The Sew Weekly

Ask: 8/1/2011

In your opinion, what Western wear items are timeless? Is it something best done vintage?

Theme: Go West

This week is all about calico, gingham, denim and paisley. We're dusting off our boots and heading out West. To get you thinking, here's a little information about the types of Western wear from the past century and a half.

The "Seniors Rule" Outfit

The Facts

Fabric: Border print denim, $2
Pattern: Colette Patterns Sorbetto Tank Top, free; skirt: none;
Year: c. 2011
Notions: Vintage buttons, $.50
Time to complete: 4 hours
First worn: July 2011
Wear again? Yes and Yes!

Total Cost: ~$2.50

This week's outfit is pretty much a carbon copy of last week's creation. When I had thrifted the fabric back in April, I knew it was destined for a Western challenge. I always assumed it would have ended up as a dress. But, the siren song of separates called to me once more and I made yet another Sorbetto with a self-drafted skirt (this is a bonus Sorbetto).

While the Sorbetto calls for lightweight fabric, this medium-weight denim proved to be the perfect fabric for this ensemble. With the belt, it's pretty difficult to tell that this isn't a dress. That's the best thing about it! I HAVE A TOP AND A SKIRT. Did I tell you how much I love separates?

Not one single hiccup with the construction of the top. The buttons are vintage and made from "vegetable ivory" which is, according to Wikipedia:

Vegetable ivory is a product made from the very hard white endosperm of the seeds of certain palm trees. Vegetable ivory is named for its resemblance to elephant ivory.

Vegetable ivory, after research, is actually pretty cool. I thought it was going to be something lame like "vegan leather" which, as far as I know is a hip name for vinyl. Anyway, I got those buttons at Alameda and was happy to find a use for them.

The most difficult part of the skirt construction was the gathers. Since the fabric was heavy, I needed to use quilting thread to baste the gathering stitch. Thankfully, I made a waistband, attached it and then added a zipper. And that was it. Totally easy and totally doable for the beginning sewer.

Regarding the name -- The "Seniors Rule" Outfit: We attended high school in a fairly rural community and quite a few of the students came from farming/agricultural backgrounds. So, of course, while taking these photos, I was possessed by the spirit of the high school senior portraits that frequented our year books. Hay + boots + pickup trucks = awesome senior portraits. 

7DoS: The Society Sorbetto

What's 7 Days of Sorbetto? For seven days, I'm making a different top based on the free and downloadable Sorbetto Tank Top  from Colette Patterns. 

Okay, so my third Sorbetto for 7 Days of Sorbetto isn't a top. But, it started out that way. I knew that I wanted to try making a top with a lace overlay. I happened to have a ton of this lace in my stash (another $1 find) and some bright orange cotton that would work well. 

The original name for this Sorbetto was going to be "The Sandwich Sorbetto" because that's the best way to describe the technique I used. After cutting out a version of the top in lace and orange cotton, I sandwiched the two lace pieces right-side facing each other, between the two orange pieces right-side facing as well. I skipped the darts for this shirt because I didn't want to have visible darts showing through the lace. After sewing the sides and shoulder seams, I used my serger to stitch all of the raw pieces together.

Then, I inserted the sleeves just as I have done with the other Sorbettos.

And, with a little hemming I was finished (I hemmed the top instead of using bias tape). 

It was after I realized that I didn't have the right bottom for this top that I decided to turn it into a dress, in particular a 1920s drop-waisted dress.

 

It was actually Amy who first wrote about turning a Sorbetto into a 1920s dress for Gatsby Summer Afternoon. It's kind of ridiculous how easy it was. I simply cut a skirt bottom that followed the basic angle of the top. Then, after sandwiching it all together like the top, I attached it to the bottom of the Sorbetto top. I spent no more than 2 hours on a dress that I could easily seen being worn to something like Gatsby Summer Afternoon.

Of course that makes me realize how I haven't even started thinking about my real Gatsby dress for this year.

 

 

Other Sorbettos from the 7 Days of Sorbetto Challenge:

7DoS: The Summer Sorbetto

What's 7 Days of Sorbetto? For seven days, I'm making a different top based on the free and downloadable Sorbetto Tank Top  from Colette Patterns. 

Today's Sorbetto, The Summer Sorbetto, is a pretty straight take on the standard pattern. I added sleeves again using the same pattern piece. But, instead of pleating them, I gathered them. The biggest modification to the shirt is the pleated collar, which was quite simple to make.

My original inspiration was the Pleat Trim Top from Boden. I constructed the shirt exactly in the same manner as a basic Sorbetto. For the neckline, I didn't add bias tape. Instead I simply folded over the  edges twice and stitched.

To make the pleat, I cut a long piece of fabric twice the width I wanted to the finished pleated trim. Then, I folded the fabric lengthwise, right sides facing each other and stitched up the sides. I turned the piece outside-in so that there were no raw edges and then stitched the ends closed. 

I pleated and pinned this piece of fabric around the front neckline (I skipped the back) and then simply stitched directly on top of the pleats.

Here's a closer view of the pleated neckline on the shirt:

 And here I am (roots and all) at a family reunion picnic today.

 

Other Sorbettos from the 7 Days of Sorbetto Challenge:

7DoS: The Starter Sorbetto

What's 7 Days of Sorbetto? For seven days, I'm making a different top based on the free and downloadable Sorbetto Tank Top  from Colette Patterns. 

Welcome to day one of 7 Days of Sorbetto, my seven-day challenge to make seven unique tops based on the Sorbetto Tank Top Pattern from Colette Patterns (download your own free copy here). For each top, I hope to provide some sort of tip or inspiration that The Sew Weekly readers can apply to their own Sorbettos. Also, I plan on inviting community involvement (like voting for the fabrics) to make this more of an interactive challenge. I hope you enjoy the next seven days!

But first, why Sorbetto?

I had held off creating a top with the pattern since I'm not a fan of showing my arms in the Sorbetto silhouette. It's hard to articulate the look, but I can only say that it reminds me of photos of my great-grandmother Grabowski from the late 1960s. She was a big woman and wore sleeves tops like the Sorbetto and her jiggly underarms were out in full glory. I'm totally fine with my own jiggly underarms, but the style is just too reminiscent of these photos. That said, I wanted to give the top a chance since others were having great luck with it and didn't look like "Grandma Grabowski."

It took me a while to figure out the pattern for sleeves that would work best with the top (for me) but after three tries, I had something that was easy to construct, flattering and not particularly time-consuming. The Sorbetto pattern on its own is a DREAM to sew. I can make one in about forty-five minutes from start to finish. And, without fail, I haven't made one I didn't like. So, when I decided it was time to do another seven day challenge, this was the pattern I knew was up to the task.

Just in case someone is wondering, Colette Patterns isn't sponsoring this challenge. I picked the pattern because of my own personal experiences.

Let's Begin

While I can't be 100% sure, I'm fairly certain that the majority of Sorbettos I make in the next seven days will have sleeves. Because of that fact, I decided I wanted to offer a printable version of the sleeve pattern I'm using.

Now, I'm not a professional pattern drafter and many folks would be able to do a much better job. Heck, I didn't even make it all bezier and nice in illustrator. I made a quick and dirty version of the sleeve this morning in hopes that it would enough of a jump start for folks to customize their own take on the sleeve. If you're better at this sort of thing and want to draft an improved version of the sleeve, please do (and let me know!). 

Sleeve Piece 1
Sleeve Piece 2

Once you print out these two pieces, use tape to join them together. Or, just use it as a guide for your own smaller or larger version of the sleeve. 

One note: Instead of gathering the sleeves, I make two pleats in the middle where the sleeve meets the shoulder. I find that less irritating than gathering and it allows me to insert the sleeve cleanly before the side seams of the bodice have been sewn.

So for the first day of 7 Days of Sorbetto, I present a fairly straight take of the top, plus the sleeves. For almost every Sorbetto I make, I lengthen the bodice pieces about 2" each. This is because I tend to always tuck my shirts into high-waisted skirts or pants. I need that extra fabric to make sure the tuck sticks (for lack of a better word. To lengthen my Sorbettos, I cut the pattern pieces at the natural waist line and extend from there. 

The fabric I used I thrifted for $.50. Probably the absolute best thing about Sorbetto is how little fabric it requires. The pattern uses bias binding for the edges so there is no need for fabric for facings. And, if you're not making sleeves, it requires even less. For 54" width fabric, I've made the shirt with about 2/3" of a yard. Sorbetto has created a world of possibilities for all my "not-enough-to-do-anything" fabric. 

While it looks silkier than it really is, the fabric is just a nice cotton. Pardon the wrinkles, but I had been wearing it before I took the picture.

The decorative buttons I used were buttons that I debated taking off their card since they were so cute:

And here they are on the shirt:

And here is The Starter Sorbetto being worn. I really am happy with this top, though without proper styling, I could look like I was on my way to Boca.

 

Other Sorbettos from the 7 Days of Sorbetto Challenge:

 

The "Waterloo" Top | Sarah Gabbart

The Facts 
Fabric: 2 yards of white hanky weight linen (from stash; similar at Fabric.com for ~$12 a yard)
Pattern: Sorbetto Top - free from Colette Patterns!
Year: c. 2011
Notions: vintage bias tape from stash
Time to complete: Should have taken: 3 hours; Actually took: 8
First worn: July 2011
Wear again? Yes!

Total Cost: ~$24

Friends, I have met my sewing Waterloo. Behold the beast that nearly sunk my battleship.

My nautical top is a simple Sorbetto with a bib overlay that points in the front and back in chevron stripes. The overlay was bound on the edges with blue and red bias binding. I knew this project would take more time than my previous Sorbetto, as bias binding chevron stripes would be time intensive. 

I had no idea that it would be this time intensive! The basic structure of the top was done in like 15 minutes, the bias binding went on smoothly and even the chevron stripes on the bib came out with minimal effort. I bound the armhole edges and moved on to the task of attaching the bib to the neckline. 

Putting the bib on the first time was a breeze! Then I tried it on. Arms. Can't. Move. It's too long. Ok - cool beans. Rip it out and start again! No bigs.

Round two: still long. Round three: DAHHHHH! Finally, after the 4th round of measuring, repinning and sewing it was a success. Too bad I sewed it on backwards. Yep. I did that.

After using a few words I wouldn't use around my friend's kids, I got back to work. Apparently 5th try is a charm. Shirt completed! 

Hopefully this will be the only Waterloo in my future from now on. I am going to wear this lots and lots to make the pain worth it!

Bonus: you might be wondering, what is that in her hand there? It's the SS Sew Weekly. Ryan made it so that something boat related would be in this post! 

7 Days of Sorbetto

Starting tomorrow, a new seven day challenge with my absolutely favorite top pattern of the moment -- Colette Pattern's Sorbetto Tank Top. 

MTL: Petticoat on the Prairie Skirt

Original Inspiration

• Petticoat on the Prairie Skirt from modcloth.com ($42.99)

Resources

• Fabric: Island Breeze Gauze Dark Ivory ($3.99/yd from fabric.com
• Pattern: Simplicity 2609

The "Harbour Lights" Dress | Debi Fry

The Facts

Fabric: 3 metres blue linen, £15 from Mandors
Pattern: McCall 4114 from Miss Betty's Attic
Year:  1941
Notions: 3 buttons from a pound of vintage buttons gift from the lovely Sofia when she visited Scotland; zipper: £1; 3 metres of trim: £2.50

Time to complete: 14 hours

Wear again? YES!

Total Cost: ~£18

What does every gal who loves 40's style dream about?  Cute sailor dresses and playsuits!!!  I had just the perfect pattern in McCall 4114 from 1941:

This pattern has loads of interesting details!  The collar is done up with two rows of white trim.  You apply the trim first and then face the collar.  Here's how my trim looks:

It's a good thing you apply the trim on the collar piece before you attach it to the dress! It's nerve-wracking enough as it is --I can't imagine doing it last! I am quite happy with how it turned out.  The trim is actually white velvet--which adds a nice texture.

This dress has the 'bloused' effect as well.  The 'faux' pocket features topstitching in white thread and is actually a pleat on each side of the dress.  I also did my first gathering stay with this dress (super easy).  The front part of the skirt features gathers as does the bodice front and back.  Finally the sleeves are pleated--another detail I absolutely adore!

I, ahem, finished the dress at 9:30pm last night.  David was such a trooper and took a bus with me down to the Harbour.  We were able to catch a fantastic sunset.  We event got close up to the Royal Yacht Brittania before two security guards promptly ushered us behind a gigantic fence.  Ah well, it was worth a try :)

This dress is really fun for swirling! We didn't have such great light (though surprisingly good light for 10pm--we don't have a fancy schmancy camera--just a plain old digital that we love).

You can see the Royal Yacht Brittania docked in the background:

YAY! I love this dress so much! Check my blog later in the week for more (daytime) photos as I intend to wear this dress a lot!!