The Map Top as seen on GBSB

Hey hey,

There's been a short break in scheduling recently, due to epic work times. Last week we had a lot of work-related visitors, and above all the organisation, we also took them out for dinners two nights in a row so by the end of last week I was pretty wiped out.

Thank you so much for all of your lovely comments regarding my PGP. It is much better now, I just have to remember not to overdo it and ya know... make a shelf or anything. Which I may have done on Sunday... 'cause I'm a fool. Totally worth it for happy flowers in the yard though. With regards the PGP, I would highly recommend getting to a physio as soon as possible, it has really helped me.

So in sewing news! I've been promising for ages a blog post about the top that I wore for the first episode of GBSB. I actually got these pictures in Whitby when me and Mr T went over at Easter but again... life is hectic blah blah boring boring. Pretty pictures!

I actually made this top the night before my GBSB audition, I wanted something exciting to wear for it, and to try and prove to myself I could sew something quickly. I was still sewing well into the wee hours so I don't think the speedy sewing thing really paid off, but otherwise this was a total success!

The top is made from the Sorbetto free pattern from Colette patterns. This is a simple tank top shape, with bias bound hems and an outward facing pleat design down the front. However, as you can see on my version I messed with this pleat a little. I like to have lots of room around my hip/ belly area, so instead of stitching down the entire pleat I inverted it, and left the lower half unstitched and pleated. This has become very useful during the expanding belly bump phase as I still have room for me!

So how did I actually do this? Basically I pinned the two sides together according to the design lines, up to where I thought the pleat should finish. However, I folded the excess material to the inside rather than on the outside. 

I then tried it on (trying not to jab myself in the boob with a pin), and adjusted the pleat so that it finished just under my bust. 

I then stitched to this line, making sure to double back over my stitches so that they wouldn't come undone at the bottom of the pleat. Et voila! One open pleated Sorbetto, the rest of the construction is very simple, just adding the bias binding to edges. 

It' a great top for comfy weekend wear, and I will be taking it away to Croatia next week for my holidays! I'm so excited, I'm going to lie down, fall asleep, bake myself and Spud in the sun (and occasional rain) read masses of books and plan things I probably won't ever have time to do. It's gonna be flipping brill. Have a great week guys X