Things I want to sew

Things I want to sew. . .

I'm thinking about summer.  I'm all about tees and jersey at the moment, hard to resist with Maria's free pattern.  I'd also like to knock up another Moss skirt, a shorter length this time. And as I'm currently working with gingham I love this little scrunchie (hello 1990s!) from topshop, what a fab idea for left over scraps!

Left: Maria Denmark Kirsten Kimono Tee (free pattern!)

Top Right: Grainline Studios Moss Skirt

Bottom Right: Topshop Gingham Scrunchie

Needs

Se w i n g   N e e d s...

Large Left: Pattern, Named -Blair Bat Wing Shirt €9.00

Top Right: Feltfolk Scotty Dog Buttons 50p

Bottom Right: Backstitch Fox Ed Emberley Quilting Cotton £3.50 per quarter metre

Mmmm!

Archer II and III

 Hello Archer number 3 in giant plaid.

Pattern:  Grainline Studios Archer Shirt

Fabric: Plaid pattern farbic from Ikea, heavy cotton.  Black plain cotton from Ikea.

I matched the plaid pattern with the help of  Lladybird's tutorial (couldn't have done it without you!).  It took the second attempt to get it right after cutting and matching everything except the front, epic sewing fail. (It does match now trust me, in my excitement to blog I quick some quick snap shots!)  

 

I cut off the left button band and replaced it with the plain black cotton and added the same for the right button band.  I kinda copied this from a shirt I'd seen on the high street.  I think the black collar and button band really adds emphasis and breaks up the giant plaid pattern.

The yoke is cut on the bias as most tutorials advise to break up the plaid.

I decided to keep the cuffs in the plaid and not add pockets, I don't think it needs them.

I haven't been able to post for a while as I'm in the middle of some pretty intense study but I have also managed to knock up Archer number 2 as well.  This is a just a simple version I wear for work.  It's not my best, there are a lot of errors but it's wearable.  I'm totally nailing topstitching now, the key is a denim needle and make sure your machine is threaded properly (another sewing fail here). Here she is...

As with my first Archer the only adjustment I made is the length.  I'm a tall gal and like a good length so lengthened it by a good 4 inches.  I adore this pattern so much and it's so easy to make.  As I've mentioned before Jen's (Grainline) tutorial is a lifesaver!

I'm already onto Archer number 4 and it's gonna be amazeballs! But I'll leave you with this for now.

PS- Happy Bloggerversary to me, I'm one year old!

Archer Shirt - Grainline

Behold...my very first shirt and I absolutely love it!  So much in fact that I've already started Archer shirt II!

The only alteration I made to this was the length.  I lengthened it by a good 4 inches, mainly because I'm so tall and I wanted to be able to wear it tucked in.  I love Andrea's (Four Square Walls) white version so opted for a shameful copy.  I figured it would make a great wear for work.  The fabric is a medium cotton.

You can get an idea of the length here.  I'm wearing it with my Grainline Moss skirt too!  

I initially put the pleat in my muslin the wrong way around on the back (oops) and after reading around blogs I realised just before starting this one! Phew!

I love the detail of the top stitching.  It was my first time with top stitch, I had a few "moments" when my machine kept jamming on the collar but with a little help from twitter I changed the needle to a denim and messed about with the tension.  I'm not thrilled with the finish under the collar as I couldn't get the tension right but it can't be seen so I can get away with it!  

I'm amazed at how easy it was to make.  The Sew Along certainly helped, to be honest I mainly used that as I'm more of a visual learner and prefer pictures but the pattern instructions were pretty straight forward too.

Here's how I usually wear it.  Overall a huge sewing success! 

Super Sweet Award

Wowzers two nominations for awards!  Sally Bee Makes nominated me for the Super Sweet Blogger Award.  Thanks Sally!

Here are Sally's questions:

Cookies or cakes? Mmmm cakes every times

Chocolate or vanilla?   Can I have vanilla chocolate??

Favourite sweet treat?  So difficult!  Probably carrot cake.

Sweet nickname?  I couldn't possibly say! ;-)

So all that's left to do is...

1) Thank the Super Sweet Blogger that nominated you (Thanks Sally!)

2) Answer 5 Super Sweet questions (consider it done!)

3) Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award in your blog post (yup)

4) Nominate a baker's dozen (13) other deserving bloggers

5) Notify your Super Sweet nominees on their blog!

My nominees (because you're all super sweet sweeties!)

Love-Teach-Sew

Sew Little Time

Bimble and Pimble

Almond Rock

Poppy and red clover

Miss Demeanour (right back at ya! ;-))

Mabel Makes

Ginger Makes

i heart fabric

Sew Wrong

gksagenda (today's agenda)

ZoSews

Josie and May

Liebster Award

The Lovely Rehanon at missdemeanourisonthemake.blogspot.co.uk nominated me for the Liebster Award (new blogs with under 200 followers)!  I've been nominated before but too lazy to do anything about it.  Now is my time, here we go...

Rehanon asked:

1. Who would you get to play you in the story of your life?

Err, no idea!!  Not sure I'm that interesting!

2.  Career wise what would your plan B be

Would love to do something creative.  My biggest regret is not studying something in the textile/design field in my youth!

3.  Say you found yourself in a Quantum Leap type role, which enabled to jump to any event in history what would you choose?

Awesome!  There are some many points in history so I'd probably just have a sneaky peak into the lives of people I know ;-)

4.  If you were coming on stage what would you choose as your walk on tune?

Something comical no doubt!

5.  In Grease what character would you most like to play?

Sorry, I'm not a fan of Grease (hears the thud of people falling off chairs in disgust!)

6.  What skill would you most like to have?

Currently to be able to grade patterns, sizing is driving me mad!

7.  If you could make any outfit from a movie what would you choose?

Argh, I can't think but I loved the BBC drama The Hour- something like that would be fab!

8. Do you have a recipe for something that never disappoints if so can I have it?

Ha, I like to keep trying new things so constantly change my recipes.  Think I may have perfected my mince pie one now and yes of course you can have it!

9.  Can you recommend a good book you've read?

Bit trashy but I enjoyed Before I Go to Sleep.  I'm not much of a reader.

10.  What's guaranteed to make you laugh?

Funny people!

11.  If you could choose another name what would you go for?

Well, being a Sarah along with a million others, probably something obscure so I'm not constantly answering to the calls from strangers of "Sarah" in the style of Alan Partridge "Dan"!

Colette Laurel

Summer, summer, summer time...

Here's my wearable (although too short for me - wearable for someone out there!) muslin Colette Laurel Shift with hazy sunshine, dreamyyyyyy....

                     

                                 

I used a spotty cotton for the dress and satin bias binding for the neck.  The sleeves are from the Colette Peony. 

 I added the pockets to the front but it's quite difficult to tell what with all the spots!

 Check out the invisible zipper, my best yet! Apologies for poor pics, the spots haven't shown well and the hazy summer sun didn't help!  I might make this again but omit the zipper (it's easy to slip straight on over your head without it) and definitely lengthen!  I'd probably go for a more drapey fabric though.  The cotton makes it some-what tent-like!

(Note to self- Iron before taking photos for blog!)