Spotted Gauze Sorbetto

Hazy summer day!

I bought some double gauze in the sale at my local fabric store -- I've had my eye on this particular bolt for a long while but when I finally decided to buy some there was only one metre left.

So what to do? Make another TNT -- that I way I know it will use the fabric well and it will fit me.

Excuse my squinty eyes -- I just got back from the eye doctor!

So I got out my Sorbetto pattern and went back to a variation I've used before when I have barely a metre of fabric to play with. I lay it out with the pleat placement line for the front actually on the front fold, to eliminate the pleat and fit the top onto limited fabric.

And I use an old add-on short sleeve pattern.

It worked -- it just fit onto this small piece of polka dotted double gauze. I made a few changes due to the fabric though. I sewed it all using French seams, to avoid any fraying or separating along the seam lines. It gives such a nice finish. With a 5/8" seam allowance, I like to sew my first go at 1/4", trim that down to about 1/8" and then finish it off with a 3/8" final seam. Trimming the first line helps to avoid loose threads and fabric coming through the final stitching.

I didn't want to press this much, since I wanted to keep the hand nice and crinkly, so to hem the sleeves and bottom, I stitched a line at 1/4" then just folded it up at that line and over again, finger pressing and then stitching it down. I then gave it all a light press with steam and that got all of the waviness out of the hems.

To finish the neckline, I magically had the perfect denim blue cotton bias binding in my stash that I thrifted a while back. I finished it with the binding and gave it another gentle steam press to get the neckline smoothed out. The binding is slightly heavier in weight that this airy fabric so it did sag outward a bit, but I think the pressing fixed most of that.

This was a straightforward make that I took a little extra time with to use the fabric to its best advantage. I'm glad I went a bit more slowly because I really love this finished top.