A couple of days ago, I was showing the pretty fabrics I had just received. Spurred by all the sewing blogs I had recently discovered, I decided to stop thinking about it and just make something. I first wanted to make an altered version of this top, but all over blogland, people have been making the Sorbetto top, which I quite liked and decided to make instead.
At first, I was a bit worried that the pleat detail on the front would make me look like I was still pregnant, but after seeing a few versions with the pleat inverted, I decided to go for that instead. And it’s bloody good I did!
Some facts, the fabric is a cotton lawn from Croft Mill, light as a feather, I love it! I had a metre, and I’ve got a looooooong remnant (not quite sure what I’ll use it for) The binding is a satin like, I suspect polyester, bias binding that I got from ebay for about £1 for 5m, in cherry red (though I would argue it’s not red, but pink, but what do I know!). I think I’ve used about 4m in total. It took about an hour to make (cutting and machine sewing), plus an extra hour for the hand binding.
My pattern pieces were smaller than 100% (it will make sense to use if you decide to make this top too), so I went for a size bigger than what I would normally make. Despite that, it wouldn’t have been great to wear if I hadn’t decided to do the inverted pleat. It was very tight around the bust, and gaping at the armholes and neck. Once the pleat was released, the gaping disappeared and it was suddenly much nicer to wear.
The side seams are french seams, which look very neat on the inside. I machine attached the binding to the wrong side of the fabric, then invisibly stitched it to the front – the pattern was asking for machine stitching to the front, too, but I thought it would be neater with invisible stitching.
My only real gripe with the finish item is the bust darts. They are a bit high and if I make another one, I will certainly look into lowering them by at least 1 inch.
I absolutely adore the contrast of the dark grey / olive polka dot print with the bright pink binding. I tried it on this morning and my husband complemented me on it. Twice. Unasked. So I guess it is a success!
It doesn’t make me look like I am still expecting, which is a bonus.
All in all, I am pretty happy with it and looking forward to wearing it!
If I were to make it as designed, I would definitely need to look into making a full bust adjustement. It’s totally doable. I might, at least to practice. It is such a simple top, it would be the perfect piece to practice on.
Hi I found you through the brit quilts convo on Flickr, its great finding more u.k quilting blogs, im your newest follower.:-)