Grainline Archer Reimagined

 Grainline Archer remains one of my favourite shirt patterns.  Sometimes though, you can have too much of a good thing.

When my daughter was at The Fabric Store's summer sale, I asked her to pick up a piece of Liberty Lantana for me.  I have two Liberty Lantana shirts already and decided a third wouldn't go astray.  One of those shirts is made into Grainline Archer so this time I wanted to make something different.  The problem was, I just couldn't find a pattern I wanted to make this lovely and pricey piece of fabric into.  I wanted to make something classic that would remain in my wardrobe for a long time.  I also wanted it to work with lots of bottom options I already owned.

It was while flicking through my stash of Burdastyle back issues that I came across a blouse with pin tucks on the upper arm.  I wasn't mad about the neckline on the shirt so rather than use something I hadn't trialed, I decided to hack my Grainline Archer pattern to achieve the look I was after.  This was a pretty simple hack.  I simply retraced my sleeve and drew lines at 3cm increments beginning at the middle of the sleeve.  I then slashed and spread the pattern by 1cm at each slit before taping it back together again.  Because I now had more ease at the cuff end of the sleeve as well as the sleeve head where I intended to make the 5mm pin tucks, I opted to gather the sleeve onto the cuff.  The resulting sleeve is now full without being overly dramatic and I love the result so much that I will use this pattern piece again in the future.

I took my time with the sewing of this shirt, completing it in one hour increments over several nights.  Once I finished it, I rifled through my button stash and found nothing in a suitable pink.  Because Aliexpress deliveries are notoriously long lately, probably as a result of Covid-19, I decided to buy local and found exactly what I was looking for at Toms Emporium.  I often forget about Toms as a notions option.  I really should use them more because there selection was extensive and at 20 cents per button they were pretty cheap.

This is such a pretty and cheerful shirt, I am sure it will be one I reach for regularly over the gloomy days of winter.

As a side note; I say this every winter, photographs are hard to take at this time of the year!  The light just doesn't do anything justice!

Pattern (used before) $0.00

Fabric $35.82

Buttons $2.20

Total $38.02