Flowers |

Wow, it seems I went a bit overboard with making sure the ‘before’ pictures looked as bad as possible! What is going on with my hair?!

This top, made from lovely flowery corally fabric – I think it’s viscose, it has a really nice drape – was kindly given to me by The Boyfriend’s mum. It was a little big for me, so I decided to make it smaller, which was really quite easy because it’s got raglan sleeves.

But first I cut off these annoying hanging ribbon things. Why do they exist?! They just like to work their way out of the neckline to hang out and look crap!

The sleeves also had these little button tabs, so I unpicked them from the hem of the sleeve and took off the button – which I put into my stash for use on another project in the future.

The next thing was to take in the top at the raglan sleeve seams – this would also reshape the neckline so it wasn’t so wide. I took 1.5cm off each seam – 4 in total (2 sleeves, front and back). I made sure the neckline was lined up, so there wouldn’t be steps or a weirdness on the outside.

I tried the top on after taking out the 4 lots of 1.5cm and it was still a bit loose on the back, so I sewed a 1cm seam – which I copied off a fairly old top I’ve got from New Look which I really like.

I then top-stitched the seam down on one side, sewing from the right side, so it looked straight with the seam I’d just sewn.

The last thing I did was to topstitch the cuffs down – there was a cuff already there, so that when it was pulled up by the button tab you wouldn’t see the wrong side of the fabric. I folded this old cuff in half and stitched it down. Simple!

And this is what it looks like – it just fits better and although it’s still a little loose (which I like), it no longer looks like it’s just too big.

The final change I made was to take 6cm off the hem at the front of the top, tapering to the existing hem at the side seams, making a slight high-low hem, which I think it more flattering on a looser top.

I really like the new cuffs! As I mentioned in my post about my second Melilot Shirt, I really like cuffs on short sleeves at the moment.

I do like a fairly simple refashion! There’s no point reinventing the wheel – if you have a nice top but want to alter the fit, there’s no need to try to make it into not-a-top!

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I made another Grainline Archer shirt and I love it! (Have you noticed I love basically everything I make – sorry not sorry).

The fabric is some thin flowery stuff I had in my stash – it’s almost certainly synthetic. I have absolutely no idea where it came from, but it’s been in my stash for a while. It’s a little see-through, but I think it looks okay.

I’m not usually a super-flowery person. Possibly controversially I don’t really like Liberty prints for instance. But I quite like this fabric – I like pink, and I picked out the tiny blue flowers by using blue top-stitching thread. If I’d made a more feminine silhouette of shirt – like the Colette Violet – then I think this would have been pushed over the edge into too girly and chintzy for me, but since it’s a kind of masculine silhouette, I think it works.

I made the size 4, like last time, and the only change I made was to take 1 1/2 inch off the lengths of the pockets. Looking at the pictures, I should maybe have lowered the placement as they are a bit booby maybe.

I definitely found making the Archer easier the second time – it helps to be familiar with how the pieces come together. I still have to use the sewalong to help me with the collar, though.

It does occur to me, however, that both times I’ve made this, I’ve done the pleat at the back the wrong way around – what do you think?

Looking at mens’ shirts, the pleat is on the outside, if that makes sense? Should this shirt be like that too? But look at that beautiful top-stitching!

The buttons were also from my stash, so this was a super thrifty make – I already had the pattern, fabric, buttons and thread! I decided to sew the buttons on with the thread in a cross – I normally sew them in a square and I’m not really sure why. I like the cross style 🙂 I’ve seen this photo on Pinterest and I’d like to experiment with other stitching styles.

Sorry I don’t have much else to say about this shirt – it came together well and is basically the same as the other one I made. I really like this pattern and I think I’ll be making more in the future – maybe in a classic plaid? Do you have patterns you return to over and over?

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