Friday, June 7, 2013

50 Shades of Green


This post is about Dominance and Submission. But wait, before you dash off to your adult toy closet for instruments of pain, let me clarify that I am in the role of the Dom and my Sub is a length of green silk crepe de chine. No whips and chains needed, my washing machine and steam iron were the flogging tools.
 
Some years ago a friend gave me about 3 yards of patterned silk crepe de chine in an emerald color. Not being a huge fan of jewel tones it sat on the shelf.
 
Earlier this week I heard whispers of "Archer" coming from my stash closet. It was that green silk saying "I have potential...get creative." Well, don't dare this girl  to get creative and not expect action. Game on! (wink@Julie) I'd been wanting to make View B of the Archer and thought stonewashed silk would be the perfect fabric for this view with the little flounce in the back:
 
 
Not having any stones, I threw that silk into the washer set on hot along with a couple pair of bluejeans for some agitation. Then into a hot dryer. I then repeated the hot water wash process but with a cold water rinse and adding about a teaspoon of hair conditioner to the final rinse. Then I dried on a medium setting. Voila! It was faded to a lovely sprucey-teal green and the fibers had compressed to a heavier weight with great drape. It is soft and without that shiny crepe de chine finish, which I'm not crazy about, and it smells great! Although it is no longer emerald, in this pic it does show the pretty pattern:



Now, back to Archer View B. There has been much discussion among some of us participating in the 12 Months of Grainline Studios Archer Shirt Sew-along , as to how View B is going to translate on our backsides. So, I volunteered to pioneer the road here, knowing that there was a definite potential of becoming known as Ol' Ruffle Butt.
 
However, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to love this style shirt and I do! Having said that, I think the success of View B is completely dependent on your fabric. Absolutely use a fabric that is drapey and presses well like a silk or rayon woven. I think with the crispness and body of a cotton you would indeed have a ruffle butt.
 
The pattern suggests gathering the back flounce but I decided to use my ruffler attachment to make pleats. The first thing I did was to cut a muslin of the flounce piece so I could test out which setting I needed on my attachment:
 



The perfect setting ended up being my ruffler set at every 6th stitch and then decreasing the length of the ruffle marked area on the pattern by approximately 1" at each end. Perfect fit:


Once the flounce is attached I pressed the heck out of it to really flatten it out. I pressed the seam upwards and then trimmed a little off before topstitching it:



I used the cap sleeve idea from V8886 that I recently made and previously posted here.  Basically, all you do is copy the sleeve cap and make a straight line the length of your armscye seam, which on this shirt is 1/2" Here is a picture of the pattern piece I made over the back side of the Archer sleeve:




I cut 4 sleeves from my silk and used 2 of them for the lining. Stitch wrong sides together at the hem, press and turn and then treat as one sleeve. For the remaining 4-5 inches at the underarm I used bias cut fabric strips to bind. Here is a little closer up on the finished sleeves. I think it's a cute look for summer:


 
 
And now for the buttonholes! My thinking on this shirt was that since it is so GREEN, and I didn't use contrast fabric anywhere, I felt like the color needed to be broken up. I found some adorable mother-of-pearl buttons in my button jar and thought they would be perfect since the iridescence picks up the green. Then I sort of went crazy with them and came up with this:
 
 
 
 
Cute, right? That was 11:00 last night. This morning all I could think about was spacing and  marking 11 buttonholes! Oh, that my Bernina had the ninja buttonhole feature that the newer models have...but sadly, I have to mark, measure and stitch the old fashioned way. Googling around I found a brilliant tip on Sew Chic's blog. She made her buttonhole markings on 1/4" quilters tape and taped it down the bottonhole placket as a guide. Not having any quilters tape I  thought my trusty blue painters tape would work just as well. So...I made some practice buttonholes to get the proper size and then decided where I wanted my beginning and ending buttons to be and started the spacing process on tape affixed to my cutting ruler like so: (Warning! This is very scientific...you have to be able to count to 10)
 
 
 
 
And then with the tape transfered directly to the button band:
 
 
 
 
 
 
By the way, my perfect collar points and rounded pocket corners were made using Claire's fabulous EZ Pocketmaker found on her ETSY Shop.
 
Bottom line...I love View B of the Archer. I have another gorgeous piece of silk in my stash that I've been saving for just the right project. I see August's Archer in my future!
 


18 comments:

  1. Beautiful shirt! I love that row of buttons

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    1. Thanks, LHC! Those buttons were so cute and once I got going I couldn't stop!

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  2. Your shirt and review are incredible! I love the tip about washing the silk and the painters tape. I've been messing around with an old Dritz bound buttonhole maker, so the tip is timely. I like your ruffle butt too. I thought that was a cute pattern detail, but thought it would really look funny with certain fabrics. Yours looks great and is totally encouraging for that style detail. Thanks for the shout out too!!

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    1. Thanks, Claire...PLEASE invent some kind of majic button marking/measuring tool. The tape was the best thing I've seen but I still have to struggle with getting them all the same size. Not buying a new Bernina just for that!

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  3. Beautiful blouse and love the pearl buttons. Thanks for the great review.

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    1. Thanks, Sheila...join our Archer a month sew-along!

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  4. Have you ever heard of a Simflex Expanding Sewing Gauge? I don't have one (they can be a bit pricey ) but I think they would be worth it if a person is planning on doing a lot of button holes.

    Your version of the Archer is the first one that has me thinking I might want to make it. You did a beautiful job! Thank you for sharing it.

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    1. Mary,
      Thanks for the lovely compliment! NO! I've never heard of that tool and may need to check it out. The tape thing was pretty cool but I'm always looking for quicker and easier ways to do things!

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  5. Wow, poor silk! But the result is so good, I don´t think all the pain you inflicted it counts now. Gorgeous blouse! The colour, the pattern, the fit. Everything is perfect. Looking forward to seing the August version!

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    1. Thanks, Merche...I wish you were sewing along with us, I know you could come up with some cute ones!

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  6. I've just grabbed my pompoms to join in your cheer squad! Love your version of the Archer, which like Mary, I hadn't been particularly inspired by under now. And I love green!!

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    1. Thanks, Gail...how sweet! Download this pattern and make just one and I think you'll be sold. As I said previously, I'm not really a button up shirt fan but this one has made a believer of me. I think part of it is that it is so well drafted and goes together so nicely.

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  7. I love everything about this, the color to the buttonholes! The cap sleeves are a nice touch.

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    1. Thanks, Andrea! I've really enjoyed making changes to this pattern. Everything I've tried seems to work and it's fun!

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  8. This is gorgeous, Dorcas! Thanks so much for the tip on button/buttonhole placement too! I'm on a different email system now and have missed the latest PR reviews....... so sorry!
    I also meant to tell you Kate Spade features an outfit similar to your 60s vibe :)

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    1. Thanks, Sarah! I have another buttonhole idea I want to try...by the time I finish 12 Archers I should have all that down pat. I want to make that 60's Vibe "pantsuit" again...glad that word is not in our vocab any longer!
      ;D

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  9. You're so brave to do all that to silk! The shirt turned out fab and thatnks for the tips and ideas too.

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  10. Yeah, well, I'm fixin' to get even braver and throw that thing in the boiling pot with some teal acid dye. I love the shirt but not the color and I want to get some wear out of it. Stay tuned!

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