days or were RTW and of course poor fit. All this to say that I decided to try making the Colette Sorbetto top in a nice soft knit. My daughter has a top that has a diagnol/uneven hem on it which I liked so I attempted to copy it.

I am glad with how it turned out and it will be lovely just for hanging around. I made it smaller than my regular sorbetto as I was using a knit and I raised the armholes as I thought the original was too low and I wanted to be more covered. I stabalized the neckline and did bindings on the armoles and necklines. I top stitched the centre pleat to keep it in place.

Next time I make this I will lengthen it by about 2 inches as I prefer my low prominent stomach to be covered and may lower the neckline a little which I think will be more flattering on me.

Next up I am attempting some capris again. Fitting pants has been a complete nightmare for me but I shall keep perservering and even if I can improve one small part at a time I am happy.

Sorbetto Complete

The Sorbetto top is complete and I really like it. There are a few tweaks I need to make for the next time round.  Firstly, I will dart out the little bit of extra fabric at the armhole as there is still some gaping here. Secondly, my right shoulder is vastly more sloping than my left which has caused the top to not fit as nicely at the neckline on this side. I did do a sloping shoulder adjustment on this side but obviously it needs to be larger!!

 I think this is a basic pattern that can be a  great wardrobe builder and can be dressed up or down.

This is how I wore it today with some self drafted stretch pants and a Kwik Sew jacket. It was very comfortable and held up well for the day.

Colette Sorbetto Top

I am a bit late getting on this band wagon, but we are hitting SPRING tomorrow and this top will be perfect for the hot Perth summer. The Colette Sorbetto top has been made heaps of times by other sewers and has had great comments. There are some amazing versions with lots of embellishments in the flickr pool of photos .

This is great to download and easy to  tape together and even though it is a very basic pattern my adjustments are NEVER easy! My alterations are endless but fairly consistent .

• I started with a size 14 at the shoulders and went out to an 18 at the hips.
• I did a 2cm petite adjustment at the waist but added that back on and more at the hem.
• My FBA is very substantial for my E cup bust. I did a 3" FBA which actually adds 6" around my bust. I know this is huge but it is what it is!!!
• OK now I have a humungus dart and what am I going to do? I rotated half out to the side seam and left the other half as the side seam dart.
• I still had some gaping at the armhole so I darted it out on the pattern.
• I have shoulders that hyper extend to the back due to a connective tissue disorder so my shoulder are very weird indeed. On the front piece I extended the shoulder up to the 18 size and then added another 1.5cm to that. I then need to take some of the back shoulder. I think this is the opposite to a forward shoulder adjustment.
• One thing I will say is that the bust dart on the pattern is REALLY long. On lots of the photos in the flickr pool ladies have darts going right up to their bust point.

On the whole I am fairly pleased with the fit so far. The only thing I will change next time is to dart more out on the pattern at the armhole as it is still gaping too much. I was hoping the binding might have brought it in a bit but it hasn't.

The fabric is just a cotton I got an textile traders and whilst I loved the look of the print it really isn't my colour at all. I will probably just where it about the house as it will be very cool in the summer.

This is the first time I have used binding and the instructions on the pattern are great. I will definately be using it a lot more in the future. I was lucky enough to find some the same colour as the little aqua birds on the fabric.

I hope to finish this off in the next few days but as usual sewing time is scarce between teaching and work.