A Very Swanky Sorbetto

I've recently jumped on the Sorbetto bandwagon - have you? It is such a cute and easy pattern and is free!

I made this in a beautiful black eyelet from Tessuti that I bought two weeks after Little M was born. I needed to line it, so I used some magenta chiffon from my stash. The binding is the same gorgeous Mokuba wool binding I used for my NY Cape.

I didn't have quite enough of the eyelet to make the full pleat at the front, so I decreased it by approximately 1.5cm. I also stitched the pleat down as the thickness of the eyelet, and the double layer made it stand out from the body too much. I basted the eyelet and chiffon together and treated it as one piece of fabric - I thought about doing a separate lining but thought it would look funny through the eyelet. I made a straight size 6 with no alterations bar decreasing the pleat and stitching it down - though I did hand-stitch on the binding so it looked neat.

Next time I was thinking about lowering the neckline a smidge -what do you think? I really like the Sorbetto top - so easy and cute - I think I'll be making more - perhaps in cotton though so it is more airy for this crazy heat we've been having!

My Most Favourite Skirt in the World

Do you make yourselves a special garment for Christmas day? I do. I've gotten into the habit since I started sewing, and as of next Christmas, I'm going to sew something special for Little M too. I'm also going to sew her birthday dresses every year - I've got the cutest pattern picked out for this year - more on that to come soon.

This year I had a sew myself something that would allow me to breastfeed, and something heat-friendly - Melbourne's weather on Christmas day was tropical - reminded me of my Queensland home! When we were in Italy, Tessuti posted this skirt made by Georgia on their blog. I immediately fell into lust, and wanted to make my own using some of my Singapore cotton. Here is what I came up with:

I used a yoked waistband off a simple skirt pattern, and the tiers are just rectangles of the fabric - the full width and 25cm long. I didn't have enough fabric to make 3 tiers - I stupidly didn't check my fabric width, made the skirt using 3 tiers (1st tier is one piece of fabric, 2nd tier is two, 3rd tier is three), slipped it on to test the fit and looked like I was wearing a bandage on the top half. My fabric was 110cm wide, Georgia's lovely version was 145cm wide. Woops. So I unpicked and started again. Dedication I say.

I fully lined it using a viscose lining from my stash as the fabric is very sheer - the lining makes the skirt more full and very swishy, which I love. Who doesn't love a good twirl?

The best part of the skirt to me though is the pom-pom trim along the hem (completely copied from Georgia). It is from Tessuti, and is extremely cute (Little M thinks so too - she tried to rip it off - I think she's brilliant for using her pincer grip, but would prefer her not to practice on my skirt :-). I used just under 4m.

I feel very feminine in this skirt, and hope to wear it more this summer - I might wear it to lunch with a dear friend of mine today. I don't know what to start on next - got the Colette Patterns Handbook for Christmas from Michael - should I make the Meringue skirt? Any other suggestions?

Lisette Portfolio Tunic and More Clovers

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a lovely holiday period here, did you? It was great to have Michael at home, and Little M loved Christmas and all the wonderful gifts she received from everybody. And she gave us a wonderful Christmas present - she started to crawl on Boxing Day! Prior to that she had been commando-crawling, but on Boxing Day she really took off. I'm run off my feet keeping up now though!


With Michael being at home I had some time to sew. As I mentioned in my last post, I was hankering for a black pair of the Clover trousers. So they got made - the only change I made was to decrease the front crotch length by 1cm - I think I'm happier with the new crotch length, but haven't worn the pants for any length of time yet to tell.

I also really need a few more 'nice' shirts - I wear t-shirts most of the time, and am sick of them. I don't really have too many shirt patterns in my collection, so at the Clegs Boxing Day Sale, when all patterns are $5, I picked up Simplicity 2245, the Lisette Portfolio tunic.

I made view C, the shirt. It is a very easy make - the only quandary I faced was that my bust size is a size 14 (!!) and the rest of my body equates to a 10. So I went the middle ground and cut a 12, and took in the side seams from the bust point down. Probably not the 'proper' way to do it, but I wanted something that was easy to make. 

I made this out of my lovely Singapore cotton, with some scraps of linen from Tessuti in my stash. I love this blouse - love the collar, and the cute button detail at the back.

I really recommend this pattern - it is a simple project with enough cute details to play around with. I think I'm going to make the longer dress-length tunic - but have so many projects on my mind at the moment!