Sorbetto – Carmen Sews

If you haven’t guessed already by the title, I started on the Colette Sorbetto this week after discovering it on the website, various Instagram photos in my feed and Samantha’s awesome Sorbetto post. I love the look of the blouse with the pleat in the center running all the way down. The blouse has options of with or without sleeves but I knew that I would make one with sleeves because I really don’t prefer the sleeveless blouse look on me.

I already had fabric in my stash that I thought would be lovely with this pattern. I originallay bought this fabric for a Sew Over It Pussy Bow Blouse, however I ended up making the kitty cat one instead.

This fabric is a crepe that I bought from Fabric.com and I love the floral detail.

The pattern for the Sorbetto is very straightforward, however it does call for bias tape around the neckline. I knew that I did not want to use manufactured bias tape for this project so I decided to make my own.

I purchased this bias tape maker kit off of Amazon for $8.50. This kit comes with tape makers in 4 different sizes. I ended up making a double fold bias tape to use around the neckline using the largest 25 size tape maker and folding it over.

This is where my sewing confidence went from high to low. I completely struggled with this step because I was making small mistakes that turned into one big mess. After sewing on the bias tape it was drooping and not sitting flat against my neck. I wanted to cry because before adding the bias tape the blouse fit perfectly.

I ended up removing the bias tape and starting over. I remeasured the neckline and recut another strip of fabric. After making the bias tape, I then reattached it to the neckline. This fixed the gaping issue however, I started to realize then that I had not sewn the pleat wide enough after viewing various Instagram posts as well as The Colette website pictures. The pleat on the website looked to be around 2 inches wide and mine was more like 1 inch! I then reread the pattern instructions (shame on me for glossing over this step the first time).

This pleat issue meant that I had to again remove the bias tape so that I could widen my pleat. I restitched the pleat, this time going down the line that is indicated on the front pattern piece. Having to remove the bias tape a second time was frustrating but such a valuable learning experience! I am going to make a full effort to read the pattern instructions all the way through when working with new patterns from now on I swear!

After deepening the pleat I was really happy with the way it turned out

I also decided to modify the sleeves with the puffy ones that I made in my last Moneta. I really love the look of puffy sleeve and until I get tired of this look I will add puffy sleeves whenever I get the inspiration.