Cherry Sorbetto: The hunt for red October begins

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Well, to everyone in Canada, anyway. I am pleased to announce that I actually finished something, mostly, for the Red October Twitter challenge.

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This sew-something-for-an-event thing seems to be working out, for the most part^*. I sewed this Colette Sorbetto hack for Thanksgiving dinner last night. We were going to take pictures on the Dundas St bridge over the Don River on the way to my aunt's house, but it was pouring down rain. Today, by contrast, was glorious, so I went over to take pictures before I tested routes for the Tweed Rally (Come! It will be fun!) and coffeeneuring. The DC had to work, which is why you are stuck with eyes-closed/headless shots taken from the handlebar of the Opus.

The cherry Sorbetto is very similar to my previous Sorbetto hack; it's made out of some rather stiff but still pretty embroidered semi-sheer poly, which I doubled. It turns out you can't really see the under-piece's embroidery at all through the top layer. I took 2 inches out of the gathered section to reduce the poofiness and extended the bottom gathers, but it's still a bit too poofy. I need to tack it down in the middle. I think that maybe that seam shouldn't be straight across, but rather an inverted curve? Or possibly not double the pleat.


I also made the sleeves a lot longer (and then lost most of that length hemming them), but I forgot that the Sew Weekly sleeves are created for a larger size, so I had to do some aggressive pleating at the shoulder to get it to fit. I'm kind of proud of the easing I did in the rest of the sleeves.

I sewed the sides as slim-fitting as I could and still get the top on and off -- which I can, barely. I was entertaining the idea of putting in the side zipper so I could make it fit even closer, but the inside is all French seams and I don't know if I want to rip out all those seams. The material sewed nicely, but refused to press, so making the self-binding was a nightmare. First of all, I made it too narrow, so it barely covers the gathers. Second, did I mention that it refused to press? I didn't want to push it too hard in case it, you know, melted. I made it work, somehow.



The bottom hem looks awful because it was a rush job, thanks to my trying to make far too much bias-binding and then spending too long trying to press it. I'll have to redo it anyway, so I was thinking of hemming it with the bias "binding" which will have the added benefit of making the top a wee bit longer.

So that's one thing done. As for the rest: I started taping together the pattern for the cape for the Tweed Rally (Come! It will be so much fun!) but I still need to prewash the fabric and now I'm thinking I should underline it so that it will be warm as well as pretty, so I have to go out and get some flannel or something.


I've decided to make the Macaron out of the card fabric. I just have to see if a) there is actually enough fabric and b) whether to use the stuff with the black background and dice at all. I was thinking the cards for the main bodice and skirt with the suit pips fabric for the yoke. Should I use the dice for the sleeves and waistband, or what that be too busy, if such a thing is possible?


^*We'll just ignore that whole September thing.