Butterfly Sorbetto Top

A few weeks ago the catalog from Boden landed in my letter box. And I was instantly hooked. So many lovely summer dresses and blouses. I love the fabrics and the style. Then I saw the Vintage Sun Top and immediately the Sorbetto pattern from Colette pattern sprang into my mind.

Vintage Sun Top from Boden (source)

So here we go: my Boden-inspired Butterfly Sorbetto Top.

Worn tucked in with my Beignet Skirt.

Fabric: I used a cotton lawn from my stash. And actually I had cut the Colette Parfait from the fabric already and managed to squeeze out the Sorbetto from the leftovers :) Win! (The Parfait is still waiting for its zipper, so as soon as that is done you will see it as well.) For the collar I used some white cotton lawn scraps.

Or not tucked in worn with the Meringue Skirt.
The hem is finished with a rolled hem done with my overlocker.

Construction: I had to modify the Sorbetto pattern a little and added a collar and the back button stand. I have made a back button Sorbetto before (here), but modified it even more to avoid any topstitching at the button stand. My button stand is 2 cm wide and I stabilised it with fusible interfacing.

The buttons came from my stash. I had only one gold button and thought it is cute to attach it to the top. I tried to sew it into the middle of the collar, but because the sewing machine had problems with stitching the top buttonhole, I was not able too. I actually had to hand stitch half of the buttonhole.

Buttons :)

To draw the collar I used my french curve. The Peter Pan collar is a bit small for my taste and when I am going to make the top again, I will make the front curve a bit bigger. I finished the neckline with bias tape and the part you are seeing is 1/2" wide.

I then made spaghetti straps using this tutorial from the Fashion Sewing Blog. It worked amazing and the straps turned out super thin :) I hand stitched the strap onto the necklines bias tape and also finished the ends with a couple of hand stitches.

The armholes are also finished with bias tape. But this time I folded it in half, stitched its raw edge to the raw edge of the armhole on the right side. Then turned it inside and stitched with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Do I like it? Absolutely! I haven't worn it yet, but see myself wearing it loads during summer (in the hope that we are getting a proper warm summer in the UK). I love the style of the top, the butterflies (obviously) and that I managed to copy a RTW blouse. Without wanting to clap myself onto my shoulder, I have to say that my blouse fits even better at the back than the one the model from Boden is wearing, yeah.

I love that you can wear the top either tucked in or not tucked it. I like both looks :)

Vote for your favorite Hawthorn dress!

I am so happy! My Hawthorn dress made it under the first 20 dresses of the Colette sewing contest! Now it is open to the online community to vote for their favorite dress. They are all so pretty and I am sure it was hard for Sarai to choose! As there are so many lovely dresses, there will be a second voting round on Thursday.

Please check out the Colette website to vote for your favorite dress. If it is me :) then I would be super happy about your support. You will find me under elas adventures, which is the name of my Flickr website. Voting is open until today midnight Pacific.

Meet my Hawthorn Blouse!

I always wanted to have a blouse with a peplum, because they look so feminine. But somehow, I never bought one - which might be because I am not wearing trousers and because the skirts I am having don't really go with a peplum blouse. But having seen the Hawthorn pattern I knew time finally arrived :) And here she is, my newest addition to my wardrobe (and only blouse):

Let's talk about the fabric first! Coincidentally (are there any coincidences?), I had a beautiful liberty cotton lawn (copy print) in my stash. When I saw it at Goldhawk road, I had to have it even without having a project in mind. Luckily I bought 1.5 m and I had just enough for the blouse, yeah! For the collar and sleeve band I used some white leftover cotton lawn. The buttons I had in my stash - and as before with the Hawthorn Shirt Dress - they were the only ones I had enough from. I decided against a lining as I wanted to make a floaty, airy summer blouse. This time I also resisted to buy any matching lace for the hem.

Pattern alterations: Although I love my Hawthorne Shirt Dress, I knew that there was still some room for improvements. The main issues with it were: back and sleeves are to tight! The tight back was easy to change. I just added 3/8" in the shoulder area - which makes a big difference in comfort! As for the sleeves, it took me a while to address that problem. But thanks to my boyfriend (hey, I am the one who attended the fitting class!), I found a way. I just did a broad shoulder adjustment! Obviously, I didn't check the sew-along first to see if there were any recommendations, no I just added 1" at front and back armholes (at the shoulder semas) and used my french curve to shape the armhole. I also elongated the sleeve cap about 5/8" and - following the "Sew the perfect fit" Craftsy class by Lynda Maynard - did a cut on Gusset alteration to make the sleeves more comfy under the arms.

Neatly overlocked waist seam.

For a few weeks now, I am deeply in love with Peter Pan collars. But I hadn't found the time to make one  (and that although I have pinned loads of tutorial on Pinterest). So, the opportunity arose, to make one for the Hawthorn blouse. To change the collar, I only used my french curve. Aligning and moving it around until the collar had a shape that I liked :) When I stitched the collar pieces together, I used a 1/4" seam allowance only. So this time the collar fit perfectly and because I used the 1/4" only, it was even a bit bigger and more to my liking.

My modified Peter Pan collar and button detail.

I love that the collar is so round and smooth.

I prefer my clothes to be a bit longer and therefore cut the peplum a size 18 lengthwise. I also moved the waistline down 1" as it is a bit high on my Hawthorn Dress. Puh, looking at that long paragraph I actually made a lot of alterations!

Pattern instructions: I was flying when stitching this together! As I had a lot of practise having sewn the Shirt Dress, it really was super easy. Who needs instructions? 

Full back view.

What I like (or love): I love that I made a summary blouse. When wearing it I feel like on holidays :) The fabric is so thin and floaty. Also the pastel colours go so nice with the white collar and sleeve band (and my hair, hihi). My sleeves look/feel much better and I can stretch my arms without being afraid to break any seams :)

Summer time and the living is easy...

What I don't like: That I don't have a skirt that goes with the blouse! For the photos I was wearing trousers, but I rarely wear them in real live. I can imagine a simple A-line skirt would go nicely with it. I had a look at Megan Nielsens Kelly Skirt pattern and also at Colettes Beignet skirt. What do you think? Do you know any pattern that I could use?

Have I worn it? Yes. I wore it to work on Monday, even with a pair of trousers, wuhu. And it felt great!

Will I make it again? Definitively yes! I am already looking out for a light denim fabric to make the dress with long sleeves and plackets! I could also imagine to make another blouse, but than there are so many other patterns that I would love to sew. So much to sew, but so little time!

Hawthorne sew-along: fabric choice and pattern alterations

Have you started to sew your Hawthorne shirt dress? Which fabric did you choose and have you made any alterations to the pattern?

I am using two cotton fabrics: a purple poplin and the other one? I am not sure, it might be a quilting cotton because it is a bit stiff and quite thick! I know the pattern recommendations say to stay away from quilting cottons because they don't drape nicely but I just love the fabric pattern (also I bought the fabric in a dress fabric shop - so it should be for dress making, right?). I love all the beautiful ladies in their purple dresses, the Eiffel Tower, shoes, handbags and doggies. The fabric is kind of me :) so I HAVE to use it. I also got some black lace trim for the hem from Shepherds Bush Market and found some shirt buttons in my stash. To line the bodice I am going to use white cotton silk.

Now let's talk about the changes I made to get a proper fit.

According to my high bust measurement, I am smaller than size 0 and my waist measurements gave me size 4. So, I traced size 0 for the bust and then graded up to size 4 starting under the armhole and finishing at the waist. As I knew already (from my Palmer/Pletsch fitting class) that I have sloping shoulders, I applied my usual changes immediately to the shoulder seams: I took out 3/8" from the front and added these at the back. I also adjusted for my sway back and folded out 1/2" in the centre back tapering to nothing towards the seam. When I tried on the tissue, the fit looked nice. So, I went ahead and cut the calico muslin - which is unfortunately stiff but was the only fabric I had to hand - and pinned it all together.

As you can see in the pic, there was too much fabric on the bust (kind of expected as Colette patterns are cup C and I am only A) and also a massive fold on my back - both I didn't spot when trying on the tissue. I pinned these out and measured the excess fabric to know how much to remove from the pattern.

Pinned out fabric at the bust

Pinned out fabric at back

On the pattern, I did a small bust adjustment by overlapping the tissue at the apex by 3/8" and I also made a narrow back adjustment.

SBA

Narrow and sway back adjustment

I then changed my muslin (luckily I could use my old one, as I had to make it smaller) and tried on again. The muslin fitted snugly and I went ahead to cut out my fashion fabric. Lazy me didn't make a muslin for the collar and sleeves here because I thought that will fit :P The cutting and marking took me half a day, as I am not the fastest in cutting out (and I also had to trace all my pattern pieces and make changes to collar and facings) and there were many pattern pieces.

I am looking forward to hear about your fabric choices and the alterations you made!

Colette Pattern Sew-Along - Are you participating?

I am so excited (again). I just saw that Colette pattern is hosting the Hawthorn Sew Along! I do love Colette patterns and have made a few clothes (not posted yet, but soon to come) already.

 There are two version for the Hawthorn: a dress with a semi-circle skirt and a blouse with a peplum. Both have a flat collar and look absolutely stunning.

The recommended fabric are lightweight ones, such as lawn, cotton poplin and linen. They are nice fabrics to sew with and I even have a few lawns in my stash, yeah. I am not sure so, if they are long enough - I have to check when home. Such a pity, that I just made my picnic blanket skirt from polka dot linen. I can image the linen and polka dots would go so well with the dress. The collar would be in red or white, so beautiful.

The skill level is intermediate, but Colette patterns say that also a confident beginner could tackle the sew-along! Am I a confident beginner? What makes you a confident beginner? I mean I am able to fit a little, to sew straight lines, to attach sleeves and bias tape.    

They are having great prices as well! $250 at Hart's fabric - imagine how much fabric you can buy with this! And also some Amy Butler fabrics, swoon.

What do you think? Are you going to participate in the sew-along?

I am definitively still thinking!