Archer Button Up

I’ve been waiting for ages for the day I could write about my first Archer Button up. I feel like I’m one of the last people in the world to sew this pattern. I bought it quite a while ago and found it very easy to keep bumping it to the bottom of the queue since it’s not something that I could easily make in a day or two. Finally when I was pregnant I forced myself to get a muslin made.

I think I tried the muslin on a few days after I got home from the hospital after having Caroline. Of course it was quite laughable at that point. I tried it on here and there over the next two months or so and finally one day it mostly fit. I was super excited that the only real change I needed to make was to give myself a little bit more room at the hips. (I cut a size 10 graded out to a 14 at the hips.)

I cut out my fabric, which is this Olive dot chambray, and then let it sit for a while. I needed to cut the interfacing, but for some reason couldn’t bring myself to spend the five minutes required for that step. It wasn’t until Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow started handing out sewing dares that I realized a dare was just the kick in the pants that I needed to get this shirt made. (Have any of you read any of Gretchen Rubin’s writing on habits? I haven’t finished her newest book yet, but she has identified 4 tendencies that she says people fall into. According to her I am an obliger. I have trouble sticking to goals that I set for myself, but if I have someone counting on me I have no problem meeting the goal. Can someone please dare me to make a muslin of the Ginger jeans before September? That may be the only way it happens!)

Once I got my dare I started sewing and couldn’t stop. I decided to be fancy and flat fell my seams. I also switched to tower plackets at the cuffs. I ran into a little snag there because I didn’t realize that the tower plackets added width to the bottom of the sleeve. The cuffs were too small to fit so I went to Instagram for advice. Most people recommended making the pleats deeper so that the cuffs would still fit. I was going to do that, but then I got worried that the bottom of the sleeve would be too puffy, so I ended up unpicking my flat felling and taking in the arm seam enough that the cuff would fit.

My only fit issue with this shirt is that the cuffs are too wide for my wrists. I feel like I need to take out about 1/2″-3/4″ and narrow the sleeve down accordingly. I prefer to wear my sleeves down but I feel like the looseness of the cuffs looks a little sloppy so I’ve been wearing them rolled up.

All in all, I am so happy with my Archer! I like the idea of having one of these going on in the background while I work on other, quicker projects. I have some really cool jacquard chambray in my stash waiting to become my next one. I hope it won’t take another sewing dare to get me motivated to start on it!

~Teri