SWAP 2019 - Discussion

[Grasshopper]

Your trousers look very nice, Ruthie!  I agree that perhaps the hem might still be slightly too long but I, too, don't like it when pants hike up too much and overly expose the ankle so perhaps it is best to let them be.  All of your teal pieces are very lovely and blend so well together and the teal is a very pretty color for you.  Neutral but not boring, for sure!

[warpjr1965]

Lovely trousers Ruthie!  That really is a nice color on you.  I agree with you that perhaps they are a little long, but I'm not suer I would have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out.

Still no SWAP sewing around here, although I do have a blue item ready for sewing now.  I am still working on the bag, just almost done interfacing, once I start sewing I think it will go quickly.

[mudcat]

If I were voting I'd be voting for your cardigan, Ruthie. The beading is brilliant.  I think you have a good chance to move to the second round because so many people are not doing anything extra which I believe is what the judges look for.

[M lambie]

Hello, everyone! I'm so excited to be back posting in the SWAP discussion, my all time favorite!

I've had a look at all the plans and wow they are awesome! I'm going to try to comment on all, but just a few at a time. Twice in the last 2 days I've been writing a long-ish post and the site went down (or was inaccessible) right when I pushed the post button. Grr.

Ruthie, I am totally not surprised that you have already finished a 6-PAC's worth of lovely teal garments!  Everything looks very smart and nicely made. I agree with the consensus about the trousers being a bit long. However, like you, I would be absolutely thrilled if I found RTW trousers that fit so well! For that matter I would be thrilled had I made them.  I also really like the repeated style elements you have shown so far -- the wrap style coat and cardigans and the similar lapels of the coat and the tweedy jacket/cardi. It's really a nice designer touch.  I don't know, I feel that this set is so far maybe even better put together than usual. And I also really love the beading you did on the print! Fabulous work. Like others, I may copy...  I can't wait to see what you post next. I really like where you're going with this collection. (Oh, and I like the neutral colors of the room where you posed! Really nice.)

Indigotiger, I think your updated plan sounds fab! I'm really glad you can include that Alabama Chanin style cardigan, I just love that garment.  Your new blouse fabric is beautiful! Can't wait to see it made up. I'm really impressed with the alteration you did to your everyday dress to add a button placket and collar. It turned out so well and the style really shows off the stripes in your indigo fabric. I think you have such a lovely selection of fabrics for this plan. I'm also looking forward to seeing the plaid pinnie!

OK, trying to keep things short. Will be back later with more.

[stephaniecan]

Mary: Love your attitude and your style! I just love the embellishment on those skirts you posted. Very cool. I can only imagine what you went through last year but I am so glad that you came out the other side and are ready to sew! Yay! And congratulations on the weight loss contest. That's wonderful!

[fzxdoc]

Ruthie, your SWAP is shaping up so nicely. Congrats!

It was fun to look at your photos.

Mary, what a year 2018 was for you. Glad to hear that your husband is better, the bedbugs are gone (yikes!), and the apartment renovations are complete. And congrats on your 40+ pound weight loss. You look great! May 2019 be filled with peaceful enjoyable sewing for you and and health and happiness for you and your family.

Kathryn

[Sew Ruthie Sews]

Thank you sewsy, fzxdoc and mlambie for all your kind comments. Sometimes it feels a bit like sewing in a vacuum so its lovely to get encouraging feedback I really appreciate it.
(I do show my projects to my DBF and he tries to look interested as he knows its important to me, but its not really his thing!)

Mary (M Lambie), sounds like a challenging year. Well done on the weight loss, I know how hard that is to achieve, and the resulting carnage to the wardrobe, so a great enouragement to sew the pieces which truly work for your style and aethetic.
(I've kept my heavier weight but am showing self-care by sewing clothes for the size I am now, which I can replace or alter later).

IndigoTiger I think it is a GREAT idea to use your beautiful cardigan as the previously made item. Hope your project kit assembly apporach works well for you.

[warpjr1965]

Hi gang! Popping in quickly here to cheer everyone on. I'll be AWOL for a week or so, as I'm travelling, so no sewing for me starting Tuesday!  So much for starting quickly.

[Cheriecz]

Eva, I had to look up the artist whose painting you chose for your color inspiration. How fascinating! Interesting history, and amazing body of work! Love the colors in Sailboating in the wind!

[stephaniecan]

Lovely colours, demented fairy!

Amazing collection so far, Ruthie!

Nice collection shaping up, indigotiger. Feel better. I know a lot of people with the flu at the moment and I am hoping that I can avoid it this year.

I'm feeling distinctly nautical for my collection now. I have a red jacket underway (silk organza hand basted to fabric this weekend!) so I have committed to the red. We will see how this goes.

[Sew Ruthie Sews]

StephanieCan, your drawings are lovely, you have some great pieces planned, I'm looking forward to seeing them come to fruition.

[stephaniecan]

Thanks, Ruthie. I struggle with discipline and momentum. I wish I could be more like you. I still think of your "sew little, sew often" mantra from last year, as it does help me to get going when I think it's not worth it as I don't have much time. Every little bit counts. What may help sustain my motivation is that I am sewing with red fabric! So often I find I plan to sew with dull colours and although practical and workhorse I seem to really really love working with cheerier colours and find some drive therein. Who knew!?

[Lisanne]

I seem to really really love working with cheerier colours and find some drive therein. Who knew!?

You could use red as your main neutral 

[stephaniecan]

Lisanne: Thanks for giving my inner red-a-holic permission to make red pants, too!

[Lisanne]

Thanks for giving my inner red-a-holic permission to make red pants, too!

Look forward to seeing them     

[Lisanne]

Indigotiger - what a lovely choice for your prize fabric 

[fzxdoc]

Indigotiger, what a great way to use your prize gift certificate from the Pre-Swap Dress contest. That fabric is gorgeous; it will look so nice on you in whatever you choose to make with it. And how wonderful that it has the hand and the finish that you envisioned it would when you ordered it. Sometimes online shopping doesn't work out quite that well.

You're right, very seldom do fabric stores pull a thread on the crosswise grainline and follow it to cut the length of fabric evenly. I've only ever seen a handful of stores do that; Waechter's Silk Shop in Asheville used to do it all the time. It was fun to watch the careful process.

Kathryn

[stephaniecan]

Beautiful fabric choice, indigotiger!

Treefrog, I am so impressed by your illustrations. Your collection is shaping up beautifully. The print pants are great!

[Grasshopper]

Indigotiger, I do love your fabric!  It is very pretty.  And it's great to heat about your excellent experience with Hart Fabrics.  I have looked at some of their offerings but never have ordered.  I will be keeping them more in mind now!

Stephanie, oh yes, red as a main neutral would be just lovely!

Treefrog, I do like your olive denim pants.  I have some olive denim in my stash and am tempted to pull it out now!   

[stephaniecan]

Thanks, Grasshopper! Olive is a great colour for pants.

[M lambie]

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, Stephanie, Kathryn, and Ruthie! 

Treefrog, great chaos theory inspired non-plan plan and wordplay! I love the butterfly fabric and the great color options in your palette. Wonderful work on both pairs of jeans, the fit looks fantastic. Olive is a great color for denim! I really like the mustard striped T, such a cheery color and I always love striped T's. Your print pants look comfy and the fabric is really nice, a great print. I can't wait to see where you go with this set.

Stephanie, I've enjoyed reading the evolution of your plan here and on your blog. I can relate to the conflict between feeling the need for those workhorse neutral garments and the motivation to sew the fun colors (or prints). It can be especially difficult for SWAP when sometimes one feels like one is supposed to make SIX plain neutral garments; it seems a bit much at times! I like the idea you discussed earlier of using 2 grey garments, 2 brown, and 2 grey/brown plaid, I think that would work so well as a neutral base without being so dull. (Apologies if I've remembered inaccurately!) I also relate to your issue of mixed warm & cool coloring. For most of my life this was my issue too -- my hair was always reddish, strawberry blonde, light red, auburn, reddish-blonde etc. Never the bright orangey color some get, though I had strands of pure copper color in my hair. But every color/style book suggested I "must" be warm, spring or autumn, never cool, due to the obvious red in my hair. Nonetheless my skin has cool undertones as do my lips and my eyes are mostly grey with a yellow/gold rim around the pupil.

Enough about me, I think you look just lovely in the red you posted and I am happy you will be including more in your plan! I think the red dress is simply beautiful and looks wonderful on you. I hope you do sew the red pants! And I'm looking forward to seeing how that fascinating red jacket turns out. I love garments with interesting seamlines like that.

Demented Fairy, your color scheme is so colorful and cheerful and the garments you've already sewn look so great together. I especially love the cabbage inspiration photo. And the tree fabric you showed on your blog is just gorgeous! Looking forward to seeing what you do decide to sew.

Indigotiger, I love the beautiful blue & black print you got with your winnings! It will look so nice in your wardrobe.

Ruthie, love the latest teal additions! The lounge pants look super comfy, I could use something like that right now. But the top! Wow! It came out really well! I just love how you did the pattern placement, it looks just amazing. Having another look at your pics wearing the clothes, I have to say that I really like this darker version of teal on you. I feel it's quite flattering, even more so than some of the lighter/brighter teals. Really great choice for a neutral.

Grasshopper, I have enjoyed reading your thoughts about your fabric/plan colors and how they relate to your personal coloring, and about your planning process. I think the inspiration scarf is beautiful and the taupe grey color should be a lovely neutral on you. I'm happy you were able to make your peach/grey floral chiffon shell work! I hope you will post a photo as it sounds lovely.

I'll try to catch up on more plans later. Meanwhile, although I have a need to sew alterations for myself and some new skirts for my sister (who needs them even more desperately than I!), I realize that I will have to intersperse some of my own SWAP sewing with these needful and less exciting projects or I will totally lose motivation to do any of it. So hopefully I will be cutting apart my thermal shirts and re-cutting them for cardigans on Monday (I'm off work all next week!). I have a decent-fitting RTW t-shirt, just slightly boxy, that I think would make a cute cardi so I'll trace it off this weekend in between replacing elastics in my older skirts and cutting out half circle skirts for my sister. The weather here is supposed to be bitter cold for a few weeks so these warm cardigans will be used immediately!

Happy SWAP sewing, all! 

[stephaniecan]

Mary: You are so thoughtful! I appreciate the comments. I'm completely undecided about the colour direction, but red will be in for sure! I did like my original plan with my box of greys and oranges and browns, but I suspect that this time I'll be going red and blue for the neutrals and then green and grey as accents. There's always next autumn for the greys and browns.

Looking at you I would say that I see you as having cool skin. And I see what you mean about the warmth in your hair. I always had warmth in my hair when I was younger but now it is much cooler. On the other hand, I have a slight sallowness to my skin that I think takes away from the strong cool elements (blue green eyes). It's a challenge.

Take care.

[dementedfairy]

stephaniecan My red coat doesn't photograph well either, it blurs out or sucks up all available light and goes yellow lol no idea why.  I still love it!

Indigotiger WOW that blue fabric is lovely- so vibrant

Ruthie as amaxzing as ever- you tutn out about three times as much as required for every challenge- amazing!

[Lisanne]

Demented Fairy - sadly the link to your blog post about your red coat does not work.
To give a link here you don't need to write your own html - just give the url and this site provides a link for you.
example :
http://artisanssquare.com/sg/index.php/topic,1827.0.html
Looking forward to seeing it   

[dementedfairy]

Lisanne- thanks for letting me know I'll go and fix it.  I usually just open the required page and copy and paste the address from the top bar...

[fzxdoc]

Lisanne, I like the monochrome neutrals photo that you posted on your SWAP topic. I'm a real fan of tone-on-tone as well. I think it looks classy.

Kathryn

[fzxdoc]

LillieT, I'm really enjoying reading Lillie's thought process. What a find that geodesic top pattern is. I'm contemplating making it as well, but need to study it a bit more. The Blueprints for Sewing site is quite interesting. Thank you for the link.

Kathryn

[Grasshopper]

Lisanne - that photograph illustrating your personal style is a beautiful composition.  Nearly everything in it is something I find pleasing as well, the lace, sparkly brooch , ironstone pottery, and the mix of creamy tones.  It is very elegant and classy, and appeals to my love of a simpler time.

[warpjr1965]

Hi everyone I am back in town and ready to get back into SWAP!  It will be arctic cold here, 20 below at least, so other than work I'll be stuck inside for a few days. And my sewing meetup is this weekend, so I'll have actual sewing time planned with my local peeps!  I'l likely cut a few projects out during the meeting so I can sew them up at home.

[ejvc]

Hey gang! Long time no see (my fault of course).  I came and thought I'd dip in here, and what a wonderful time to choose, just at the start of the SWAP season, and great rules this year!!

I'm mulling starting a swap, because I need clothes.  But, I have some constraints:

1) I don't really work from inspiration and it's kind of flummoxing me.
2) I'm in the middle of losing weight -- currently -10kg (thank goodness! I was getting uncomfortably chunky) -- and it's set to go on through the SWAP period.  So I have to consider carefully both the type of garments and the order to sew them in; and
3) I'm trying a buy-nothing year! So I have to somehow make a swap with the fabrics I have.  Which I'm sure is *possible* and will no doubt make me very *creative* but still.

I've not been sewing for myself much at all - a few t-shirts maybe.  I made some PJs for the kids.  I made some cycling caps and trousers in the summer.  But hardly anything.  Work work work, and I've been learning how to spin.

My general go to (not inspiration, mind you) is ultra simple.  For losing weight, I know that a-line skirts and dresses are good, but the problem is I don't like wearing them.  Wearing skirts sucks because you always have to wear tights because it's always too cold or too inappropriate to just wear a skirt.  I like wearing pants.  I have been gleefully wearing only jeans for months and months and months now.  And anyway I have skirts already because they never wear out, and the a-line always fits.  What I want (what I always want in a swap) is three pairs of pants, three short-sleeved shirts, three long-sleeved shirts, and two jackets.  (Honestly, these are practically all the garments I will ever need in life, apart from a swimsuit, yoga pants, snow pants and a coat).

But whether I have the fabric for them remains to be seen!  And as you can see, inspiration is not my inspiration lol. 
 

[M lambie]

Wendy, we're having awful weather like that too, highs from 5 to -13 F and lows around -20 to -25 F! Brrr! Definitely a good time to stay inside and sew!

Elizabeth, how nice to see you back! Good job on the weight loss! I'm also sewing for ongoing weight loss & size change and it's definitely a challenge. (Lucky for me I love skirts & dresses LOL.) Can't wait to see what you manage to plan based on fabrics at hand. Regarding inspiration images, I (and several others) have used my image as an illustration rather than an inspiration. I don't really get inspired to sew a wardrobe based on lovely scarves. So maybe you could do likewise - once you have a plan, just search for an image in those colors.

Dawn, I am so so thrilled that you are doing SWAP this year and I simply love your Ivey Abitz inspired black frock/dress! It is so nicely sewn and you look great in it. What a versatile and fun garment. The drawstrings turned out just right. I really really can't wait to see your Elliot jacket/cardigan after we talked about that one off and on for years LOL. Your planned colors are gorgeous and I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing come together. Good luck piecing the fabric for your dress! I am sure you will make it work. I also enjoyed your breakdown of the latest Ivey Abitz collection. Naturally I popped over there to have a peak and I love the colors! I would kill for a nice plaid like the one used for the Highlands skirt.

Lillie (& LillieT ) after reading your post, I have spent some quality time looking up your patterns online!  I had heard of Seamwork before but somehow had never checked out their patterns. The Jill coatigan looks super cozy! I also love how your Geodesic top sounds with the crochet. Can't wait to see it. (I also agree it would be awesome, and a lot of work, done Alabama Chanin style). Anyway, in general, I'm looking forward to seeing pics of your garments because I really like your color scheme. Your whole plan sounds like a great combination of useful basics plus personalized accents. Whichever Lillie is the planner here has done a good job.

I haven't started my SWAP sewing yet, had thought to do so yesterday, but I am making good progress with the alterations & repairs pile. I already feel much better to see the stack shrinking, plus I have two skirts I can now wear again thanks to shorter elastics in the waist.

[stephaniecan]

Mary: You are the best commenter! I agree with what you said, which makes me seem very lazy, but I find myself largely out of words this evening.

Elizabeth: I really like the way you have boiled everything down to what you actually wear. I tend to avoid skirts for the same reason, and it is rarely above -20C here lately (with -35 to -40 C wind chills in the last couple of weeks), so I leave the house in tights, pants, ski pants, an underlayer, a sweater, a jacket and a parka...not to mention a scarf, another fleece collar thing I can pull up over my nose, a fleece headband and a fleece-lined hat, plus alpaca mittens. In other words, skirts are more or less the last thing that comes to mind, although I did take one to the office to change into on Monday! I have also given up wearing mascara, because with the scarf covering my mouth and the hot air moving upwards, I end up with mascara smears on my face. And let's not talk about the hair/hat head.

I guess I had more words than I had thought, but Mary still said it better than I could!

Like Dawn, I have started my first sewn item of the winter and I hope to complete it by Feb 5 when my partner arrives and distracts me from the prosaic acts of making! That makes two items completed if I get it done....a slow start!

Demented fairy: Eek, I'll bet your red coat is gorgeous, even if it is difficult to photograph. I will drop by to take a look. There are certain colours I can never photograph.

Lisanne: I love your inspiration photo. Very classy, indeed!

[ejvc]

I've been thinking! It's not a plan yet but.

So this is where I'm at.  I have a nice pile of co-ordinated fabrics here, from which I have made two tee's and a half-sweater. The print is clearly the inspiration here.



Neutrals -- navy and grey-blue (OMG so boring but I have SO MUCH of these colours in stash!!)

Navy:
- ponte trousers
- navy melton peacoat
- short sleeved shirt-dress in wool suiting
- long-sleeved micro-satin blouse (must check if I have enough)

Grey-blue
- jeans
- wool flannel pants (cut, never assembled becuz I got fat, but am not fat now so they should work!)
- grey-blue satin blouse (must double-check fabric, this might be too heavy for a blouse and have to be a jacket!)

Print 1 - blue-navy
- silk satin blouse (inspiration piece)

Accent 2 - green
- green tee (previously made)

(I think these nine are the core.  I make 3 pants - navy ponte, jeans, blue wool; 4 tops - green tee, navy blouse, grey-blue blouse (or jacket), print blouse; and two layers (navy peacoat and navy dress)

Two other things currently planned (wildcards!!!)
- blue-green/oatmeal burnout tee
- oatmeal sweater-vest from handspun yarn

Also I will make a knitted cardigan from the recycled grey-blue alpaca wool (although... this is started and not completed so will fall outside the swap, how annoying)

EDIT: what a very buttoned-up and professional swap this looks like being!!! And not very springlike.  But... I do have a previously-purchased vintage grey-blue lightweight  coat that I could maybe swap out for the peacoat for a more springlike feel.

EDIT AGAIN: it would be really fun to get a bit of turquoise in too.  Must check the stash but I don't think I have any in that colour except some soft-shell, which doesn't really go with the designer-satin theme...

[ejvc]

Apologies for thread-hogging -- checked the stash and -- well, I'm going to have a lot of navy silk shirts.  I have silk broadcloth, a thin silk dupion, and a micro satin (not silk, but silky).  Apparently my fabric-buying self considers navy silk an essential purchase. And who am I to argue, really?  Then I found a turquoise - a wonderful embroidered silk textile given to me by my sister, which will become, I think, a vest.  It's a bit too much for me to wear as a jacket.  Ditto the grey-blue satin, that may become a vest as well.  Maybe embroidered too?    Fun!

[fzxdoc]

Thread-hog away, Elizabeth! 

Sounds like you've got some good game plans going on.

Kathryn