Dartless Sorbetto Toile

Southern Oregon has been under a cloud of wildfire smoke for several weeks.  Some days are worse than others - on the bad days, I've been been wearing an N99/carbon filter mask.  Not particularly photogenic... but very helpful. 

Today I debuted a toile I made last week after reading an instagram post about gender neutral sewing patterns by @sewqueer.  A comment mentioned a hack by @makerandshaker  to take the darts out the Sorbetto tank.  My interest was piqued for sure. The tutorial appeared on the Colette blog a couple years ago.  It's back before the new release of the pattern, so I used my older version, which I much prefer.  I wish SO MUCH that I had a PDF of the old version, as well as my taped-together paper version.  

To get outside, I wore a Vogmask.  I have this one and the cheetah print.  I thought this one almost matched my outfit of blue/white print with solid black.

 Here you can see how there is no dart anymore.  It's kind of a weird armpit shot... but the best way to see the difference.

I really struggled with the old and new Sorbettos on dart placement.  The old version, the dart was too high, the new version too low.  I recently tried dropping the dart in a muslin of the old version and then it was too low, so I tried redrafting to be a bit higher and cut a second muslin... but then I saw this tutorial and I hacked the pattern piece a 3rd time to get rid of the dart all together.

I didn't change the hem or add a pocket, but I do think this cut without the center pleat or the bust dart looks better untucked than the original.  I probably won't wear it that way often, but it's nice to have options!

One final note, I played a little with the width of the straps, trimming them down just a bit so I could add the external bias binding and still have a slimmer strap that I had liked on the ones where I turned the bias under (about an inch narrower, altogether.) 

I started small, but I think another 1/2 inch or so off the outer edge of the strap and a little bigger scoop might be just the ticket on the next version. The process for a TNT pattern takes so many makes... but it's fun and interesting too. Sometimes I have more patience than other times... this time, I really enjoyed the process and the outcome.

Happy sewing + clean breathing to all! <3