Panel Sorbetto Blouse

This is my latest version of the Sorbetto blouse. I am off on holiday next Saturday for a week to Pisa, Italy and then to Nice, France. I am only taking hand luggage, as i refuse to pay stupid prices for cheeked in luggage. Therefore, i am going to have to pack lightly, so this Sorbetto blouse and the Floaty Sorbetto Blouse, will mean that i have at least two light weight tops. 

The Sorbetto blouse is a free pattern available form Colette Patterns you can find it on there blog. I cut a size 6, i found this sizing a bit strange. I measure 34" at bust but i had to cut for a 36", and even now i could probably get away with larger. The changes i made to the original pattern were, that i inverted the pleat at the front, lengthened the hem and i added a panel at the front. 

I bought the fabric at my favorite shopping haunt, Birmingham's Rag Market. I can not remember how much i paid, but it was not much. I am a cheapskate:) I was so cheap i only bought the minimum amount that i though i would need do the job and grossly underestimated it. So i added the panel in the front. The panel fabric was left over from one of my first sewing projects last year. I actually thinks it looks better like this. 

Both fabrics were impossible to press as they melted before the iron was hot enough to crease them. This means that i don't have the neat polished look that i would like, but it still looks good. I remember when i first took an iron to the patterned one last year, i lost huge amounts of the material before the iron even touched it. I've been very wary ever since, testing each bit of fabric before pressing. 

I did french seams on this top for the first time, instead of my usual plain seams, which is why there are pictures of the inside of my Sorbetto. It looks and feels so much neater. This is something i am going to keep doing in the future, because it does make your clothes feel that much more high quality, even if you are buying the cheep fabric. It also mean that my sewing is moving on, and i am learning new stuff.

I now only have a few days left before i am off on holiday and they are all work days. I really need to do my laundry and clean my flat so i have somewhere reasonably clean to come back to. But i am also very tempted to see if i can make another Sorbetto before my flight leaves on Saturday. We'll see, the fabric washed and ready to go.

Floaty Sorbetto Blouse

The sun has come out at last, and now i want summer clothes. It was so hard to get in the mood for making summer stuff, as only last week i was contending with sleet and snow. I really don't know how professional clothing designers can design a summer collection in the wrong time of year. If it was up to me the shops would be all full of woolly mittens and grey wool dresses right now.

So this is what i am wearing right now, shorts (at last) and a Sorbetto blouse.

I made the blouse using the free Sorbetto pattern from Colette Patterns. I have made a few changes to the blouse, i added cap sleeves, lengthened the hem and inverted the centre pleat. 

When i decided to use this pattern to make summer tops, i was always going to make a few. I had planned out what fabric i was going to use, black and red with daises (below), blue polka dot, and a white and blue stripy one. Then it got warm and sunny and suddenly my chose of fabric seemed a bit dull and inappropriate.

But a good hunt through my fabric draw and suddenly this one surfaced. The fabric is one that i bought over a year ago, before i even started sewing. I had the idea that maybe one day i would use it to make a bag. When i did eventually started sewing it went to the bottom of my fabric draw, and i decided i did not like the print. Then the sun came out to play and suddenly its perfect.

The flower print top is actually the second Sorbetto i have made this week. The firts one....

came out a bit small, but it did give me a chance experiment. So i added caped sleeves to it using my less than professional approach...

1. cut out a piece of fabric that is roughly sleeve shaped and attach it to bodice.

2. hack away at it with a pair of blunt scissors.

3. rip it off, cut down the centre, spread it apart and recut it out. 

4. reattach to bodice, to check shape.

and i had my cap sleeve pattern piece.

I new this would happen, i have been trying so hard to follow proper established sewing methods, so i don't fall in to bad habits. But i have a personality type.

And then Timbaland, The Way I Are, came on the radio and i could not resist...

I embarrass in night clubs.

Burda Blouse 5/2012 with Tie Collar

This is another item i found in the 5/2012 addition of the Burda magazine. It is pattern no: 103, but i have attached a tie collar instead of the plain collar. I actually liked the tie collar blouse that is pattern 134, but it was a plus size pattern, as seems are most of my favourite Burda magazine patterns. So i made 103 and attached the collar as described in 134.

This pattern was pretty easy to follow. At the first glance of the diagram i thought it might be more complicated than the skirt i made last week. But the instruction were quite simple and straight forward to follow. Though you still need to know how to sew so it is not a pattern for beginners. 

I did not cut the fabric on the bias as recommended for the tie, as i did not have enough in my stash, but the end result is still pretty good. 

My photos are not very clear, and it really hard to make out the tie at the front in any of them. I was trying to take them when it was raining yesterday afternoon, so the light coming into my flat was very poor. The black polka dots really make the tie bow blends into the shirt. I think is a good thing, because it is there, and it is big, but understated at the same time.

I am going on holiday soon and will need some new summer tops. My original plan was to making a bunch of heavily modified Newlook 6807's. That did not worked out, due to not finding enough suitable jersey fabric. So now i am working on making the Sorbetto top, from Collete Patterns. I have seen many versions of this pattern appearing on the Burdastyle website, but have never really thought much about the pattern until recently.  Now there have been several versions of this pattern that have caught my eye, so i am giving it ago.

Burda Skirt- 5/2012

Normally this time of year i wear brighter, lighter summer clothes, and i want to be in summer clothes making mode. But the weather it just so far from summer at the moment; this skirt is very appropriate. I actually had to cycle to work in heavy sleet and snow on Tuesday, the weather is horrid. Where is summer?

I made this aubergine skirt from the May addition of the Burda magazine using pattern number 118. I cut a burda size 38 grading to 40 at the waist. I also cut the skirt to the same length as the 119 skirt. The skirt has come out really well, although i usually say that and then change my mind. This is one item i can see my self wearing all the time. I feel so comfortable in it. 

  

It was quite challenging to make; as i really struggled with the instructions and i spent a lot of time seam ripping. I have read a lot about burda magazine patterns being hard to understand and now i understand why. They assume a lot of sewing knowledge, there are no diagrams as with paper patterns, and the written instructions just did not explain in enough detail how the pieces were to go together.

 I missed off the welts on the back skirt. I cut them out, read the instructions about how to apply them but just could not comprehend what they were saying. So after a long search for instructions in books, internet and on the Burdastyle website i found nothing. So i ended up leaving them off. I also found it really hard to understand their instructions for the zipper, but after studying an old pair of jeans and reading up on it i eventually figured it out.

 Well that was a long rant about the instructions, overall i think the pattern is great. and maybe with a bit more practice ill become more proficient at using burda patterns. I am making a shirt from the same issue. So far i have found the instructions for that to be quite simple. 

Well that's all for now..... off to work on my shirt.