This one is for my mom, made out of a fabric that she purchased while on vacation. I'm not sure what exactly it is, but this was not a fun fabric to work with! It frayed like crazy, and as you can see from the photo it creases easily, too. Fabric issues aside, though, the top turned out quite well. I made it for her in a size 6, with an inverted pleat left open at the bottom to give it more of a swingy tunic look to it.I made one for myself as well with an inverted pleat left open at the bottom, but I don't have a photo of it here. I do wear it, but it's not the best look on me -- having a pleat that opens up directly under my bustline makes me look like a pregnant lampshade. I also used the size 6 pattern as my base and did a large FBA. That helped with the shoulder and armhole fit, but it resulted in such a massive dart that it was impossible to sew without getting a pucker in it at the tip.
So, when I made this version, I divided the giant dart into two little darts (it's a little hard to see in this photo, though). They still look a little puckery, but I think that's more the fault of the fabric than the pattern this time. This final Sorbetto is madeout of a stretch silk charmeuse that I've had aging in my stash for a while. I wanted to make something pretty basic out of it, but to make it slightly more interesting I did the pleat and the binding out of the reverse matte side of the fabric (unfortunately this made the binding a total nightmare to sew because the slippery sides were facing inwards and the binding kept twisting like crazy!).
I think I'm probably about finished with this pattern -- despite tweaking the pattern multiple times, I still feel like the fit in the shoulders is not quite right for me. I had the feeling that the shoulders were too wide for me in my Rooibos muslin as well, so maybe the Colette patterns sloper has shoulders that are just a bit too broad for me?
The top looks so nice on you. Great color, and the use of both sides of the fabric (wow silk charmeuse) really makes it special. The colors in your mom's top are pretty. It sounds like the fabric was some kind of rayon.
ReplyDeleteThanks Audrey! I've been getting a lot of use out of the silk top, it feels very luxurious to wear charmeuse to work. Thanks for IDing that fabric as well -- I will avoid rayon from now on!
ReplyDeleteThe top looks great on you. I've heard the thing about the Colette patterns' shoulder thing. Questions: How'd you handle making the bias tape with the charmeuse? I'm having the worst time getting the bias strips to crease.
ReplyDeleteACR, I didn't pre-fold the bias tape, as it suggests you do in the pattern. I used a method more or less like this, where you make the tape 6x the width that you want your finished binding to be, align the raw edges of the binding with the raw edges of the neckline, and then fold it over the raw edges and topstitch:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.burdastyle.com/techniques/apply-bias-binding
I do most of my bias binding this way because I have difficulty with other methods in making sure that I'm catching the front and the back of the tape.