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Lucinda November 4, 2013

On My Sewing Table – Plaid Archer [Grunge Sew-a-Long]

Matching plaids like a boss #grungesewalong

I’m conquering two of my biggest fears/challenges this month: matching up plaids (eek) and sewing another button-down shirt with a collar stand (double eek). I had three yards of this red cotton plaid flannel hanging out in my stash for the past two years, thinking that I would make a cape from it (hello costume, I don’t think so) or maybe a dress (again…no). Funny enough, when I decided to throw caution to the wind and cut out the plaid to make another Archer, there was conversation on Twitter about November being a Grunge Sew-a-Long month. Perfect timing! I think the Archer pattern is a great pattern to pair with plaid – it has a loose, but not too loose fit, and I think it’ll look adorable with skinny black pants and boots (not leggings, please, because leggings are NOT pants. That’s your public service announcement for today).

Thanks to Lauren’s tutorial, I feel like I’m matching up plaids like a boss so far:

I was freaking ecstatic when I tried this on and saw the plaids matching up perfectly! Sadly, I don’t think I cut the sleeves out correctly so they don’t match at the underarm seam, but I’m really happy how this is turning out so far. Just cross your fingers for me, I’m about to tackle that collar…

Oh, if you want to participate in the Grunge Sew-a-Long this month, post your finished projects in the Sewcialists Flickr group.

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Lucinda October 3, 2013

Pattern Review: Archer Shirt [Grainline Studio]

Pattern: Archer Buttonup Shirt from Grainline Studio
Fabric: Art Gallery Fabrics cotton voile in “Branch Silhouette,” from Grey’s Fabrics
Size: 2 graded to a 4 from waist to hips

Jeans: Levi’s

This is my third Grainline Studio pattern and I’m not stopping anytime soon. I love Jen’s design aesthetic – modern wardrobe staples with a minimalist approach. Which reminds me, I need to crank out some more Moss Minis for fall/winter this year since the one I made last year was not enough (plus I need to make one a bit longer so I can wear it for work, eeep). She’s an expert pattern designer and writes great instructions, so I knew I’d be in good hands using this pattern as my first serious foray into shirt-making.

So, this shirt isn’t perfect by any means, and I’m ok with that. I realized after the fact that I haven’t been stretching and challenging myself with my sewing skills – I love me some knits pretty hard, and that’s great for whipping out basic tees and cute dresses for my closet. But if I want to grow – and truly become a better sewist – I need to start taking on more projects with more challenging techniques.

Let me put it this way – that collar stand kicked my ass.

To borrow a term from Lauren, who borrowed a term from Clueless, this shirt is definitely a “Monet:” it looks good from a distance but up close, it’s kind of a mess (thank goodness for prints). Everything started out all fine and dandy: sewing the side seams together, attaching the yoke, adding a pocket (I was going to put on two, but after I added one, I decided not to since it just gets lost in the print, as demonstrated in the picture above). And then came the sleeve plackets….they’re kinda meh. I think I may have goofed with them overlapping the wrong way, but it doesn’t seem that noticeable to me. The button bands went on smoothly, cuffs were attached ok…

And then that goddamn collar stand.

Ok, shame on me for not at least *practicing* how to attach a collar stand to a shirt. I’ve made a couple of collared shirts in the past out of cheap shiny poly and other wonderful fabric choices from Joann Fabrics, but they were just the simple kind of collar that attaches to the neckline. Dust-your-hands-off-and-call-it-a-day kind of collars. So, I thought, how difficult could this be? It’s not awful looking…it just doesn’t match up well at the one side, it kind of juts out from the button band. And hell, my stitching looks awful in the inside of the collar – there’s some fabric that got tucked and sewn in place, and I didn’t have the heart to rip it out and sew it again, and I figured it wasn’t too noticeable when the collar is open (ehhh it kind of is). Plus, when I was turning the collar right side out, I poked a little too hard with my point turner, made a hole in the edge of the collar stand, and it started to fray – greaaaat. Some Fray-Chek solved that, but again…it’s just more little details that make this not the best thing I’ve ever made.

Oh, and I totally did not understand how to make the top buttonhole in the collarstand, even after studying one of my own RTW shirts…I was way off with that shit.

Amazingly, my buttonholes came out ok! They were actually the least stressful part of sewing this shirt, I got the placement right and didn’t screw up stitching any of them on my Bernina 1005…I really miss the automatic buttonhole feature on my mom’s Bernina, it makes a world of difference when it comes to buttonhole precision.

So, try, try again, right? Totally. I WILL master making button-down shirts – they seem like part of the perfect uniform of skinny jeans and boots for my new job. And I like the fit of this shirt, too, it’s not too boxy and it doesn’t have any bust darts I have to worry about moving up. I think I may lengthen it a little next time…I feel like it could be a slightly longer. I’m also going to try using Andrea’s tutorial on sewing collar stands for my next shirt, I feel like she’s an “Archer Expert” with all of the fabulous shirts she’s cranked out from this pattern. My next fabric: a Marc Jacobs tiny floral print cotton shirting. And maybe on my next shirt, I’ll be proud enough to show some close-up shots of the stitching detail!

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Lucinda February 27, 2013

New Pattern Lust: The Archer Button-Up From Grainline Studio

All photos from Grainline Studio

My love for Grainline Studios is no secret and I have every single pattern by Jen Beeman in my “to sew” queue (sadly, I tried to make the Tiny Pocket Tank lately and didn’t pick a good fabric for it…lesson learned for next time). So when I saw her newly released pattern last night, The Archer Button-Up, it shot waaaay up to the top of my sewing list.

Dig that back ruffle, isn’t it divine? This could have been just another button-up shirt but the ruffle takes it beyond that and makes it a much more fun addition to your wardrobe than just another closet staple. Plus, it makes a masculine shirt much more girly, yay for that.

I’d love to make it in a purple or pink plaid (if my plaid-matching skills were up to par, that is) or a Liberty of London cotton lawn. Yikes, sewing queue, you seem to be growing every day with all of the indie patterns I want to sew…this is truly the Year of the Indie Sewing Pattern for me.

Do you love the new pattern? What kind of fabric would you use?

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Lucinda November 26, 2012

Pattern Review: Moss Mini Skirt [Grainline Studios]

Pattern: Grainline Studios Moss Mini Skirt
Fabric: Gifted corduroy from my mom’s fabric stash
Size: 4

Top: Self-drafted pattern; sweatery knit fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics
Leggings: Tommy Hilfiger

It’s kinda funny – I think I wear shorter skirts in the fall/wintertime than in the spring/summer. My hemlines tend to go higher and higher because of all the boots, leggings, and tights I love to wear when the temperatures dip – I’m much more modest with my hems when my legs aren’t covered. I thought a couple of my skirts were on the short side but in actuality, this is probably the shortest skirt in my closet now. Yikes!

I loveloveloved this pattern! As soon as I saw it available in Jen’s shop, I knew I had to have it and make it for the fall. I’m not a fan of downloadable sewing patterns a la Burdastyle – all of the printer paper, taping the pieces together, cutting all of it out – but with a project as small as a skirt, it didn’t seem like it’d be too tricky or time-consuming to do.

I had a couple of firsts with this skirt: first time sewing with corduroy (did you know the name is derived from the french for “cord du roi,” or “king’s cord?”) and first time sewing a fly front zipper. Well actually, the latter is not true, I stitched one before on a pair of red shorts, but it looked horrible and the shorts didn’t fit at all. So my track record on fly front zippers before this skirt was not good. After studying Jen’s photo-tutorial on her blog, reading my Complete Book of Sewing, and ripping out some stitches, I’m pretty happy with how this zipper turned out. Not perfect, but passable.

I also practiced my topstitching skills, something I don’t get to use a whole lot when sewing knit dresses. I swear that seam in the back is not crooked…

And this skirt has pockets! These are the best kind of pockets, a diagonal seamed pocket that doesn’t gape open. The lining fabric is out of some leftover quilting fabric I had in my stash, which is a nice weight for a sturdy pocket; there’s nothing worse than flimsy lining fabric that can’t hold up to normal wear-and-tear. The construction of the pockets is great, too – the lining extends and anchors to the center front seam which keep the pockets nice and flat instead of bunching up.

Did you also see that above I mentioned I drafted this top pattern? Yessiree I did! I whipped it up on a Friday night in about two hours from drafting to finishing. It’s a simple two-seam dolman sleeve top that’s cut out in one piece. If I was to make another, which I probably will because this is so comfy to wear, I’d draft a deeper dolman curve than this one so there isn’t so much bunching of fabric in the underarm area.

Overall I loved this pattern and will definitely make it again, maybe going up a size since it’s a little snug around the hips and probably sewing on the hem band pattern piece to make the skirt slightly longer. Maybe out of some yummy wool….