SWAP 2019 -- Pre-swap musings

The Stitcher's Guild 2019 SWAP Challenge Rules are up and...wow, pretty much anything goes.  I mean, well, there are some guidelines but they shouldn't be hard to work with.  Basically...build a cohesive wardrobe of 11 garments. (For the unfamiliar, SWAP = 'Sew with a plan')


So long as you start with an inspiration piece...artwork, photograph, natural object, or...scarf...

Lawsy, lawsy, if I don't participate in the SWAP next year it will be a shame, as I'm going to spend the year making a wardrobe based on a scarf.

I think I've decided to go with the hummingbird scarf.  It has more options, including gray and royal blue (which I didn't swatch...I swatched the denim-y blue), which are not in the fox scarf.

The colors in the photo are quite muted, compared to the actual scarf, so the tiles are muted, too, but at least that is something to work with.  And I may not use those accent colors....those are just some I pulled for the practice of it.  I hope to get a better photo...one that really shows the color saturation...and then I can pull the swatches better.
Now, sewing the 12-months-12-outfits, I would only have about 8 garments by the end of April...and that's if I make EVERYTHING.  Now, the SWAP rules do allow for one purchased garment, one garment made prior to, well, this week, and one garment made between now and the official start of SWAP sewing, Dec. 26.

This is going to be way more structured than the last SWAP wardrobe I did...which was all about sewing fast.  This one...I'm going to have to do some real planning and disciplined sewing.

Not my strong suit, but, well, I need clothes, so we'll see what I can manage.

Scarf Number Two: The Sassy Fox

Ok, even though I broke my piggy bank for the hummingbird scarf, I still kept an eye on the first scarf that got my attention.  There was just something about it....and when it went on sale for 30% off, I found some more quarters hiding in the corners and ordered it, too. 

It got here today.

Y'all. The colors on this one were better than I expected, too.  That's a really nice garnet red on the fox.  And the flowers that look corally are actually shades of pink.  Much better for my closet.

So now I have two superfantastic scarves to choose from.  I think every color in the fox scarf shows up in the hummingbird scarf... so if I started w/the fox scarf, I could wear the hummingbird scarf with any of it, right?

But I'm more likely to already have colors in the hummingbird scarf in the closet. And it does have royal blue, which is my, like, most favorite color in the whole world.

Decisions, decisions....

Fitting Fail

Ok, item number one on the denim cotton knit...

I decided to go with McCall's 6844, the popular cardigan from a few years back.  I'd made the long straight version and the short peplum version  with some success; I'd done a cheater FBA on it just by adding a bit of length to the front but, um, well, the scales have crept up again so I decided I'd do a real FBA, since I was going to do the short, straight version and I didn't want to mess with the shaping on the bottom.

And, you  know, FBA's are not that tough.  I did, however, mark the bust point at 1.5" below the pattern marking because, well, that's what I do routinely on McVoguerick patterns.

Or at least on Vogue and Butterick.  Maybe I need to rethink McCalls.

After I got the jacket assembled to the hems, I tried it on.

Now, mind you, I'd done the 'hold it up and check' thing several times and was expecting a very nice fit.  But...well, obviously I wasn't holding it up at the right spot.

The arrow points to the end of the (very nicely executed, I might point out) dart.

Which is a good 2" below my full bust.

Um.

Now, I thought about wearing it as is, on the assumption that 90% of the folks I encountered would just register the cardi as being slightly frumpy.  But, you know, I think I can rotate the dart up a bit.  Might not fix it entirely, because, well, you know, fabric was added  at what I thought would be the place it was needed, but at least it will be in the right line.

But as it turned out, black is allowed as a base color this month, along with the denim and mustard gold, so I'm not in quite the wardrobe dilemma I thought I was in.  Generally, we don't wear black in October because it looks so Halloweeny, but this year we had a change.  So I wore black with my jeans and some gold jewelry and I was ok.

So I'm doing some frog stitching (rip-it, rip-it) today and I'll resew the darts and have another go later.

The Scarf Arrived

It's bigger than I expected; I read the dimensions but it just didn't look that big on the retail site.  Maybe you can get a sense of its size, laid out on the king size bed, lol.

And, wow, omigosh, it's GORGEOUS.

So. Many. Colors.  And all of them SO much more vibrant than they looked on the retail photos. Turns out there's a lovely denimy blue, and quite a bit more brown than I thought.  The gray is more of a taupe; I do have a drape front cardigan sweater that color that I NEVER wear because...it looks brown when I try to put it with gray garments and gray when I try to put it to brown garments.  So maybe I'll figure out how to pull it into the rotation now.

But, I gotta tell you, that scarf is intimidating.

"Do not wash.  Do not tumble dry. Do not dry in direct sunlight.  Do not use products containing bleach.  Dry Clean Separately only.  Warm iron on wrong side"

All of which I take to mean the colors are prone to bleeding.

Aaaiiiieeee...Imma gonna be skeert to wear it....

But there's a very good chance I'll use this for the wardrobe basis next year. And I've been thinking about the Plan.

Janice posts one complete outfit...clothes and accessories...per month, based on the Hermes scarfs she's selected, as an exercise.  So, here's what I'm thinking:

Look at the posts that come out on the first of the month.

Whatever she's posted (ie, pants, t-shirt, cardigan or skirt, sweater, scarf or dress, necklace, shoes, etc) is my assignment for the month.  Obviously, I'm not going to make every bit of it.  Things like jeans, sweaters, outerwear...not gonna try to make those.  BUT, since the desired end result is a coordinated closet, I WILL allow myself to select items I already have that fit.  But I can only use each item once throughout the year.  So, say I use a pair of black jeans in January...if jeans or pants come up again before the year is over, I can't use the same pair of jeans.

So I'm not really going to sewing a bunch of stuff each month; some months I'll make three things but some I'll only make one, I'm sure.  If I don't have it and can't make it, then I'll go shopping.

And I bet I have an easier time making things than buying them.  But we'll see.

I kinda doubt I find a scarf I like better than this one but I will keep looking.  You know, just in case.

Mending is Better than Spending

So, The Flute Player's employment is with the onsite daycare the church runs for staff.  Her job is toy/playroom sanitation.  Not just for the daycare, actually, but for the rooms used by the pre-school ministry during Sunday and Wednesday services as well.

This means she spends a lot of time on her knees, cleaning and disinfecting various surfaces...tables, chairs, indoor play equipment, etc.

And, those of you who have read the blog for years will remember that, growing up, she was the WORST of my four kids for putting holes in the knees of her britches.

That has not changed.

She had three pairs of pants she wore to work that were worn through.
One of them I have mended THREE times.

One I'm not sure is salvageable, due to the fact that the fabric has a high lycra content that appears to have pretty much disintegrated.  I've gotten the seams opened for mending, but I haven't actually tried to see if something sewn down would actually stay.

I finished off the third repair on the first set of jeans, and I managed to catch the third pair before it got to the flapping knees stage of the other two.  So two of the three holey pairs are at least wearable.

As mending jobs go, those are pretty ugly, but, hey, it's good enough for scrubbing toys.  Hopefully this will keep her from wearing her good jeans to work and putting holes in them...

How long do you suppose they'll hold up???? LOL.

In other news, I'm trying to make myself pick a pattern for the denim colored knits.  My first choice didn't work; wanted a cardigan out of the beefier of the two organic cottons but 1) it was cut slightly short of two yards and 2) I believe it shrank a bit when pre-washed and my first choice didn't quite fit.  So I think I'm going to trace off the shorter length of the McCall's cardigan that I've made two or three times already and go with that. 

I may have to make up a quick top first, though, to wear with my denim jacket Sunday.  So I have SOMETHING to put on, lol.