I recently stumbled across the *free* pattern for the Sorbetto top from Colette Patterns. I immediately went looking for the perfect fabric. I wanted something bright and cheerful for spring and also something that was silky feeling. I found this orange, pink, and brown ikat fabric in the clearance bin! I was so excited about it until I was getting it cut at the store. The lady in line behind me commented on all of the stripe matching that I was going to need to do. I hadn't thought of that!
Needless to say this took me much longer to make than I originally anticipated. I looked at a lot of websites to find a way to match stripes correctly. The best resource that I found was from the Sewaholic blog. The post is here. It contains a lot of pictures and clear explanations. I did okay for my first striped garment, I think. On the sides, the seams are not perfect, but they are close enough that it is not distracting. One thing that I did not think about when I was cutting the fabric was the position of the dart. I should have made the dart inside one of the large stripes. Live and learn.
The fabric is very sheer so I also bought lining fabric to go underneath. I just cut out the pattern pieces from both the lining and the top fabric and pinned them together like they were a single fabric piece.
I used French seams on the inside. It makes the inside look so much more clean! I found a good tutorial on French seams on the Coleterie blog. This is by far the prettiest inside of anything that I have ever made.
Looking at the pattern, I could tell that the top was going to be short, so I added two inches at the bottom for a little more length. I am not particularly tall (5'4") and I think that my torso is fairly short, but the top was still much shorter than I normally wear. I have worn the top both with jeans (untucked) and with a skirt (tucked in) and I am definitely more comfortable with it tucked in. The top is also a bit tight in the armholes. I am planning on making another Sorbetto top because I really like the style. Next time, I am going to add 0.5" to the top of the pattern to give me more ease in the armholes and several more inches at the bottom for length.
With all of that said, this is my favorite piece of clothing that I have sewn for myself!
