Me Made May: Days 20-28

We are nearing the home stretch in Me-Made-May 2013.  I have seen outfit collages on other blogs and realized what a good idea it is.  (It's sad that it took me 28 days to do this)

Day 20: Red Simplicity 2594 cowl neck top (unblogged).
Day 21: not pictured but I wore my brown Vogue 8390
Day 22: New Look 6920 (unblogged and not my favorite top-the straps are a little narrow for me)
Day 23:  Orange Sorbetto
Day 24: V neck Simplicity 2594
Day 25: Vogue 8536 (I didn't leave the house this day, but spent time working on my daughter's Jalie 3134 swimsuit)
Day 26: Purple Renfrew (again)
Day 27: White Sorbetto
Day 28: New Look 6913: I still love the fabric, but I'm not so crazy about the style on me

I have lots and lots of tops.  I also have lots of me-made skirts, but...not so many places to wear them.  In honor of the last week of MMM13, I pledge to wear at least one skirt/dress before the end of the month.  

:)

MMM Day 15 to 19

We are 19 days in to Me Made May and I have only taken 2 days off.  I pledged to wear me-made 5 days a week so I am doing very well!  Both of those days off were Saturdays and were chock full of the kids' activities which required me to schlep to soccer/softball fields and sit in the sun or (as was the case yesterday) in the rain.  Apart from my newly made tee shirts, I don't have many me made tops that have sleeves which I need when out in the sun.  That is definitely a wardrobe hole.  Another need I have is shorts.  I have started a muslin for a pair of Sewaholic Thurlow shorts.  I cut a straight size 12 even though I was worried the waist would be too small.  However...that was not a problem, quite the opposite.  The hips were ok, perhaps a tiny bit big, but the waist was huge!  Check it out:

I am always perplexed when there is such a big difference between what I expect and what is.  (That applies to life in general-not just sewing)  I will be taking these in along the sides and may take some fabric out at the center front as well.  There are some very good things about this pattern, but in it's current state it is definitely a work in progress. 

But let's get back to Me-Made-May!

Wednesday May 15, Day 15:

Hey look!  A new Tee shirt for me!  Another Butterick 5354, this time made in a Rayon blend Tee shirt knit from Denver Fabrics (which is very soft, thin, and it wrinkles like crazy!)

Love this neckline!!

Thursday May 16:

A warm day needs a summery top.  My first Sorbetto was pulled out!

And guess what else?  I got a wireless remote control for my camera!  Ka-Pow! 

Friday May 17:  My husband (who works from home) and I went out to play 9 holes of golf in the afternoon.  I wore my orange (aka "light tangerine") Kwik Sew 3341 for the first time.  There are knit attached shorts underneath the skirt and I was a little worried that I had made them too short to be comfortable playing golf (or doing anything in the heat).  I almost changed my mind about wearing them but decided to suck it up and give it a go.  

I don't have many collared shirts that will go with an orange skirt.  I chose navy rather than black to avoid a Halloweenish outfit.  Verdict on the skirt: yes the shorts are too short, but everything else is great.  I may add on a strip of matching fabric to the bottom of the shorts to lengthen them.  Oh, and I could use a white polo shirt.

Saturday May 18:  Day off of MMM.  I pledged to wear me-made items 5 days a week so I haven't broken that pledge yet :)

Sunday May 19:  

Once again a whole Me-Made outfit!  The top is my just completed (yesterday in fact) Jalie 2566.  Let me tell you it is a great tee shirt pattern.  It is quick, classic, and versatile.  I've made 3 versions for my girls and finally got around to making myself one.  It may even be better than the Sewaholic Renfrew.  I had fewer wrinkles under the armpits with the Jalie.  I plan on doing a side by side comparison to evaluate and decide for sure. The skirt is my second version of Kwik Sew 3341.  When I made this version, I lengthened both the skirt and the shorts underneath.  Smart move.  The shorts are perfect: there's no bunching or riding up and no 'chub rub'. :)

That's it for now, more soon!

Circle Skirt from Saree and Sorbetto #4

A few months ago I went on a little fabric overload shopping trip.  I bought 3 polyester crepe sarees to chop up and use.  In the shop, I thought this saree was a wedgewood/periwinkle blue and beige pattern. When I first saw it in natural light, I was very disappointed: the beige was actually celery green.  :(

The funky paisley part at the end is the pallu: the fancy end of the saree which falls over the shoulder

In the end, the blue color won me over and I decided to make another version of New Look 6899.  This time I made the circle skirt since I had plenty of fabric and circle skirts are notorious fabric hogs.  Prior to hemming, I let the skirt hang for at least a week and it was a wise move.  The parts on the bias stretched over 4"!!  I enlisted a friend to help me mark the hem.  The saree fabric has great drape, is very floaty, and absolutely does not wrinkle!!  See:

When the skirt was on the cutting table, I needed to figure out what top to make to go with it. I downloaded a new wrap top pattern, but after a major muslin "oops", I put that aside and decided to bring out the old standby: the Sorbetto. It is made from a rayon-poly blend called "Busy Lizzie". After 4 versions of the same top, there's not much to say. However, now that I look at these photos, I see weird wrinkles from the boobs diagonally down to the side seams.  Odd.  Am I standing up too straight?  Are my darts too short (I did shorten them)  Any insights about that one? 

Here is the final ensemble:

and a closeup of the fabric:

Second and Third Sorbettos

I am keeping up with my New Years Goals in posting more and cleaning up all of my "Draft" blog posts and turning them into published blog posts!  So without further ado, I present my Second Sorbetto:

I made this one using an orange cotton with a diagonal diamond pin-tuck pattern sewn right in.  I skipped the pleat on the front of the blouse and found matching poplin to use for the bias binding at the neck and  armholes.  Here's a closeup of the fabric.

But wait!  There's more!  Sorbetto #3 was made with an embroidered white cotton with plain white cotton used for the bias tape.  

What else can I say about the Sorbetto?  It's cute.  It's easy, and IT'S FREE!  3 good things yield 3 good versions.  :)

Sorbetto...yeah...ok...it is a good pattern :)

I've been seeing reviews and blogs raving about the infamous Collette Patterns Sorbetto top for ages.  I really couldn't see what the fuss was about.  It's a simple tank, with bias tape on the neckline and armholes, and a pleat down the front.  Yawn.  After several months of yawns from me, I realized that the pattern was FREE!  Well that changes things doesn't it?  Free and downloadable means that I could make a Sorbetto myself and see what the fuss was about.

I took a trip out to one of my most consistent fabric shops on Wednesday to get fabric for Halloween costumes.  It was about 30 minutes closer than my other favorite shop where I knew I would find Cinderella blue satin.  While I was there, I checked out the pile (literally a pile on the floor) of end pieces of fabrics.  I found some pink tie dyed cotton with 'bleached' white flowers.  I initially thought I could use it for something for the girls...but...hee hee hee.  It was destined for me!  There was plenty of fabric (about 1.4m) for something silly like 132 Rupees ($2.70 at today's exchange rate), so a Sorbetto it would become!

I traced off a size 8 and did a 'tissue fit' and realized that the straps seemed a little short, and the bust dart was too long.  So I shortened the bust dart by 1", which is a pretty normal occurrence for me.  Just to be safe, I added length to the straps figuring it would better to be safe than short.  I also did a swayback adjustment.

I initially did an inverted pleat on the front thinking that I wouldn't like it the way it was designed.  But once I tried it on, I realized that the hem became very blousey and not flattering.  So out came the seam ripper and the inverted pleat popped back out.  I adjusted the shoulders quite a bit.  While trying it on, I had a bit of a duh moment when I realized that my shoulders slope differently.  My right shoulder is higher and less sloping than my left.  I actually already knew this after a visit to a physiotherapist, but it never occurred to me to translate that knowledge to my sewing.  I made my own bias tape with matching fabric.  I figured that using white bias tape would draw too much attention away from the funky print.

Forgive the squinting, I chose to
shoot in the sun rather than use a flash

Back view, note the nicely fitting shoulders

Anyhoo...long story short...the Sorbetto was a piece of cake.  So the Simple Sorbetto=a Winner!