Archer Button Up in White Linen

This one has been in the in-box of my mind for quite a while. I cut it out and took the pieces to NH to visit DS and family. No real sewing occurred there. DGD and I retrieved the sewing machine I've stashed there and made some scrunchies she wanted. I will cheerfully sew anything with her!

When I arrived back home, I decided to take my time making this Archer Button Up. What a pleasure it was.

I made one other Archer, the view with the back peplum. I like it quite a lot and picked up some ideas for improvement.

The view I selected this time is almost a classic shirt. It contains a double layer yoke with forward shoulders as well as a collar with a collar stand, though it's not at all obvious from their line drawing. The back contains an inverted pleat and no peplum.

The line drawing looks like a Peter Pan collar. The pattern contains a collar band and collar.

The not-so-classic characteristics include separate right and left fronts. The left front has a cut-on front placket and the right front has a separate placket pattern piece. This could be quite handy if you're working with a plaid and want to position the front placket on the bias, or if you want to highlight a second fabric down the front.

It's not handy if you're trying to match a pattern because you have an extra vertical seam to match. I cut two left fronts - there was no need for a separate button placket piece. In this solid white, the top-stitching makes it almost impossible to determine if the front band is a separate piece or not, IMO.

Another not-so-classic characteristic is the continuous bias sleeve placket.

Although this is faster than a typical menswear shirt placket, I don't think it is quite as sharp-looking. I have fun making conventional menswear shirt plackets every time I don't screw up. This time the sewing goddess was watching over me and I got each completed in a single try. Hooray!

I do like the notched corner of the Archer shirt

I used my modified collar stand from my previous make of the Archer. It's a little deeper than the collar stand included in the pattern envelope. I'll make another version with the classic collar and stand at some point in the future.

I shortened the sleeves per my notes from version 1 of the Archer shirt. My arms are not proportionally short. Reviews over on pattern review indicate this is an issue for lots of people.

It's worth noting that the sleeve edge has a lovely curve where it attaches to the cuff. It is such a nice draft. It has just the right amount of poof and looks better on the body, I think.

I made one other teeny-tiny change in the pocket, something no one will ever notice. It's the little things that make sewing fun for me. I top-stitched each pocket onto the shirt in what is mathematically a continuous loop. That is, I started and stopped at the same point. The appearance is just 2 rows of top-stitching. It secures the top corners nicely.

I used flat-felled seams throughout the process. The seam allowances are only 0.5" so a mock flat-felled seam was tricky. Midway through I realized this was an opportunity to make real flat-felled seams by positioning the back seam allowance below the front seam allowance.

Of course, it's a bit anxiety-producing to sew that flat-felled seam from the shirt hem, under the armpit, finishing at the sleeve hem. It's like a journey to the center of the earth. Woot! when I successfully arrive at the center.

Woot!

I made a change in the order of completion. I prefer to finish a shirt tail hem before sewing the side seams. This reduces the size of the wings at the hips, I think. Otherwise the shape of the hem tends to flare out at the side seams when the hem is finished.

It was fun to press it this morning and look at it, all crisp and white on the dress form. That won't last but I will definitely enjoy having this basic in my wardrobe.

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Orange and Purple

I volunteer each Wednesday at a food pantry. It's quite a large operation, providing a market-style experience to about 200 families each Wednesday. Several times a year we volunteers participate in city-wide activities that raise money for our operation and others providing a similar service. And we receive brightly colored T shirts. This year's is bright orange and last year's was purple.

These T shirts are sized for men, wider through the shoulders and more narrow through the hips. I am not shaped like that and I never end up wearing these shirts. But I do like to combine them into a shirt that fits.

I was not terribly adventuresome with this project, using Grainline Lark T shirt pattern pieces. This is a basic (ladies) T shirt pattern that fits me. I cut the front and back from the body of orange T shirt (sized XL), and the sleeves from the body of the purple one (sized M).

Orange and purple is a cheerful color combination, I think. Makes me smile.

This is a good reminder to always have fun while sewing. This was all fun.

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The Stowe Bag

A few years ago, Grainline Studio and the Fringe Supply Co jointly published a pattern for the Stowe Bag. I think it was conceived as a handy bag for knitting projects. I knit from time to time but it is not a passion. I'd much rather be sewing (or drawing).

I've been meaning to make it for a while now just because it looks interesting. I finally made it because my reusable grocery bags evaporated. I keep them in the back of my station wagon and one day - poof - they were not there. DH believes I left them somewhere.

The Stowe comes in two sizes and has an interesting shape, I think. My first one was made in the smaller size. I followed the instructions carefully and learned a lot about its shape.

Version 1 with the flat pleats

The overall shape of it is the same as the ugly plastic bags handed out at my local grocery store. It has inner pleats that make the shape flat and regular when stored. In the case of the Stowe, the pleats are sewn on the same side; in the case of the plastic bag, one pleat is created on each side. The effect is identical from the outside. You can see one pleat here on my plastic grocery bag turned wrong-side-out.

I had never noticed how clever the construction of a plastic shopping bag is. It folds nice and neat and it fits on the metal hooks at the check-out stand. Cool engineering, IMO.

The instructions were straight-forward with the possible exception of steps 13 and 15. In step 13, the flat pleats are created and then in step 15, it is boxed. I *think* it is boxed on the exterior but I cannot be sure. The picture provided makes no sense. The step 15 picture is a boiler-plate picture for conventional boxed corners which is not possible after the pleats are stitched down in step 13.

Grainline Studio created a short video to illustrate step 15 but I'm still confused. I sure would love to see one of these bags in person. The only way I can see to create boxed corners after the pleats are stitched down is to top-stitch them in place from the outside of the bag. You can sort of mush it into the shape shown on the front of the pattern and top-stitch in place.

After chewing on this a bit, I decided that I did not really want pleats AND a boxed bottom anyway. It creates too many little slots for fuzz and debris. So I settled on conventional boxed corners.

Version 1 with conventional boxed bottom

I changed the order of construction on my second bag. The edges of the bag are finished with bias binding, something I enjoy doing. But the two curves on the outside of the handles are quite sharp at the lower end and it's hard to get the binding attached smoothly. I found that by applying the binding before the side seams, I was able to smooth it out more. It does create a little bulk at that seam.

I used a thrifted denim shirt for my bias binding on version 2. My goal was to use this pretty hand-woven cotton from Guatamala (Spanglish Fabrics). I did not have enough for the larger bag so I added a piece of medium weight denim to the bottom.

Right side of the bag before side seams are sewn

I also used the denim for the internal pockets. I considered omitting the pockets but it does give the bag more body and strength.

Wrong side of the bag showing the pockets on each side.

The bias binding was completed after sewing the side seams.

I am really enamored of the way the handles are formed at the top. Also I added a little hook for attaching a coin purse or keys to the inside of my bag.

Inside the bag - check out the way the handles are formed. So clever and much stronger that plain handles.

All in all I really like this pattern. But my new bag is too pretty to use for groceries.

Version 2 - also with conventional boxed bottom (you can barely see the denim peaking out of the bottom

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Grainline Archer

The Grainline Archer shirt is a popular shirt. There are 129 (!) reviews for it on Pattern Review. And I do think it's a shirt pattern I'll make again.

The envelope contains two views. View A is the classic shirt with an inverted pleat off the yoke in the back. I made view B with its "lower back detail," that I would call a peplum. It is a little low for a peplum as I learned from other reviewer. So I raised it by 2 inches. That is, I shortened the back piece by 2 inches and lengthened the lower back piece by 2 inches.

There are many things to like about this pattern, starting with the instructions. They are contained in a convenient 8.5 X 5.5 brochure. I do hope this catches on. It is sooooo much easier to manage than those huge fold-outs I've used for years, decades. Also the instructions are well-written and clearly illustrated.

The seam allowances are 0.5 inch; that worked out fine as soon as I noticed it.

The pattern includes a separate right and left front. The left front has a cut-on button band and the right front has a separate buttonhole band. My fabric is this pretty Ikat cotton purchased from Topstitch in Decatur, GA. Initially I worried about matching the weave of my fabric both vertically and horizontally.

Finding center front seemed important. I searched and searched but found no center front markings on any pattern piece. Now that I've completed the shirt, it's fairly easy to determine CF. It's 2.5 inches from the raw edge on the left front; 0.5 inch on the right front; 1 inch on the buttonhole band.

I don't know why I worried about all of that. In the end, I did my best and I like the result.

The Archer, like a lot of shirt patterns, includes a bias-bound vent in the sleeve, rather than the classic placket. I love plackets on sleeves so pulled out my favorite shirt instructions for that and the yoke. Cutting Line Designs' the Blouse Perfected has the best instructions for these techniques, IMO.

This changed the size of the cuff so I putzed with that a while before adding a 3rd pleat to the sleeve. It's just barely noticeable, but I cut the yoke on the bias:

The next time I use this pattern, I'll make a few changes:

• Shorten the sleeve by 1 inch.
• Decrease the circumference at the wrist by about 2 inches.
• If pattern matching is involved, I'll cut two left fronts. The buttonhole band is only needed if you are creating a contrast there.
• I'll use 0.5 inch seam allowances from the beginning.

In sum, this is a really good pattern. Go ahead and try it. You can be the 130th reviewer on PR if you hurry!

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Another Hadley

So I went stash-diving for fabric to make the Grainline Archer shirt and came across this cotton border print from Gail K in Atlanta. It's been languishing in stash long enough now to be considered free. That's how it works. I've had it long enough to forget how much I paid for it, so it's free.

I would have used this for the Archer shirt but, alas, not enough fabric. That's another reason why I like Grainline's Hadley shirt. And the Hadley is really a nice pattern for a border print. I did not have enough to cut both sleeves from the white border, so one is solid black. As is often the case, this is actually better than it would have been if I'd had enough fabric.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this is a simple make so it should have gone smoothly. And it did with just one or two glitches.

The wrong side of this fabric is not noticeable until you attach the shoulders using French seams, and finish the neckline with self-fabric bias binding. Then it's real noticeable.

Also I found it relatively easy to sew the hem facing up-side-down. I swear, I'm going to go back and add some notches to the top of the facing so I don't fight that battle again.

Here's something I missed on Hadley #1: you use only the outer two notches when forming the inverted pleat in back. I am guessing I would have noticed that sooner if I had used the provided facings. This pleat is deeper and prettier, I think. To help it keep its shape, I stitched the inside fold of the pleat about 1/8" from the fold.

I made the same changes to this Hadley as the previous - bias binding for finishing the neckline and sleeve hems, cut both front and back on the fold, and I shortened the sleeves by 2" (!).

I think I like this Hadley even better than the first one, maybe because of this fabric. It's a cotton lawn and a tad sheer so I may need a cami underneath.

Next up: Grainline's Archer shirt. I have it cut out already.

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