Ready For a Little Nostalgia?

 I am in a Discord sewing chat group and the discussion has turned to SWAP...I mean, this is the time of year when SWAP discussions would be going.  Had there been a SWAP this year, it would have been the 20th.    But Stitcher's Guild has disappeared into the internet void and, barring its resurrection on some other site, the book has closed on SWAP as well.

That made me rather nostalgic, so I decided to go trawling through the photo archives and see if I can do a little reminiscing about Wardrobes of Years Gone By.  

Warning...this is likely going to be a LONG post.  Grab a cuppa if you want to join me on my stroll

SWAP is the acronym for Sew With A Plan.  It was based on an article in Australian Stiches, and the original concept was to plan out 11 projects...patterns, fabric, etc, and assemble all the needed notions; I think the garments were all to be cut out and then...sew the whole lot in two weekends.  It was to create a new capsule wardrobe in a short time.  The basic plan was to select a print and make a skirt and top out of the print, then select colors from the print for the rest of the wardrobe. Two pairs of pants, two skirts, six tops and a jacket...from the print and two (or maybe three) solid colors that were in the print.  The skirt and top together would work as a dress, and all the other pieces could be mixed and matched.

In 2003, this concept was much discussed on the also defunct Sewing World discussion board, and then-fabric-retailer Julie Timmel came up with the idea for the SWAP competition.  We had from Dec. 26,  2003 to March 31, 2004 (I think...that sounds right) to sew up an 11 piece SWAP wardrobe.

I tried that first year, but we had an Easter production at church that year that put the crunch on my time.  Plus, I had problems finding a print for the required skirt/top combo.  I ended up using a poly crepe...that was printed crooked...on a Dos de Tejas pattern that I'd never used before.  Anyway, I wrestled with that thing and recut it and...I *think* I finished all the pieces, but well after the deadline, and I don't have a batch of pics for that year.   I can't even tell, looking at my folder of sewing photos from 2004, which of the red/ white or blue garments I meant for the SWAP...but here's the much-hacked two piece dress...which, having no pockets in the skirt, only got worn a couple of times.

In 2005 I decided I needed to pick the print FIRST, instead of deciding on the colors and then picking the print.  I found a wild lime green/ royal blue/ brown/black challis print at the now-defunct Hancock's (there is definitely a theme here) and for whatever reason decided THAT would be the basis for my Wardrobe.  And, believe it or not, I actually finished on time and took pics.

That was before I started blogging, so no real discussions about it.  I wore several pieces till they were not wearable, had a couple that I, um, outgrew, but the brown/black pieces are still in the wardrobe and still get worn when I feel kinda arsty fartsy funky.  My Sweet Babboo was terribly unhappy with me for hanging the garments on the venetian blinds...  That, to me, only sort of met the brief because I coudn't wear the funky black/brown top under the jacket.  But I did have lots of options, especially with the twinset, which counted as one top (there is a top under the cardigan in the picture).

2006 the rules changed and we no longer had to use a single print for a skirt and top...we just had to have garment that had a pattern to it of some sort, but we still had to have 6 tops, 4 bottoms and a jacket. I picked a tweedy blue/gray boucle for my print element and used it as the jacket.

I'm looking at that now and thinking...I made ANOTHER blue twinset?  I'll be honest, I am totally blanking because I don't remember two, lol.  Maybe the rules allowed a previously made garment that year? The tops and the gray pants are all too small now; the jacket BARELY fits but the black skirt and the black pants are still in the closet.  As I recall, we had to use one pattern twice... once as it came, and once with an alteration.  I added a godet to to the back of the black skirt, which is the same pattern as the blue one.  That collection actually was tied for 3rd that year.

I didn't even try to do swap again until 2012; partly because I didn't need another wardrobe, partly because I started back to work and lost most of my sewing time, but also because some of the rules just didn't work for me.  I didn't see the point of doing something just to be doing it, if it wasn't something I wanted in my closet.  But 2012 was a bust...I don't think I got out of the planning stage before I realized that it just wasn't going to happen that year.

Tried again in 2014.  I had a great plan, based on the Vivienne File's Common Wardrobe.  But that plan included a trench coat and I spent the entire time frame working on the trench.  Which is still a workhorse for me in our mostly mild winter climate. I have a long stripy scarf and a fedora hat and I totally bound as the 4th Doctor when I go out.

2016 rolled around and I needed some clothes, so I jumped in to the swap with a plan around a black denim jacket.  Never settled on a pattern, and at the almost last minute switched my plan up completely and made 10 of the 11 garments in about two weeks....which made me feel like I was channeling the original concept, lol.

It was cluster swap...small units that combined into the whole.  All of these clothes are still in the active closet...except the white cowl neck top, which stretched completely out of shape, and the gray knit cardi that I left in a hotel room in 2020.

2019 was the first time I tried sewing along with the Six Scarves series on the Vivienne files, and the SWAP  rules that year required an inspiration piece...like, you know, a scarf. I decided...what the heck, I'm making clothes based on a scarf anyway, let's just turn it into a SWAP.  And I got to use the trench coat as the one 'previously made' item

Then, of course, there was 2022.  Again, I was sewing based on a scarf, and again, I decided to just push a little extra on it in the first few months and turn it into a SWAP wardrobe.

  And I was the only one who did. That was probably the biggest indicator to me that the community we'd had and loved around SWAP and sewing had fractured.   I still haven't used my gift certificate yet; I want to use it on something...special.

Thassa lotta clothes, y'all.  But the challenge of the SWAP pushed me more than once to do something I've been meaning to do (hello, trench coat).    I wouldn't do it again this year...for one thing, I'm still finishing up last year's scarf wardrobe, and I have some things I want to do to expand on that.  So I wouldn't fit a SWAP this year.  But I really like the whole capsule wardrobe thing, and I've learned a lot over the years by doing it.  

And... who knows...maybe the next time I need a wardrobe update I'll make a plan and block out a weekend for cutting and two weekends for sewing and see if I can do it.