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!)

And the winner is...

The winner of the Sewing and Fitting with Darts book is...

Congratulations Sally!  DM or email me your contact details and I will pass it on to Heather who will send you the book directly.  Enjoy!

Giveaway!!

So excited my first giveaway!

I was kindly asked by Heather Claus to review her new book Sewing and Fitting with Darts and there's a copy to give away!  If you fancy winning a copy just pop a comment below and the random winner will be announced on 12th May.  This is open to everyone around the globe, easypeasy!

I'm a beginner slowly building my knowledge and confidence in the sewing world.  I loved this book!  The instructions are super clear.  Heather sent me the digital copy which had links to online discussion forums for most chapters, great if you're a Kindle user or like reading on your mobile device (if not you can see them on her website)!  Heather talks you through the perfect dart - I wondered where I was going wrong with the finish and now I know!

            

I'm definitely going to give it a go.  Perhaps starting with adding and removing dart shaping, I often have problems with fitting around the chest.

The book also includes a pants, sleeve and bodice slopers (blocks).  

One thing I would say is this book is not for the more advanced, I think it's pretty simple techniques but perfect for the beginner.  This is the first in a series of  books.  Can't wait for the next! Heather will give away one copy, so if you fancy one you know what to do!  Pop a comment below, go on you, know you want to...!

Picking fabrics and patterns

Just thought I'd test out this really cute app!

I took some inspiration from this beautiful Black Books video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXn9mClh_AY

vine.co/v/bU9rA7YFIU3
— SewingSarah (@notchesnnotions) April 21, 2013

Took me a few attempts to get it right!  I'm loving this!  So here's some fabrics I'm thinking about another Colette Sorbetto (yes another!) or a Kelly Skirt from the spotty navy cotton.  What do you think?