SWAP 2008 - To Sew or Not to Sew, that is the Question

I see the excitement building on the Stitcher's Forum around the latest version of Timmel's SWAP contest. SWAP was a great learning experience for me last year, but toward the end, I was not very happy with myself working under the stress of a time limit. At that time, I vowed not to participate next time......then I began reading posts, and, well.........

I'm still undecided, but I have, as is outlined in my previous post, been working toward coordinated clothing items. I have almost enough for a SWAP in my NAVY category, and one garment is already made, and one is almost finished. The disadvantage is that I have my "print" as a bottom. The navy with small silver stripes looks great as a skirt and pants, but may not take well to a print top, leaving me in a more difficult planning position than if I had chosen a print top.

Somewhere I read that to look stunning, dress in all one color, including hose, shoes and purse, and wear a jacket of another color. Sounds good to me, so I'm going with that theme as I move into this navy/grey wardrobe. At this point it does not fulfill SWAP criteria particularly, but if I can get these bits working, I'll have enough to make a SWAP out if the result.

My "stunning" jacket will be a fuchsia wool cape, (Donna Karan - Vogue 2924) designed for outdoor wear, so there will also be a scarf of a similar color, or another light-weight jacket to set off the outfits when worn indoors.

This pattern will be a challenge as there are some very unusual directions, such as raw edges where the collar joins the neck edge, which I will have to work through to my satisfaction. I hope to document the garment as I cannot find it reviewed anywhere.


The navy and blue-grey show up decently here, but the white in the background is actually more grey than it looks, and the blue on the right goes better than it looks with the navy. In between the 2 silver stripes, there is a line of a lighter blue. The fuchsia would not photograph well, but you get the idea perhaps.

So my 2 monochrome outfits to contrast with the fuchsia cape are:

Navy/silver stripe pants and skirt; navy light-weight knit short sleeve top or tank style; navy cuddly knit long sleeve top. This skirt is already made.
Heathery blue-grey knit pants and skirt; same fabric top so it looks like a dress when worn together. The skirt is underway, the top is cut out, but I think it is too small a size, so I will make it up for my daughter, and try again.

These 3 tops, along with a light grey sparkle knit all go with both sets of bottoms.

I also plan a white fitted shirt (first try at a Simplicity 3684 B-C-D pattern) to wear with the navy bottoms, and a chiffon shirt in a grey/white/blue print to wear with the blue-grey bottoms.

None of this includes a purchase from Julie, and I am thinking of the blue wool denim as a possible 'indoor' jacket to pair with both, but I have lost my swatch, and need to track it down before making that decision.

Last time I spent far too much time with planning and re-planning the fabrics and colors. This time, should I decide to take up the challenge, I will stick with my first instincts as much as possible and get on with it.

One lesson I learned, however, is that the styles and fabrics have to work together in all combinatons, so there can't easily be a combo of dressy and sporty. I think I am working toward a mid-range -- clothing for shopping, travelling and visiting. Using the same fabric for pants and skirt introduces a bit of boredom, but also some versatility to dress up a bit when required.