My Archer of Tribulation

I have finally finished my second Archer Button Up Shirt by Grainline Studio. This was my Archer of tribulation. I had difficulties at every stage, and it is nothing short of a miracle that it has reached completion and is not laying discarded in the corner of my sewing room.

I blame most of my issues with this shirt on my fabric choice. I wanted a fine gingham so that I wouldn't have to be too careful with pattern matching. Unfortunately, the only fabric available in the fine gingham at Spotlight at the time, was a poly/cotton blend. I think it was 80% polyester and 20% cotton.

My first issue was with the fusible interfacing. I just used the same interfacing that I always use, purchased from my local Bargain Box Fabrics. They sell two types of fusible interfacing...a cheap and nasty lightweight interfacing, and a cheap and nasty medium weight interfacing. The minute I fused the interfacing to the fabric the fabric wrinkled and bubbled and shrank. I had to re-cut the collar. I did some testing on scraps but I couldn't stop the bubbling effect. In the end I decided to underline the collar and cuff pieces with another white poly/cotton fabric I had left over from another project which didn't wrinkle and bubble when I fused on the interfacing.

This fabric did not like to be sewn. The seams puckered and I had terrible trouble getting them to lie nice and flat. For this reason I decided not to faux flat fell the seams. I just finished them off with the overlocker and left good enough alone. You can see in the photo above there is something weird going on with the yoke. It wants to pull up in the centre and is creating a fold of fabric at the base of the neck. I didn't have this issue with my first Archer which I made out of a cotton voile, so can only attribute this to the fabric.

I did make a couple of minor changes for my second Archer, based on what I learned during the construction of my first one. I cut a size twelve, as before, but I cut the sleeves in a size 8. These fitted perfectly into the armsceye and are a much more pleasing width and length. I also added 5cm (approx 2 inches) to the length of the front and back, at the waistline. To try and take away the boxy shape of the shirt I tapered the side seams slightly by 1cm (approx 3/8ths of an inch) at the waistline curving back to nothing at the armsceye and hemline. I am pleased with the shape of the shirt now, still loose but a little more figure flattering.

Two piece undercollar and collar stand

As you can see I didn't give any thought to pattern matching the two piece under collar which is a bit of a shame because it would have looked really good. Must keep that in mind for the next one. Due to underlining the collar and cuff pieces there was quite a lot of bulk in these areas. Luckily my trusty Bernina powered through all the layers without a problem.

Angled cuffs

I think the angled cuffs are a nice feature. I sewed continuous plackets as instructed in the pattern but they puckered terribly. I did the best I could and tried to press the puckering out but I didn't have great success.

Pockets

The pockets also gave me grief. When I pressed the pockets before attaching them, the fabric skewed strangely. At least they did this symmetrically. I was really worried that this would be very obvious and ruin the look of the shirt, but I don't think it is too noticeable if you don't look too hard. The last job was the button holes and buttons. I had every confidence that this would go well as my Bernina has an automatic buttonhole foot and setting so that once you set the button hole length it will reproduce identical button holes over and over. Well, how wrong I was. I think I spent about three hours on these button holes and I unpicked nearly as many as I sewed. The fabric puckered so I started using a tearaway stabilizer on the back which eliminated the puckering. Then my button holes were sewing with each side offset from the other by a few mm each side. I got very good at unpicking buttonholes. In the end, I started again and reset the buttonhole length. This, combined with the tearaway stabilizer worked a treat and I was able to go ahead and complete the remaining button holes without a hitch.

Despite all my problems during the construction of this shirt, I am glad I persevered and finished it. Probably not my best sewing but at least it is a wearable garment and I have learned never to bother making this in a poly/cotton again. Next one will be a nice soft cotton shirting or maybe a linen.


Happy Sewing