the archer shirt is probably the most blogged-about women's button down shirt pattern on the market. from an independent pattern designer, it's literally been sewn up by everyone but me. shirley bought me the pattern and in i dove. mom's always cold, so i decided that for her bday this summer i would make her a flannel shirt. that actually fits. lots of store-bought flannels are way to roomy on us wee ladies. here's a view of the front. i actually had to shrink up the pockets as the pattern creates 2 mega front pockets, but mom isn't mega so i didn't want the pockets to drown her.
here's the back. there's a small pleat at the center back to allow a looser, but not too loose, fit. i cut the button placket, shoulder, and pockets on the bias. i should have done the cuffs on the bias, now that i'm looking at these pics, but at the time i thought that that would have made the shirt too busy. oops, you live and you learn. all seams are french-seamed! it's a beauty on the inside!
i made a lot of changes to this pattern. first of all, although mom is 3 inches taller than me, her torso is short per american standards. so, i had to take a lot out of the length. however, she's got LONG arms. really long arms. the pattern's sleeves fit me perfectly with no alterations (which is scary because i've got short short arms...) so i had to make extra wide cuffs for mom. look how LONG her sleeves are on me!!
the fabric is really neat. vintage woven flannel. unfortunately most flannel nowadays have the plaid printed on generic white flannel. back in the good 'ole days (i think i belong in the time of the good 'ole days), the fabric was woven together with different colored threads to make the plaid. i found this flannel (along with another, which will become an archer for me ONE DAY!) on ebay 2 years ago when i promised eric i'd make him a new flannel shirt. however, he felt the flannel looked too pajama-y so i decided to make it for mom. the colors are really neat: they're not as orange as the 1st 2 pics show them to be. really they're a bright red and dark blue, most like in the pic below. (this was from before i put on mom's special cuffs.) i don't have a pic of mom in the shirt unfortunately. i'm sure you've realized by now how camera-resistant my family is.
i made some fig newtons for eric's bday. fig newtons are a pricy and super sugary treat. so, i made my own and reduced the amount of sugar. the recipe i used was super healthy, calling for whole wheat flour and wheat germ! i put some walnuts in the figgy mix too but did such a terrible job chopping them that they were more like walnut chunks. they took FOREVER TO MAKE. omg 5 hours. you have to prepare the dough, prepare the fig mixture (on the stovetop), roll the dough quickly so it doesn't melt (i do everything slowly so this part was a real struggle), lay the fig on it, fold them up, close the seams, transfer onto a cookie sheet, refrigerate, bake.
this was batch 1. oh my goodness were they delicious! they didn't last too long in our household and mom and dad only got like 8 by the time they finally got here to watch the animals.
so, mom and i made a 2nd batch together. 2 hours only, and so much tastier. look how thick the cookie part is in the pics above. look how thin and even the cookie part is below. the thinner cookie was the winner.
we used a different fig (golden vs the dark ones) and mom made sure to super-chop the walnuts. teamwork made all the difference. the dough never stuck to the countertop!
mom and dad were in town while eric and i went to bozeman to do a 20 mile mountain ridge run for his bday. we didn't consider the possibility of snow (in early october?!?!) and the extreme altitude killed my fitness level, so that plan got foiled. we did get a 10 mile run in and 2 awesome peak ascents. it was stunningly beautiful. i hope to try it again next summer, when there's less snow hehe
i'm in the process of sewing him a new pair of carhartt workpants for his bday, which was over a month ago. tutoring has made me so busyyyyyy
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