FO: Gertie's Cherries Rayon Sorbetto

On my recent 4th of July fabric binge I was lucky enough to get 1 yard and 4 inches of Gertie's teal rayon with cherries at Joann's on super sale. This was all that was left on the bolt and I've wished there was more ever since I purchased it. The fabric is buttery soft and drapey - just what the doctor ordered with this awful heat and humidity. Ugh, Florida summer, how I hate you. Since I had so little fabric, I knew whatever I made would have to be super simple. While looking through my patterns i pulled out Colette's free Sorbetto and when all the pieces fit I just started cutting.

The Sorbetto is the first thing I made myself back in 2012 when I started thinking I could sew clothes for myself. That poor shirt never gets worn due to bad fabric choice - quilting cotton just will not work for this one unless you don't mind looking like a box. This rayon on the other hand would drape beautifully and really make the pattern flattering. The only problem showed up when I realized that I had no idea what I was doing back when I fitted the Sorbetto, so I had to change quite a few things on the fly. Somehow I had a crazy amount of excess at the shoulder - I think I removed 3 inches total on each shoulder seam - which was a simple fix, but left the top a smidge shorter than I prefer. It's still wearable, just not 100% perfect. Ah well, you can't have everything. I just won't raise my arms ever.

I also don't really know what's going on at the sleeve. The sleeve is actually an add-on pattern piece someone other than Colette Patterns produced. The sleeve pattern only came in one size (I think it was an 8 or something like that) which was way too small for me so I had to scale the piece up way back when. I did this by eye-balling it around the edge to what I thought would be the right size. It worked on my quilting cotton version, but the sleeves were a bit long in hindsight so I shortened them to the length of a dress sleeve pattern I like. Something about the overall cut (maybe it's a grain issue?) seems to make the sleeves flip out in a weird way. Again, not a deal breaker - just not perfect. I do love the drape of the fabric though :)

Here's my fancy surprise on this shirt - it's finished with self-bias ... that I made ... out of rayon! I have to say I impressed even myself that I pulled this off. Knowing that rayon can be shifty, I started out by spray starching the area for the darts so that I could get them nice and straight. This worked like a charm! My machine was already set up with my walking foot, so I just kept that on and in combination with the spray starch it was a sure fire. I had no shifting while I sewed at all! From there, I decided to use the spray starch on the bias tape too. I received a Simplicity Bias Tape Maker from my in-laws for Christmas this past year and I am sad to say I hadn't used it until now. This machine is a boss! I'm kind of embarrassed to say it, but I've never successfully made bias tape before. I always end up cutting it wrong or burning the crap out of my fingers and have to stop. This machine made it so much easier. 

Once you cut the bias strips and get them sewn together, you just load it on the spindle and the machine does the rest. The only tricky part was threading the bias tape through the tip - rayon is not so good at this. I just sprayed the first few inches of the fabric with spray starch and threaded it through -  no problem! Beautiful! I did have to press down slightly on the little iron piece and hold the folded tape that was coming out so it didn't bunch up, but I'm pretty sure that's because I was using such a drapey fabric. I now have really pretty bias tape, and I can't wait to make more! (By the way I'm not being endorsed by Simplicity or anything, I just really love this machine and wanted to let others know about it - Amazon usually has the best price if you decide you need one!)

Obligatory mannequin shot - because everything looks better on her :) I love this print, don't you?! If I could have, I would have bought enough for a dress but they don't even have it available online. *sigh* Oh well. I'm borderline on thinking this shirt is too plain - do I have a problem? lol I can't decide. I mean, I know it's cute, but I think it could be cuter with something going on at the neck like some buttons or a trim. I haven't found anything that looks good with it yet though, so I'm open to your thoughts.

Detail shots - I used matching minty thread so it didn't take away from the awesome print, and I think that turned out nice on the hems and neck. The bottom two shots are peaks at my self-bias. Since the shirt came out a little shorter than intended, I'm glad I went with the bias since that kept just that little bit more at the hem. Also the front center is slightly shorter than the rest of the shirt, so I'll need to adjust for that next time. At least now I know how to adjust the pattern for the next go round!

Well, there you have it. A cute but simple top that's perfect for the Florida heat. I will certainly be making more shirts like this, and I have a complete obsession with rayon now. So prepare yourself!

Summary:
Fabric: 1 yard 4 inches cherry printed Gertie rayon from Joann's - $4.19
Pattern: Sorbetto by Colette Patterns - Free!
Hours: 4
Total Cost: $4.19

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.