Sneak Peek: Sorbetto

I finished my first version of the Sorbetto top, which will certainly not be the last as it is soooo easy to put together, and such a great base for many alterations!

I used a thrifted man’s shirt purchased a while back, and that I had already started to deconstruct. I was trying to reproduce an Anthro top but it wasn’t turning out quite the way I wanted, so it had landed on the UFO pile for a while. But recently, while going through my blog roll I cam across a bunch of Sorbetto versions and all of a sudden, like a lightbulb over my head, I knew what to do with the discarded shirt.

I made a few adjustments:
I cut a size 0, but used the length of size 18. I managed to position the pieces so that I could keep the shirt’s bottom hem as it was.
I recut the armholes along the size 6 line as 0 was a bit tight and I also shortened the darts by about 1 inch (I probably could have used lower darts too).

I did make one mistake when cutting the pattern, as I lined up the pattern’s center front (without the pleat) with the edge of the shirt's button plaquette, when in fact it should have been lined up with the center of the plaquette (total rookie mistake!). This made me lose about ¾ of an inch all around, so I took it out at the side seam.

When I first tried it on, I was pretty happy with the overall fit, but I found the fabric to be underwhelming at best, so I decided to add a couple details: a Peter Pan collar, self-drafted and attached with the help of Gertie’s and Laurie’s tutorials, and a cute little pocket on the left chest. I basically used the pocket piece from the shirt, cut it to a ¼ of its original size and reproduced the edging at the top.

I thought about lining the top with white broadcloth, so that the fabric print would pop a bit more (very thin horizontal and vertical lines, alsmost like a tiny plaid), but that’s more work than I wanted to put into this “quick and easy” project.

I used baby blue bias tape to finish the armholes and neckline, and sewed French seams for the sides and shoulders.

Overall I’m very happy with the result. Like I said the fabric isn’t all that exciting, but in the end I think it makes for a cute summer top and it was a great opportunity to learn new techniques. I will refrain from wearing it with pigtails and white shorts though…

I'm flying out tomorrow morning for a week of vacation in San Francisco(!), and this top is coming with me so the final "in action" photos of it will be taken there!