A new Sorbetto

I found a nice remnant of cotton sateen in my LFS and snapped it up. Spur of the moment thing :). Cotton with 4% elastine. Black and white in what I'm calling "bamboo check". But what to do with 0.8m.

I had envisaged a top - sleeveless I think - there's less than a metre. The obvious choice was a Sorbetto from Colette Patterns. I made my first Sorbetto two years ago and whilst the top itself was successful, it was too big for me.

This time I cut a size 10. I left extra at the side seams just in case, but I was confident, given the little bit of stretch, that this would be the right size. At the moment I'm sewing in 1/2 to 1 hour bursts. Too many other things going on to be able to take more time. I managed to get this cut out and made up over three nights. Including the neck and arm binding. I can feel the increased confidence and speed in doing some things like edge and seam binding, that were challenging only a couple of years ago.

I thought I'd have a go at changing the pattern up a bit. I tried inverting the pleat, stitching down about 1" from the neckline and letting the ironed in box pleat hang free. I think the concept has merit but perhaps not in cotton sateen, which is a heavier fabric than recommended. I wore it today and I spent half of the day brushing down and rearranging the pleat to make sure it hung properly. I'm going to unpick the neck binding and redo the pleat the original way. But I will keep this change in mind for another time.

UPDATE: I made the change to the pleat and I'm so much happier with it. It's on high rotation over summer. The cut of the neckline and armscye are just right. I can wear it to work or casually with jeans or shorts.