Hawaiian Shirt Friday is the greatest excuse to wear the finest, most cheerful prints in your closet.
It is also a great excuse to make another Grainline Archer shirt. I wanted to try different things with this pattern: namely mistake recovery, but also short sleeves and a new body length.
I started cutting this out at about 11pm one Saturday night, and guys, this was not my greatest plan. To begin with, I am not patient with pattern layouts. I like to pin, cut, pin, cut, one piece after another, and hope for the best. But when you have just over 1 yard of fabric from which to make your shirt, you should probably plan your cutting layout, right? RIGHT?
One might hope! One might... piece fabric together after mistakenly cutting two left fronts. One might have button bands that overlap the wrong way. One might need to use contrast fabric in order to even complete the project. ...So much for mistake recovery.
In all seriousness, I'm pretty happy with how this shirt turned out. I cut the same size as before, size 4 blending to size 6 at the hips, but went with the original pattern length, and shortened the sleeves. I sewed the sideseams and underarm seams at 3/8" instead of 1/2" for a slightly boxier look. Because of fabric constraints and cutting mistakes, I had to piece one front panel together, along with the placket. The under collar and stand are contrasting, as is some trim on the sleeves and the pieced seams. I have about three yards of this amazing striped fabric, so expect to see plenty more of it!
What else is different? I resolved my issues with the placket, and folded over the proper amount for the underplacket. Had I put more than a single pocket on this bad boy, I'm 90% sure they would have been the same distance from CF. Maaaaybe 93%.
I serged my side seams, underarm seams, and armholes, saving myself a fair amount of time in doing so. Skipping long sleeves and cuffs helped as well, but the holiday weekend slowed production down on this shirt. Otherwise, it was a really quick go around for a second try of this pattern.
I also picked up a new camera and lens - a Canon SL1 and 50mm f/1.8 lens. I am learning so much! But it's already magic without much effort -- look at that depth of field! The lighting! I'm so excited to keep learning about photography and experiment with these new tools. Any tips on this new adventure of mine?
cute summery shirt :)
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