i am Artemis jacket pattern review

 I planned this quite awhile ago. It was something like, I saw the fabric in the shop (Draper's in Auckland), I knew that a large scale plaid would be a terrible pain in my arse, I still for some reason couldn't resist, and I thought of this pattern which I have considered for other difficult fabrics a few times.  It doesn't use too much yardage (though the width is important for the attached sleeve).  Also, it's unlined.  That has made it tempting for a number of challenging fabrics, but anyway I bought the plaid.  And it's a huge thick fluffy pile, which is annoying as it takes up a lot of my sewing fabric shelves.  That meant the project stayed near the top of the list.  I got a lot of sewing done this winter because we were moving and I wanted to clear out some projects!  

Many details: buying the pattern. Buying tracing paper for the pattern.  Tracing paper doesn't exist in New Zealand and sadly, the sewing tracing paper sold by Miss Maude is terrible - it's not actually transparent at all but I bought it together with the pattern.  I am patterns all need to be traced.  I made size 38 per the pattern chart.

 Once I committed, I really put pattern matching as the priority. Sewing this is extremely easy. Pattern matching, meh. Not so easy.  B for effort.

 

So it was done pretty quickly and here we are.

 

 

It's very soft and cozy. The pockets droop a bit more than I would like, and the sleeves are relatively narrow compared to the rest of the fit, though I think that's good as otherwise it would look sloppy.  I think the grown on sleeve is a bad fit for me due to the width of my back.  I need to size up but then it's not proportional.  There is overall nothing really wrong with this but honestly, this is one of those projects I make not because it will suit me at all, but because I am just sort of artistically curious how the fabric and pattern will go together.  There's no chance of me ever wearing this, even though it's cute and cozy.   

Though honestly I might come back to the pattern with a cozy and boring fabric and make a sweatshirty jacket thing.  That might be more my style.

You never thought I'd say it: plaid Archer - DONE!

If you have ever stopped by my blog there's a decent chance you know one sad fact: I am really bad at pattern matching.  Partly because I am really bad at following grainlines. Nor do I own a grid mat, or a proper cutting table, or have a sewing room.

Maybe I finally hit the point where I learnt something, or maybe it's just luck that once in awhile a pattern comes together just right.  But I have to say, I worked harder on this Archer than I worked on most projects in my six months in New Zealand.  I prepped the fabric in one intense session about 3 weeks before leaving and it was the last project requiring any actual thought that I was able to fully concentrate on before catastrophic life dissolution took over.  It took over a week of painstaking effort to make (excluding the buttons, took another few weeks to get around to).  I love it.  I don't even wear this type of shirt very much but I love it anyway.

Size: ? Possibly a 4 and possibly a 2-4.  I traced the pattern in Ukraine over a year ago, and didn't write a lot of detail on the tissue.  Whatever I did - worked.  My measurements are 33-27-37.  I know I was itching to shorten the pattern and I think I didn't do that.

The fabric is a soft brushed cotton by Helmut Lang, from emmaonesock.  I had been waiting for just the right cotton plaid.  This was it.

Let's thank Thaniswar, my coworker, who never expected blog photos to be part of his job description.  (But I'm not going to apologise for not owning a hairbrush at 4200m.) 

I am also now noticing how obvious it is that my pockets are not really in the same place.  I hadn't put pocket marks on my pattern pieces and I spent DAYS moving the pockets around...c'est la vie...

The insides are all french seamed and look amazing.
The only little quirk is that I must have gotten the buttonhole placements wrong on the sleeves because they are too far away from the edge.  It's something I can live with.  The cuff edges stick out a bit, but I envisage that I will really wear this shirt over a tshirt and with the sleeves rolled up so I won't care. 

As you can see by my photos, I've changed scenery pretty drastically.  I'm working with the Himalayan Rescue Association as a volunteer mountain doctor for the trekking season, in Pheriche, Nepal.  So if you happen to be trekking to Everest base camp, stop by!

Because this was my last major project, I decided to post it last. And of course as I sewed it I took some time to reflect on the differences between sewing fast knits, sewing projects that just crop up in your head and say "let me out!" and these slower projects - as I've been prepping to make an Archer on and off for about 2 years.  I was thinking about how I want my next year of sewing to look.

In case you are interested, or in case you live in Perth - I'll be moving to Bunbury, Western Australia in December and I'd love any advice about the area and about sewing in the area!

I'm really glad that life is making me take a breather from sewing.  And my goal for next year is to commit to slow fashion with a challenge of myself that I'm calling my one-per-month challenge.  I think there are a few public groups doing something similar.  I'm not going to plan ahead too much - I want the choice to be spontaneous and reflecting my interests as they shift through the year - but I envisage that each month I will choose 1-2 patterns in a theme and only sew those patterns - and only once or twice.  I want to prioritise preparation, imagination, and my own excitement.  I want to make my own fashion feel like couture fashion.  I have spent about 2 years avoiding buying any button up shirts - because my own Archer was swirling in my head.  It took that long to find the fabric, to do the research, and to finally take the leap.  And it was worth it.