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.

Waffle Caramel Coat

So why am I posting a wool coat in July, you ask?

The story started in January.  Actually in December, when I fell in love with this fabric.  Lizzy made a jacket from it.  I wanted to make a jacket from it.  And the Caramel Coat pattern called to me and insisted it would be the one.  But what followed was an endless repetition of: I am in the fabric store and my plaid swatch is NOT.  I was not happy with any lining material.  It was always the wrong colour.  I was supposed to buy some in LA, and failed.  (red? forest green? What was I thinking???!!) Then I got some blue in Berlin.  The wrong blue.  I now had six meters of jewel coloured charmeuse but still no lining.

I cut the fabric out in January, despite no lining, and it took all month. I cut a size 38 based on my measurements even though I sized down for the Dropje.  I'm afraid the moral of the plaid story is that I am not suited for the precision of cutting plaid.  I cut out one front piece, and then for about a month I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the other front piece to plaid-match.  I mean, really.  I emailed for help (Juki was fast at replying!) Prepare for the final letdown...when you don't cut out the first piece straight, despite all the straight lines in the plaid, then the matching second piece also can't be straight.  Reeeaaallly?

Yeah man, I got it where it mattered.  This once. 

Instead of sewing everything I could without the lining, I let it languish.  Finally in Paris in April, I forced myself to finally settle for some matching Bemberg.  It is hard to return to a project that has been sitting in the corner for awhile- I think I skimped on some of the interfacing because I just wanted to get on with things.  Bringing the ideas and excitement out of the back of my mind was not so easy, they were dusty and vague, not to mention that it is a coat, and it has a coat amount of details, and I didn't mark my pattern pieces.  However, it is not a very difficult pattern to sew and the instructions are for the most part good at breaking it down into manageable pieces.

However, I found these instructions worse than for the Dropje jacket.  I ADORED the Dropje instructions.  I still like the layout in these.  However, for instance when creating a back pleat in the lining I was lost, because I haven't done this before and the one line drawing didn't make sense.  There were a few spots where the English translation was downright bad.  It was on minor things and didn't influence me much.  If you love this jacket, I still think the instructions are enough even if you haven't made something this complicated before.  I really have a hard time visualising jacket facings, and on this one I sewed it wrong twice before I got it right.  Even with EXACTLY matching the pictures.  (except, obviously, not quite.)  This felt like an intense effort.  But I think that's because I was determined to do it in three days, despite kind of forgetting it for months until now.  So, the fact that it's (almost) doable in three days does speak for something. I ended up hand sewing the lining down.  I am suspicious.  Was there a better way to do it?

Now have some photos.  Even too many.  Thank god this thing is finally done.  I vowed not to do ANYTHING for six months that required pattern matching and I have already broken my vow and the results are terrible.  So terrible.  

Yeah I matched the underside of the sleeve where no one cares.  Not, like, on the top, where you can see it.

Main beef: pocket location.  Bad.

Also my button holer on my sewing machine doesn't work.  All of a sudden all my projects need buttons and they are getting snaps instead.  I have tried, and I will try again, but for now there is no way to make a buttonhole, so I used these fake leather latches instead. I got them in Paris planning to use two of them and a few buttons, but seems like three of them work just as well.

Pattern complaint: I actually loved the kind of pseudo double welt pocket construction. So much easier than all the welt pockets I have ever done.  However, the pocket location is terrible.  Don't put it there.  Put it anywhere forward, but the pocket location marked on the pattern gives you an armpit pocket which is super inconvenient.  

Anyway very happily a friend of mine in the southern hemisphere just happens to need a jacket RIGHT NOW.  So the whole story has a happy ending.  She reports that she has already worn it and loves it! 

Here's proof in action: