Polka Dots and Moonbeams.

As promised, I'm back to share more of my new uniform pieces. Even though I've sewn piles of the same garments, I tried to keep variety at play. The most obvious way I have variety is that I chose different fabrics for each iteration. While I'm certainly not opposed to the idea of owning a dozen black Archers (maybe next time!), I knew that I wanted to have a range of blouses to choose from. When I chose fabrics, I was conscious of choosing palates and patterns that complimented another. And, I pulled a few pieces of fabric just for the sake of fun, like this blue on blue polka dot. 

 I also played around with different customization options. On this Archer, I decided to sew a half-sleeve version of the blouse. All throughout May (#MMMay15), I found myself rolling up the sleeves on my Archer blouses. It occurred to me that I could save myself the trouble by shortening the sleeves. 

 I've long loved the sleeve Adey's vintage blouse. I really love the look of the overlapped cuff and decided to use it as the starting point for this sleeve hack. It was simple, really. I used the original cuff pieces and assembled them as usually but with a reduced seam allowance. Then, after I cut my sleeve to the length I wanted, I gathered it slightly, at the center of the underarm and stitched it to the cuff.  Slightly overlapping the edges of my cuff, I stitched with the seam allowances facing the wrong side of the sleeve. There is a raw edge folded  under the cuff, but it's completely out of sight once the cuff is flipped into position. 

I was a little stumped when it came time to choose a fabric to pair with my blue dots. You know me and color (or lack thereof). But, I'm really happy with the way these blue spots looks with this mustard version of Butterick See&Sew 5076. As an added bonus, I think it's going to look great with my Gingham (stay tuned) Archer too!  I've really been able to push myself with new colors/patterns during this experiment.  All the fabrics I sewed with were stash, mostly estate sale fabrics. WINNING!