Sorta Sorbetto

Today's outfit started as an ill-fitting dress and a pair of awkward-length capris. The dress came from last fall's clothes swap. It fit in the shoulders but was clearly intended for someone much perkier than I, like maybe a 12-year-old. Seriously, the supposed-under-bust seam hit me right at the nipples, so I had these weird empty dress-boobs a few inches above my actual boobs. Not attractive.

And then I picked up these pink pants at Goodwill the other day for a couple bucks. They fit great, but I wasn't thrilled with the length. They'll be a super simple fix, so let's tackle those first.

I cut off the legs right above the seam at each knee. I wanted a fairly beefy hem, so since the legs were slightly tapered, I used my seam ripper to pick out the inner seam a bit. This will be hidden inside the legs and keep my new hems from being too snug around my thighs.

I'll show you the finished shorts in a moment, but first let's see what we can do with that dress. I decided to jump on the Sorbetto bandwagon. Every other sewing blogger has made at least one, so why shouldn't I? Only I won't actually use the pattern. If you hadn't already figured it out, I have a habit of winging things. And modifying things. And just doing my own thing in general. Anywho, first, I chopped off the skirt portion. The top can be saved for another project down the road.

I picked out the back darts from the original dress and ironed those nice and flat.

I laid my skirt fabric out with an existing tank top on top of it and cut out the back panel. And actually, after these photos were snapped, I decided to cut the back neckline a bit lower too.

Then for the front, I cut roughly along the same curve as the back on one side, then scooted it over about 4-5 inches, and cut the other side to match. So I ended up with about the same shape, but stretched out in the middle.

I added a couple bust darts.

I pleated the front neckline to the inside instead of the outside like the original pattern. Also, I only did this at the top of the front. I didn't carry the pleat all the way down to the waist hem.

Finally, I cut some of the black lining from the original dress to use as my collar and armhole binding. The easiest way I've found is to sew wrong-side-to-wrong-side first, then fold the binding over toward the outside and give it another sew.

I've already worn this twice since I made it.

I totally drank the Sorbetto koolaid. Might have to make a few dozen more.