Sorbetto Top FAIL!

So, I guess I ought to blog my failures as well as my successes, and boy was this a failure!  How can anybody get the Sorbetto Top wrong you may ask (if you're familiar with the pattern) - it's just two pieces sewn together with two darts for shape.  How hard can it be??  Well....

I had decided to try and make a top from the material recovered from the linen mix M&S skirt I picked up on last week's charity shop spree.  I wasn't sure how this would work, or whether there was quite enough material, but spurred on by my trousers-to-skirt success I thought I'd give it a go.

Not having a stock supply of my own patterns yet I trawled the blogs and decided to try the Collette Sorbetto Top pattern which is available as a free download.


Having duly printed and pasted my pattern together I read the instructions and measurement guide to decide which size to cut out.  The instructions give this suggestion:

FIND YOUR SIZE 

Use the size chart to determine your size.  Colette Patterns have less ease than many other patterns to provide a closer, more tailored fit.  If you are between sizes, choose the larger size. 

Hmmm...... I had been tempted to cut out the 10, but after reading this I decided to play it safe and go for a 12.  This was my first mistake!

When it came to cutting out the pattern pieces I was a little short of fabric for the back, but managed to piece it together with reasonable results.  For the front I omitted the pleat - also to save fabric.  I sewed the pieces up following the instructions.  It was nice and easy - all went well.  Then I tried it on.

It was a sack.

There's nothing more to be said.  I wish I'd taken photos at this point, but I was so horrified that I whipped it straight off, put it back on again inside out and proceeded to fill it with pins in an attempt to make it fit.  

It was huge at the sides, under the arms, and the back gaped - I mean REALLY gaped!  I tried taking it in down the side seams, and I also put two very long darts down the back, but really it was beyond salvaging.   Here are photos taken after all my alterations:

Bleurgh!  Not good.  The fit still isn't great, the front kicks up for no apparent reason, and those back darts look really amateur.  I gave up, knowing that I didn't want to go through the whole palaver of making bias binding to finish off this monstrosity.  Too bad linen-mix-M&S-skirt-top, you will not be joining me on any outings in the near future!

And how did I deal with this disappointment?  Did I rant and rave or throw the offending pattern pieces out the window?  Thankfully no.  I thought it over for 24 hours then decided to try again.  This time I cut up a bedsheet - my first toile!  I figure working out how things fit me is a crucial stage in making clothes, so I'm going to spend a bit of time experimenting.

Stay tuned for the Sorbetto rematch coming soon!

Can you guess what it is yet?

Poor neglected sewing machine! It has been sat on this chair in a forlorn manner for nearly a month now, with nothing but a shepherd (painted by a 3yr old) for company.  I feel very sorry for it, but am resigned to the fact that I'm unlikely to use it now until after the baby's born.  

I have been resorting to more crochet instead!  My ripple blanket is coming along - although I realised I had made a HUGE error whilst using my Ravelry pattern!  I had forgotten that many Ravelry users are from across the pond, and consequently use American crochet terms, which look the same as English crochet terms BUT ARE DIFFERENT!!!  You say tom-ay-to, I say tom-ar-to?  In this case a dc or double crochet in American terms does not mean an English double crochet, but a treble crochet.  Doh!  I should have had a better look at the picture first and I might have noticed that something didn't quite add up!!  As it is my blanket still looks lovely, but it is probably a lot more dense and less soft than it would have been if I'd followed the instructions correctly!  It may just end up being a 'rolling around on the floor' type blanket instead of a 'wrap me up so I'm nice and cosy' type blanket.  Nevermind - I'll know for next time, and because I've started I'm going to blinking well persevere!! 

For those who may be at risk of making the same mistake I did, here is a chart comparing American and English crochet terms that I lifted from About.com:

British vs American English Crochet Patterns
British English	USA - American English
double crochet (dc)	single crochet (sc)
half treble (htr)	half double crochet (hdc)
treble (tr)	double crochet (dc)
double treble (dtr)	treble (tr)
triple treble (trtr)	double treble (dtr)
miss	skip
tension	gauge
yarn over hook (yoh)	yarn over (yo)

Hope it helps!

Anyway, the ripple blanket is currently on hold as I ran out of yarn yesterday - double doh! - and need to take a trip to Hobbycraft to get some more.  I've been trying to go with more neutral colours for this one as we don't know whether we're having a girl or a boy (and my granny square blanket did have a distinctly girly feel to it!!) so I went with purple, green and cream.  That meant I was still left with my remaining pink and yellow yarn (also from the granny square blanket), so I decided to make use of this on a smaller project until I can get to the shop for more supplies.  

Can you guess what it is yet?

Despite looking alarmingly like a toilet roll cover, this is in fact going to be a baby doll dress for Emily's new Baby Bjorn.  It's another Ravelry pattern (Delightfully Pink Baby Doll Dress by Anna Ness) and yes, I did work out that it uses American crochet terms - yay!  I'm loving the fact that crochet projects come along so quickly (soooo satisfying!) and also that they are so portable.  I've been taking my crochet everywhere with me lately, and it's such a conversation starter!  What with that and being nearly 9 months pregnant I've been talking to all manner of folk recently!  All good fun.

Rapunzel Carnage!

We had a disaster the other morning involving a 3yr old, a disney princess and a bedside lamp.  I left my daughter in her bedroom for a few minutes brushing out Rapunzels tangled locks, and returned to find a singed doll, a mass of hair stuck smoking to the lightbulb, and my distressed daughter cowering on her bed.  We're very grateful - it could have been much worse.  Nobody was hurt, and there was a lot of smoke but no fire, but what a nightmare!

Emily was understandably upset by the whole incident, not least because Rapunzel was her favourite present from Father Christmas.  Thankfully Santa got to hear about it and sent Emily a new doll via Amazon!  So now we have long and short-haired Rapunzels - if only I could work out how to dye it brown!

Needless to say we got rid of the lamp.  We couldn't believe how hot the bulb got in such a short space of time. We're replacing it with one of these:

Peppa Pig Picnic Character Kool Lamp
by Spearmark

It's got me looking round the house to see if I can spot any other disasters waiting to happen.  Scary!