Me Made May: Sorbetto Top + My First Muslin

It's official! I actually made something that I was able to wear during the month of May! Even though it's not any of the projects I originally planned or worked on throughout the rest of the month, at least it's something :)

Introducing the Sorbetto Top:

For those of you who aren't all up into the online sewing world, the Sorbetto is a free downloadable pattern made by Colette Patterns. It's kind of all the rage online and I had to see what all the fuss was about. I don't like sleeveless shirts though and I found this pattern  from the Sew Weekly to add a sleeve (also free to print). I also used this project to make my first ever muslin. I've been watching the Couture Dress class on Craftsy and Susan Khalje shows how to make a muslin (which is a rough copy of your garment that you use to make sure it fits correctly before you sew the real thing), and I figured this would be a simple enough project to give this technique a go. So, first thing's first, I had to print out the pattern and assemble it before cutting it out.

I started by ironing my muslin material and then pinning the selvages together, a technique Susan Khalje tells about in the class. The selvage is the hard edge of the fabric and by pinning them together, you ensure that your grain lines in the fabric are all parallel. This is important to make sure your garment will hang correctly on the body.

Then I pinned the pattern on the muslin and cut it out.

Once the pattern was roughly cut out, I had to transfer all the markings from the pattern onto the muslin. Susan Khalje shows how to use tracing paper for the transferring, but I didn't have any I didn't want to wait so I just folded the edge of the pattern up and traced along the lines. Once I had the pencil lines drawn, I went over them with permanent marker.

I then pinned this fabric pattern on myself how it would be worn, drew lines where it needed to be adjusted, and then made the lines over with permanent marker. Now I had my pattern :) It sounds so official as I type it now, I'm still a little in awe that I did all this.

On Memorial Day, I went to Hancock Fabric to take advantage of their awesome sale, and found this cute 100% cotton print for only $2.00 per yard on sale (I bought 5 yards - lol). I like this because it's got some interest going on that doesn't look cartoony and it's also thicker than the usual cottons you find like quilting cotton, so I knew it would be better for clothing than some others I had used before. Also, it was inexpensive so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't end up liking my top. The weirdest thing with the fabric was matching up the bias tape - I couldn't find any pinks that matched. In the white sections of the fabric there is a weird greeny-yellow line, and I found some bias tape that matched that really well - it's a very strange color, but it was called 'canary' on the package.

Anyway, I got all my supplies and whipped this baby out in a matter of 2 nights - mostly it took that long because I kept trying to pick things out and alter them slightly. Here is how it came out:

Overall, I like it. It was easy to sew and the directions were very good. I wish that I had made it fit tighter now that it's all done, and I may alter it slightly later on. Also, I may add a few embellishments like this to jazz it up a bit. Unfortunately, since it fit so loose, I felt like I was wearing a scrub top all day. This top will definitely get worn, but it may end up being a pajama top - we shall see.

Here is the pleat detail - my fabric is so busy that you really don't see it in the other pictures.

So there you have it - my first Sorbetto :) And my first completely Me Made garment that isn't a part of a Halloween costume! And I even made it just under the wire to be a Me Made May participant :) I'm very excited about reaching my goal, even if it wasn't with the pieces I originally planned. The others are still in the works and I will post about them when they finally get finished.