Banana split for my baby, and a bunch of Sorbettos for me...

I love free stuff. Especially free crochet or sewing patterns -- that way if I mess up, I'm only out the cost of the materials. When Me-Made-May rolled around, I thought I should take the plunge and make some tops, but I wanted something super easy and quick. And cheap. Enter the Colette Sorbetto. I made three incarnations, or scoops, if you will.

Here is some music to accompany your reading.

First scoop: black sesame Sorbetto

This is a wearable muslin made of black cotton. I cut the size 0, and the fit is mostly okay. The bust darts and the armscyes are too high; enough for me to notice, but not enough for it to be completely unwearable. I used French seams everywhere. I love French seams when the construction is simple. This is my first time using bias tape binding and for some reason the neckline binding is sticking up at the front neck instead of lying flat. Any helpful suggestions would be gratefully received.

I was very much looking forward to having this nice cool cotton top when the temperatures reached oh-my-god-when-is-winter-coming heights, which they have, but it's currently somewhere in my laundry pile. Le sigh.

Second scoop: vanilla Sorbetto

To fix the bust dart and armscye issues, I lengthened the top and back by an inch just above the neckline. For this version I used a white cotton voile and made the mistake of marking everything using blue chalk. Which you can sort of see from the front. D'oh! Anyway, it fits much better now. I'm still having issues with the seam binding sticking up around the neckline. And the voile is a little too sheer, so you're stuck with a Lucy-eye view of me sewing.

Third scoop: blueberry striped Sorbetto hack

So now, in my arrogance, I feel that I can hack the pattern and make a different style of top. I love a black top that I got at the clothing swap last February and wanted it in different colours. The Sorbetto seemed like an excellent starting point. This particular version is made of mystery chiffon, doubled because the inspiration top is made of doubled chiffon and I'm original like that. I split the lengthened top front in two just below the bust, eliminated the pleat on the bottom, doubled the pleat width on top, squared the neckline, and got rid of the darts. Then I gathered the bust top along both edges between the necklines, sewed it to the bottom, and added the Sew Weekly sleeves.

I made my own bias binding for the first time; since I don't have a tape-maker yet, I had to do it by hand, and I don't think I did a very good job.I used Colette's continuous binding tutorial to avoid too much piecing together, and then wound up forgetting to offset it so I had to piece the pieces together after all. Fortunately, I only needed enough to bind the neckline, but ick. Also I managed to not make them 1" wide everywhere -- there was some creative placement. However, they look okay, and that's all that matters, right?

The hems of the inspiration top have a crinkly serged edge. Lacking a serger, I tried using my edging stitch, but the stitches weren't close enough together. I wound up using my rolled hem foot on the sleeves. That was less than fun with the doubled fabric, let me tell you, and only mostly successful -- especially at the French seams. I just folded up the bottom hem and stitched, and that makes the whole thing a titch too short. I may borrow Aged P's serger one of these days.

When I tried it on, I was mostly pleased, although it was a little too poofy in front and too baggy, resulting in chest gapeage, so I took in the sides just at the bust. That took care of most of the problems. I'm not really sure why the bagginess happened since my other Sorbettos fit quite closely, but it's possible I messed up the seam allowance. I have only just ripped out the bust seam (which was less than fun) and spread the bottom gathers further across to the dart points to get rid of the rest of the poof. Now I am quite happy with it.

Anyone up for gelato?