Shell Pattern | Sew Eleanor

After giving is a try, I found that I really like Colette’s Sobretto Tank. You can read my review here and here. The Sobretto is a free pdf pattern that you can download here. It is really great blouse to wear under a suit jacket (with a few modifications) and would be terrific for the upcomming hot Summer weather.

Lately, I have found myself contemplating new Sobretto Tanks. I am interviewing for jobs right now, and need some white or blue tops to go under my suit jacket. Here are some of the possible Sobrettos that I might make, using fabric from Emma One Sock.

The first possibility is a Sobretto using this shimmery blue knit. I think this would be really elegant.

Emma One Sock royal/silver metallic rayon jersey 4-way #47723

Shimmery Blue Sobretto

The next blue Sobretto top uses this terrific 100% cotton with tea cups and tea pots. I would make this one with the front pleat and blue or white bias binding at the neckline and arm holes. Alternatively, it would be terrific to finish the edges with a dark blue satin piping. Just charming!

Emma One Sock ‘tea party’ in blue print cotton shirting #47608

Tea Cup Sobretto

Now for some white Sobrettos. Those would go with anything, especially my spring blue tweed suit from Talbots.

Obviously, a white lace Sobretto would be perfect. This 100% cotton bright white lace would be my choice, with a pale blue blue batiste enderlining. I would skip the pleat and clean finish the neckline and arm holes, possibly with a white rayon or silk lining. And of course, since this lace has a scallop edge, that would need to be at the bottom. Finally, I might consider some subtle beading near the neckline. For example, you could put a bead at the center of each of the flowers in the lace pattern.

Emma One Sock double-scalloped all-cotton lace – bright white #47406

White Lace Sobretto

I would love to sew a white linen Sobretto. I particularly love these two striped linen fabrics from Emma One Sock. I would use the white blue-striped fabric for the body and the accompanying blue white-striped fabric for the bias binding. This Sobretto would definitely need the front pleat. Linda also has these striped linen fabrics in a salt & pepper colorway.

Emma One Sock white/blue stripe linen woven shirting #45924

Emma One Sock blue/white stripe linen woven shirting #47305

Linen Sobretto

My favorite of all would be this floral Sobretto. I absolutely love this bright 100% cotton by Jams World. It would be great with or without the front pleat. At this point, I’m not sure if I would bind the edges or clean finish them with facings. Alternatively, I could make it with short sleeves. It is something to contemplate.

Emma One Sock Jams World colorful floral cotton woven #46871

Crayon Floral Sobretto

If you were going to make some Sobrettos for Summer, what would you do?

Colette Sobretto Tank Part 2

cp0003-sorbetto-01-med-d99ef177f976e452371143dfd3a1a064

Sobretto Tank, Colette Patterns

As you know, I recently made my second Sobretto Tank, by Colette Patterns. For my first post, which describes how I fitted the pattern to myself, click here. This is my second post, which describes my embellishments. If you would like to see the ways other people have embellished the Sobretto Tank, check out my Pinterest board here.

I am very interested in fabric manipulation, especially smocking. While surfing the web, I found this example of ribbon smocking, and decided to give it a try. I found this tutorial of how to smock ribbon.

I couldn’t figure it out until I checked out a tutorial for shell smocking fabric, which is a kind of Canadian smocking. Here is the graph that I used.

Shell Smocking Graph From Sewn Up by TeresaDownUnder

That helped me to figure out how this worked. So, here is the result, where is am almost finished tacking the smocked ribbon down to the neckline of my Sobretto. You can see both the front and the back of the ribbon, which is a one-inch polyester grosgrain ribbon that is smocked with matching thread. I chose an orange sorbet color, as the fabric already had some much pink in it.

Tacking Shell Smocked Ribbon To Sobretto Tank Neckline

The ribbon trim is supported by a self-drafted continuous facing. The facing is made from some batiste that I had left over from making my daughter’s baptismal gown years ago. It is interfaced with a very light knit fusible interfacing.

To fancy-up the top a bit more and to cover the tacking stitches in the middle of the shells, I decided to add a few seed beads to each of the shells.

Auditioning Beads For Shell Smocked Ribbon Trim on Sobretto Tank

I decided to use the first three beads on the ribbon trim. You can also see the herringbone weave of the fabric.

Beaded And Shell Smocked Ribbon Trim On Sobretto Tank

I made a tiny hem, so that I can tuck this top into my skirt/pants.

Hem Of My Sobretto Tank

And finally, I added a hand embroidered label, so that my husband will know what to do with this when he is doing the laundry. Thread lingerie carriers (not shown) were added to the shoulder seams, so that I can attach the top to the straps of my brassier.

Washing Label

And again, there is my final result. I am really happy with the results and will be making more Sobretto Tanks. They will be perfect to wear under a suit jacket during the Summer.

Me In My Ribbon Embellished Sobretto Top

There are few changes that I might make to this top. The first thing that I might do is raise the neckline a small amount. When I tried this top on, under a suit jacket, it seemed pretty low. With the bias binding, it would have been slightly higher. I might also add sleeves. There are lots of patterns for adding sleeves to the Sobretto on the web. Also, I would like to try other sorts of fabric manipulation. For inspiration, I put together a Pinterest board of other Sobretto tops that other people have made and other embellishments that might be great on the Sobretto. People are very creative! I will definitely be trying some of these out.

Happy Sewing!