Ok, settle in (or skip it). This is a long post. About sewing failures.
It started off well enough - with my desire to make a few work appropriate tops with short sleeves for summer. And in case you're in the Southern Hemisphere, you might guess that my lack of posting indicates things did not go as planned. I had some fun fabric from the Fabric Warehouse popup shop so very happy to make muslins out of them but also liked them and would be very happy to get something wearable too.
The first pattern off the blocks was the Sorbetto top by Colette. Its a woven top with sleeves. Now with somewhat extended sizes. Its a free pattern and I wanted to make it, first to make the top and second, to see what their top block looked like on me in the extended size range.
Frumpy AF is the answer. I made a few changes to the printed pattern to get it graded between sizes and made an FBA too. Unfortunately while the yellow fabric was fun, it was a mission to get the darts at the front to sit correctly.
By the time I finished the neckline was very stretched out.
Meh!
That ended up in the donate pile and I moved onto a hopefully better base pattern.
The second pattern off the blocks was the Cashmerette Montose - a woven top pattern which comes in multiple bust sizes. Sounded a lot more promising.
But the end result was also a big Meh!
I messed up the neckline with my bias tape and it doesn't sit flat. But as I'm not convinced about the rest of it, I didn't bother to fix.
I needed to do a larger FBA despite selecting the 'correct' bust size as the pattern pulls slightly up.
That said, I did wear it a bit and making some changes to the hip/waist curve made it work better.
To be fair to both patterns, they fit as well as some sleeveless tops I've purchased but given that I can customise them to fit my bust etc. I am looking for a better fit. The top below is a RTW top without sleeves - so I'd prefer a better fitting sleeved version but so far I'm coming up short on what I could do to get the top patterns a little closer to what I'd like to wear.
Here's the Cashmerette top again and it looks ok but I don't feel it when wearing it.
Especially from this angle!
So its OK but honestly, with sewing I want better.
So I moved onto round two of the Montrose in a chiffon (again *I think* from the fabric warehouse).
Better make but my chiffon sewing skills were lacking.
I just don't think this top works for me. And I'm not sure why. All very irritating and all very soul destroying. Thankfully, all these makes were a while ago - but I'm a great believer in recording the process for later analysis. I have a top shell on my to do list for the next few months and in the mean time I'll be donating this version too (once I've ironed it - that hem is crazy bad!).
Fingers crossed my next forays in to top production are more satisfying or at least more enlightening. For now, I'm giving the Sorbetto a very hard pass and Montrose a probably not, but maybe if I can figure out what's the issue.
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