Fabrics from PR weekend (Europe)

Here are my fabrics from the European PR weekend - see a common theme?


Top row (l-> r): Chocolate boiled wool with mother of pearl giant button, burnt orange satin, chocolate lace, orange fleece
Bottom row (l->r): Orange with woven check/spirals and wool for rag doll hair, chocolate flock fabric, orange crinkle fabric, black cotton with lurex dot with orange beads for necklace.

Current Wardrobe Pattern Thoughts

My latest idea with the Wardrobe Pattern is Butterick B4295 but keeping all my Chocolate/orange/cream colour ways from before.
http://www.butterick.com/item/B4295.htm.
I am not massively in love with the jacket, but all 3 pieces have the seams where advised in the Threads article to make altering for weight loss easier (centre back zips in the skirt and pants, shoulder princess seams in the jacket). My thoughts are to shorten the jacket slightly to make it more wearable with a long skirt and maybe remove or reshape the shawl collar (soft lines are not good near the face for me).
If I left the collar as is I could try to make a removable faux-fur over collar - its a good shape for that, and maybe I can copy an RTW item which has that feature.

I have just got back from the PR European Weekend and had a lovely time there (Hamburg/Kiel in Germany). Most of the fabrics I bought there were also in Chocolate and Orange colour ways. I have enough fabric now to sew 2 SWAPs at least..... so I think I will buy patterns from Julie for my entry!

Simplicity 4971 - garments

So I plan to make the short jacket, the pants and the shell top from this pattern.
as I am actively losing weight with Weight Watchers over the period of the contest another reason why I like this pattern is the alterability.

The jacket can be taken in on the princess seams, the pants have a back zip and facing and can be taken in at the side seams.
The simple shell top can be taken in on the side seams or the centre back seam, or is so quick to sew that I would just sew it again in a smaller size!

In addition to this I need to sew 3 more bottoms (skirts/pants) and 5 tops where at least 2 are blouse style not simple tees.

Simplicity 4971

The Timmel SWAP (starting in Jan) has a twist each year, and Julie has just published the one for this year.

6. 2008 Twist – Three garments must be made from one "wardrobe" pattern.
You must make three uniquely different garments from that pattern; making one type of garment three times will not qualify.
These patterns are available from all the major pattern companies and they usually include a jacket, dress and/or skirt, pants, blouse or top. For our purposes, any pattern with at least three different garments that work together will be counted as a "wardrobe" pattern.
The patterns labelled "wardrobe patterns" often have 4 or 5 garments in them; but as long as the pattern has three different garments, it will qualify. The purpose of this year's rule is to encourage making the best use of a pattern; in other words, work it for what it is worth. The other 8 garments can come from any other pattern or patterns or be self-drafted.

I had a good look through my patterns and decided that Simplicity 4971 has the most wearable items in a package together, a lot of the others I only liked one or two items in the envelope.

SWAP skirt idea - Burda 8407

Fabrics for Autumn SWAP Style Sewing

Here are the fabrics I have got together in the chocolate/orange/cream colour theme I am planning for my Autumn sewing.
The main suiting fabric is in the centre and as you can see it has a dark chocolate background with variegated stripes in lighter brown, orange, gold and ivory.
Fabrics Left to Right, top to bottom
brown knit (cardigan), orange and white knit (top), brown cotton (dress?), ivory woven (blouse)
Ivory woven with crinkle stripes (blouse)
Faux leather (bag, skirt?), main fabric (jacket, pants, skirt, culottes, vest), orange knit (top)
Ornage and brown knit (top), brown satin (vest back), animal print knit (top), orange knit (top), Black brown polyester suiting (pants), ivory satin (blouse), dark brown suiting (pants or skirt)

1920s style dress

Here I am dressed up for my 1920s style party