The patterns I used

* Simplicity 4699 - for the jacket, both pairs of pants and both shell tops
* Simplicity 4076 – Wrap over top in burnt orange viscose knit
* Simplicity 5099 – Wrap over empire link top in crinkle chiffon
* Simplicity 4125 – Wrap over print blouse
Loes Hinse 5007 – 6 gore skirt with godets - http://www.loeshinse.com/categories/skirts/gore.html
*NewLook 6177 – Print skirt with asymmetric panels

RuthieK's SWAP 2008

The five items in the left half of the wardrobe picture are all made from my Wardrobe Pattern Simplicity 4699. I made the shell top in a soft peach slinky, and a firm brown slinky. The pants are made in brown stretch denim and a self stripe stretch suiting. The jacket uses my fabric purchase from Timmel fabrics of a burnt orange embroidered and sequinned corduroy.

Simplicity 4699 – Knit shell in peach slinky
Simplicity 4699 – Knit shell in brown slinky
Simplicity 4699 – Pants in brown stretch denim
Simplicity 4699 – Pants in brown self-stripe stretch suiting
Simplicity 4699 – Knee length jacket in burnt orange corduroy

The six items in the right half of the photo are made from other patterns as follows.

Butterick 3131 – Cowl neck tunic blouse in bright coral polyester
Simplicity 4076 – Wrap over top in burnt orange viscose knit
Simplicity 5099 – Wrap over empire link top in crinkle chiffon
Simplicity 4125 – Wrap over print blouse
Loes Hinse 5007 – 6 gore skirt with godets
NewLook 6177 – Print skirt with asymmetric panels

Here are the clothes being worn

Jacket back detail

Here's the detail of the shaping on the back of the jacket. The buttons are covered using the unembroidered fabric at the edges.
Click on the picture to see it larger.

The whole SWAP Collection

Here's the whole SWAP collection shown together. I am not sure which shot I shall use.

The Jacket - finished

This is the jacket finished, complete with lining and 13 covered buttons (3 large at front, 1 on each pocket flat, 3 on each sleeve and 2 on the rear tab.
I had a great time with the Prym covered button maker doing these and it really makes things simple.
I do love sewing gadgets that make tasks easier.

SWAP did get finished

My SWAP did get finished by the deadline, but I am increasingly convinced I am a little mad.
I have no idea what convinced me that a burnt orange embroidered and sequinned corduroy coat would be a key wardrobe item. It's sure is FUN though, but I can't see me wearing it to the rather conservative office I work in.

I was hoping to take some photos outside today but its raining and horrible so no luck.
So I had a tidying up session and sorted out my ribbons, beads, buttons, threads etc which had just been put randomly in boxes. Now everything is in an appropriately labelled box in the cupboard.

Having had some neutral time during the sorting process, hopefully I will wake up tomorrow all alert and with a cunning plan on how to take an indoor photo of all the wardrobe items together. My brain hasn't come up with a good idea yet, but maybe sleeping will help

Partially made jacket

Here's the partially constructed jacket. Will be finished on Friday!

Wrap Knit Top

Made at Easter but not photographed

Other items in the SWAP

Including previously made items

I have decided I am going to use two previously made soft blouses in a mango colour which works well with the burnt oranges etc used in my plan
In which case once I finish the jacket I am making now I will be done sewing and will only need to do all the photography.

Comparison to original Storyboard

These are the original drawings I did at the start of the SWAP.
I have not stuck exactly to the plan.
The print blouse and skirt are there, as are the shell tops, burnt orange jacket and both pairs of brown pants.
Instead of the rust pants I went for a brown gore skirt. One of the blouses changed fabrics but is still burnt orange. Another became a burnt orange knit top, and the third is as yet undecided.

Almost there

I got back from my vacation at 1:30am last night (this morning?). It was a big contrast from warm and sunny Portugal to snowy England.

I managed to cut out the burnt orange embroidered corduroy which I bought from Julie and will be my SWAP jacket from the wardrobe pattern. (I won't cut out on a hard tile floor on a space only slightly larger than the fabric ever again though - caused terrible pains in knees and legs.) I've already made this up as a test jacket in another fabric, so it should be OK.

To finish I need to sew the jacket and a blouse (already cut out) and then need either a purchased blouse or the waistcoat(vest) I already made or another top/blouse of some sort. So I probably can just about make the deadline.

Crinkle Fabric

I want to make a collared wrap over blouse from crinkled fabric.
The pattern is New Look 6252 and the fabric is a burnt orange and gold crinkle polyester fabric.
How should I approach the collars and cuffs etc?
Should I iron some of the fabric flat and use that for the collar/cuff/facing, or somehow try to fuse whilst maintaining the crinkle?
How do you keep the crinkle when assembling? What about pressing seams, hems etc?

I would appreciate any tips you might have to share on this, because I really want to make this wrap top for my SWAP :-)

Brown self stripe pants are done

Phew! The brown self stripe stretch woven pants are now finished.
On this pair because of the amount of stretch in the fabric I had to take an additional 4" or so out of the waist to keep the pants up.

Onto the test jacket/coat next which is all cut out ready to go.

Painting completed

Well the painting is completed, which I am pleased about. It gives a nice neutral back drop which should indeed be 'Soothing' to sew in.
The minus is that I was stashing unsorted boxes in this room and now have a LOT of sorting out to do, all of which keeps me from sewing :-(
But hopefully it will be all worth it in the end.

Painting (sigh)

Have painted two walls of my revamped room and I am pleased with the neutral feel it gives which I think will work well for sewing.
An offwhite colour from Crown called Soothing LOL.
However complete chaos has ensued form this and will get worse before it gets better as I still have to move all the office portion out of the way to paint the walls in that area.

New Look patterns are on sale in the UK at only £2.95 instead of £5.75 ($6 in the sale instead of $11.50) so I went to the sewing store in the next town which sells New Look and picked up New Look 6617 and New Look 6755 whilst the paint dried!

I might use the blouse pattern in the SWAP, though since it has a waist seam and peplum it may need some alterations to the pattern tissue to fit well.
The jacket/coat I plan to use for a mini SWAP type wardrobe in the summer in the Safari style which is popular again this year.

Sewing room reorganisation

I've decided to merge my sewing room in with my existing study to keep all my stuff in one place (and get the sewing stuff out of the bedroom). However the study is currently painted blue and I need it to be more neutral in colour before I can sew in it. So this weekend I plan to paint the walls ivory or similar and then have a massive move around/sort. That will leave me with a great hobby space but will rather interrupt sewing. So don't expect any garments from me this weekend unless I manage to finish the current pair of pants whilst the paint dries.

Here's wishing you all a very productive sewing weekend.

Simplicity 4699 Peach Top

This is the completed shell top from Simplicity 4699 in peach slinky. A little more challenging to sew than the previous version as the knit is softer.

In real life I feel the cold, so I would wear this with a soft knit cardi with 3/4 sleeves in burnt orange (yes its a darker shade of the shell honest).
I tend to wear these shell tops under other things, but its not too scary if I then take the top layer off! (Compared to a camisole where you can see bra straps etc)

Timmel SWAP Progress as at 15th Feb 2008

These are the garments made so far

• Simplicity 4125 wrap shirt in green/rust/brown print
• New Look 6177 panelled skirt in green/rust/brown/print
• Simplicity 5099 knit top in brown/orange/coral print (extra)
• Loes Hinse 5007 Gore Skirt in dark brown
• Simplicity 4699 pants in dark brown denim
• Simplicity 4699 top in dark brown slinky knit
• New Look 6943 waistcoat in rust wool (extra)

Partly made

• Simplicity 4699 pants in dark brown self stripe suiting
• Butterick 4295 skirt in brown with gold/cream/orange stripes (extra)
• Simplicity 4699 top in peach slinky knit

Still to come

• Simplicity 4699 jacket/coat in burnt orange embellished cord
• Simplicity 4699 rust cropped pants (extra)
• New Look 6252 wrapover orange crinkle blouse
• New Look 6513 fitted blouse in cream broderie anglaise (eyelet)
• New Look 6513 fitted blouse in orange stripe

Simplicity 4125 finished

Here's Simplicity 4125 finished and modelled with the denim pants and with the matching skirt as a dress look. I think its quite convincing. For the 'dress' I left off the removable tie belt and tucked the blouse into the skirt, finishing it with a purchased leather belt.

SWAP so far on a rail

I assembled my push together wheeled hanging rail (£5, approx $10) and hung on it the items already completed using nice wooden hangers. It looks good and should help me continue to be inspired by the project. You really get a sense of the wardrobe as a whole when they are all together like that.

Obviously the print top second from the back is an extra piece as it doesn't work with the green print, although it is fine with everything else.

Since I took this photo I wheeled the rail back into the sewing room and added more hangers with the partly completed garments.
Partly done are:

• Self stripe brown pants
• Brown skirt with orange/gold stripes (extra piece)
• Green print wrapover blouse

This is a great way to keep the current items off the sewing table, and encourage me to get to them, and make them garments instead of projects!

Simplicity 4125

I recently bought Simplicity 4125 from Sewing World magazine. They have a deal in the UK with Simplicity to sell on the end of line patterns for £2.75 each which is a good price here so I bought some.
This evening I managed to cut out view A from the leftovers from my skirt. This involved cutting the facing with the print running in the wrong direction and cutting the two front out individually to make best use of the fabric.
One thing you can't tell from the drawings, but is in the directions is an inner ribbon tie and an outer button and button hole keep the blouse closed, the tie belt is then just tied on top. I'm not a frilly girl so would not add the flounces even if I had enough fabric. I'm also not keen on any of the sleeves but my fabric yardage made that choice for me, and I have the extended shoulder with sleeve bands instead!

Wearing the New Look 6177 Skirt

Here I am wearing my skirt made from New Look 6177.
I wore this today, and whilst its way more colour than usually goes in my office I loved wearing it.

DH made me laugh just as the flash on the self timer went off, but I quite liked the shot so included it.

New Look 6177 Skirt Completed

I hadn't done any sewing for a few days, and realised it was, at least in part, down to the fact that I had had enough of brown.
So I cut out this skirt and sewed it up in glorious green, which I enjoyed very much!
Apologies for the hanger shot, I will wear it in earnest tomorrow and take a photo to share.

Patterns for the print

One idea for the print fabric was a skirt and blouse with asymmetric lines.
I'd flip the skirt so the seams went the same direction as the blouse diagonal lines.

Second thoughts about the print skirt

I am having slight second thoughts about the green/orange/brown print I included in my SWAP plan. I showed it to my friend last night when she was round and she pulled a face when I said skirt and blouse. I have a UFO to finish first and then a pair of brown pants but the print was then going to be next.
The print is centre far left on the picture below


For the skirt I need to have below mid calf (due to chunky legs) and my two options are slightly flared with side zip or asymmetric panels. For the top/blouse I have a choice of two different wrap/mock wrap blouses. The idea was that the skirt and wrap blouse worn together would look like a wrap dress, but that they could also be worn separately.


Thoughts? I will say that my friend (although dear to me) is very conservative in her dress style, and thought me wearing a burnt orange sweater/scarf with a dark navy pant suit was adventurous. On the other hand my sometimes inappropriate love of colour and pattern has resulted in more than a few UFOs and charity shop donations.