SWAP 2019 Photoshoot

So, I stood in front of the fireplace and my hubby patiently snapped pictures.  It was after 8 PM, so no daylight, and I got my 10,000 steps on the Fitbit running up and down the steps, lol.

12 photos is the max, with one photo to be a pic of the wardrobe inspiration piece and one pick being a photo of all garments together.

So, this is what I ended up with...

I've talked about them all quite a bit, so I'll just put the pics up...

Lisa's TBH Swap 2019.... (Ted Baker London Highgrove Scarf)

 The green is right in the bottom picture, lol.  The cell phone pictures of me wearing the green top didin't come out at all...had to go with the tealish camera pic.

So, that's the 2019 Wardrobe.  I don't know if  the SWAP requirements made the 12 Months 12 Outfits challenge more difficult, or if the 12 Months 12 Outfits wardrobe made the SWAP sewing more difficult, lol.  I probably would not have made the culottes except for the fact that it was the only thing I could come up with that met both  requirements. 

This is, I think, the 5th SWAP wardrobe I've actually completed (4th in the allotted time frame...the first one was late, but I finished....the original Timmel SWAP back in, oh, 2004? I think?).  There's something really satisfying about making a capsule wardrobe and seeing everything work together.  Not to mention that it makes packing for trips way easier, lol.

But, as I'm doing the 12-Months 12-Outfits challenge,  I'm going to continue to add to this wardrobe for the rest of the year.  This is a really good foundation, I think.

12 Months 12 Outfits - April

The Zappos box arrived today, so I finally got all the pieces for the 'outfit' for April.

If you recall, Janice's picks were basically capris, a pullover sweater of some sort,  a necklace, earrings and sort of casual shoes.

So, my interpretation, based on my wardrobe needs...and also sewing for SWAP...

Black and white boatneck T...frankenpattern of a Burda T shirt neckline with a Jalie T shirt body.  Bamboo/lycra 4-way stretch jersey...nice stuff!
The capris are creamy white cotton/poly/lycra twill made up into (another) frankenpattern...started with Sewing Workshops Helix pants, added pockets, shortened to capri length and added a flare and a deep hem.

 The necklace and earrings are summer staples from the wardrobe; I'd probably wear these 3 days a week in the spring and summer if I could get away with it.  The necklace is straight up something that would have suited my grandmother; I think of her every time I put it on.  She would have worn it with white button earrings instead of hoops, but, still.  I honestly have no idea how long I've had either the necklace or the earrings or where they originally came from, lol.

The shoes are Taos Mock Stars. I have a pair in gray that I've worn quite a bit, but the white ones were not in stock in my size for the longest time.  I was just going to give up and put something else with this outfit, but Friday night I got a notice that the white was back and the UPS guy brought it to my door shortly after I got home from work tonight.

AND...just because I had to take the photo for the SWAP photo shoot, here's the April outfit actually on me:

So, here's the total summation of stuff, so far.  I did replace the picture of the green top, once I realized my phone camera would reproduce the color better than either of my little ancient Cannon digitals...now you can see the real color.

I'll post about the May assignment later this week....

First Go at Pics for SWAP 2019

...and they are pretty pitiful.  I have an old camera, with a 10 megapixel resolution, but I still would expect better pics than these.  I am going to reshoot tomorrow with a different camera and we'll see if it comes out better.  But, just for grins, here are the grainy first looks:

First, the two Wild Card garments... the Burda Shift dress from the February outfit, and the Burda trench coat that was the SOLE garment completed from my SWAP plan back in 2014 and I'm using as the Allowable Previously Made Garment.  I've worn it a bunch and it's still going strong, albeit with a stray ink pen mark or two, lol.

Next up is the 9 Core Wardrobe pieces.... L to R, the April Outfit, both frankenpatterned garments;  bamboo/lycra 4-way stretch stripe top and  cotton/poly/lycra stretch twill capris.  Next, is the January outfit; Sewing Workshop's Helix pants, made from Telio Jockey doubleknit (same as the shift dress), a white cotton/lycra Jalie T and the McCall's cardi in royal ponte.  The March outfit...a Jalie T that is GREEN; not teal, but refuses to be photographed in anything close to it's real color, and the Tencel twill McCall's culottes.  Finally, two spare tops that I made along the way;  Pamela's Pattern's twinset shell, and a Marcy Tilton Assymetric Tank top.

Per The Rules, every garment in the Core wardrobe has to work with at least two other garments in the wardrobe.

The only two things I don't feel like I can put together at all are the assymetric tank and the culottes.  The culottes  are just too full.  It might be a stretch to put the long cardigan with them as well, but I think I could make it work.

The  assymetric tank can double as a topper of sorts.

I will try to get less fuzzy pics tomorrow....a photo shoot with me actually wearing stuff doesn't look likely until Monday. Everyone's busy all weekend...

ETA on Saturday....the next batch of photos turned out *slightly* better; I took pics with both my slightly newer camera and my cell phone, which is known for taking out of focus shots.    BUT...the cell phone DID get the right green for the top-that-photographs-as-teal...even if it is out of focus in every pic it's in...

See???? It's GREEN! LOL.

I did finish...

I managed to stay up Tuesday night and finish the striped top...here's a hanger shot:

My eyes were crossing with those stripes, let me tell you!  But it's done.  It's a nice bamboo/lycra 4-way stretch fabric and I should get LOTS of wear out of it.  I frankenpatterned the neckline on a different shirt; it sort of worked and I sort of had to manhandle it a bit where it didn't quite line up.  Not sure what happened...something must've shifted when I adjusted the two patterns to only have the lines I wanted to cut along on the outside.  But...you wouldn't notice if I didn't point it out so I'm staying mum. LOL.

 The Capris...well, after spending a couple of nights in the magic closet, they are not the lost cause I thought they were. They would be better if the flare started just a smidge higher, but, all in all, they're good $12 pants...which is what they actually cost, lol.

(Aside...does anybody know why I can't put these pic side-by-side?  Blogger refuses to allow me to put two pictures in the same vertical space, even though there's PLENTY of room here.)

I used a dusty pink knit to line the pockets (that I added) so there wouldn't be a noticeable pocket showing through the white fabric.  It was the most opaque white I had...a poly/cotton/lycra twill...but it wasn't completely opaque so I thought I'd give that a try...it was a tip in Threads magazine years ago.

And you know what?  It worked....

I fear the knit may not be the best choice...it'll probably deteriorate and get holes in it...but I really, really like the way it looks.

So that basically just means I need to get some nice sturdy cotton in a dusty pink to use for pockets in light colored pants, lol.

I will get the official 12 -months-12-outfit pics tomorrow. Not sure when I'm going to get the SWAP pictures, as this weekend is another busy one.

I think I have until the 8th to get them posted, although with the gallery glitches on Stitcher's Guild we might get a bit of a reprieve.  We'll see.

Also, I did get the yellow stars and the, um, bad guy's armbands (I ended up having to make 8) finished for the Holocaust Remembrance last night.  I have to say, sewing the armbands actually creeped me out.  I was ok until I put the black...symbol...on the white circle that was sewn on the red armband.  And then it just was unpleasant sewing.  I thought about the folks who had to make those things for real back in the day...who was sewing the uniforms?  Were they conscripted labor, or prisoners?  It was really hard to separate the evil represented from the bits of red, white and black fabric...which, in and of itself...was perfectly innocent.

But we made the guys who had to wear them walk with their hands over their arms when we were headed backstage.  We didn't want to subject anyone to it randomly.  The dramatization...with everything in context...was sobering enough.

We may do an expanded version of the drama next year.  We'll see.  And we'll keep those creepy things in a bag in a box far away from lights...

Experimenting

Sometimes it works.  I experimented with my Loes Hinse Oxford pants, sort of tracing the flared legs of a Neue Mode pattern that just did NOT fit right in the torso, and I got a pattern that works really, really well.  I have two pairs of striped flared pants that almost always get compliments when I wear them.

And once I've lost a few more pounds...I will be able to wear them again, lol.

Anyway,  I was dithering (again!  After I said I wouldn't!) over the cropped pants for this month.  The Vogue pants that intrigued me are going to be more work than I have time for at the moment, although they may show up in the wardrobe at a later date.  I traced the side fronts, moving the placket bit to the outseam, and then put it away. No time.

So I went back to the Hot Patterns Weekender Chinos that I traced off earlier.  Pulled a couple of decent fitting patterns out and compared them.

Whacked a full half inch off the width of the entire leg on the back inseam.

And they were still going to be pretty loose fitting through the legs.  Hobbit pants are not what I'm going for at the moment.

So I pulled out my trusty Sewing Workshop Helix pants that I've made...4?...times already.  The fabric I'm going to use is a white cotton blend stretch denim...emphasis on 'stretch'.  I decided it's stretchy enough to use on the Helix pants.

And then I created a template to overlay the bottom of the legs.. Six inches below the knee was the finished length; I drew a line on grain from the knee straight down on both the inseam and outseam, then I marked 1/2" outside of that line and curved that up to the knee.  And added a 1.5" hem, similar to what is on the HP pants.

I folded the lower part of the legs out of the way, overlaid them with my template, and cut them out.

Got them to about  the halfway point last night; dunno if I will finish them tonight or not but I should be close.

With Easter weekend data entry behind me, I've worked enough hours that I think I"m going to get a short workday on Thursday, so I'm hopeful I will get the crops and the planned stripe top done well before May 1st.

I have a couple of black tops that I made along the way since Jan 1 that will fill in the holes in the SWAP wardrobe, since we are not required to make any particular number of tops, bottoms, jackets, etc.  I don't have any expectations that my little wardrobe will finish anywhere respectable, but I am going to be pleased that I finished and it all works according to my plan, whether or not it works according to the official SWAP rules, which I found really confusing in the interpretation discussion.

But I will have 11 garments for the SWAP wardrobe, and they will include everything I've made so far for the 12-months-12-outfits challenge as well.  It won't be a 'dress in the dark' wardrobe, which is my idea of perfection, but it is new stuff that I can wear.  Win.

No pics yet....lol

A Wild Goose Chase...perhaps...

I am trying to decide what style of cropped pants I want to use this month...and Thursday at lunch I spotted a young lady wearing some cropped pants that gobsmacked me. They were very fluid; fitted through the hip, slightly flared, and they had a deep buttoned placket on the outside of the legs running from the hem to about the knee.

So I went Googling for 'side button cropped pants' and 'ankle button pants', hoping to find the retail outlet.

Alas, I didn't find exactly what I was looking for. 

I pinned a couple of close approximations to my Pinterest board; these are the closest I could find:

They are from Urban Outfitters, and they are sold out.  But they are a linen blend and I don't think they would be as fluid as the ones I saw, which appeared to be heavy rayon or Tencel.

In any case, I'm thinking it couldn't be THAT hard to add a placket w/ buttons to a pattern, could it?  Especially as it is on the seam....I'd basically just have to add width for it to the outseam.

Of course, there's always the challenge of finding the buttons...sigh.

I'm leaning towards a marinere-style top to wear with my crops, whatever style pants I end up with.  That would be a classic, and I have a couple of candidates for the fabric in the stash, one black and white and one blue and white.

I have denim crops; if I weren't participating in Stitcher's Guild SWAP contest I'd just pull those for this month. But, SWAP is challenging me to go beyond the staples already in the wardrobe.  It's why I made the culottes last month instead of just pulling one of my black skirts from the closet.  Black crops might be a good, versatile addition to the closet.  As would white.  Hmm.....

January Assignment - 12 months, 12 outfits

Janice's picks for January are up. I went through the Hermes scarves again yesterday and found that some of them I'd chosen earlier weren't on the site anymore, so I re-did my guess list. I nailed one -- the scarf for the Brown wardrobe -- and I had two other scarves sort of correct, although I picked the wrong colorway.  I'd picked a scarf for a tan neutral and she used a different colorway of that scarf  and switched Khaki for tan this year.  I had picked a different colorway of the Act III scarf for Gray (So glad she picked one of those!  Such a fun scarf!).  I ALMOST picked the scarf she chose for Black, but ultimately picked a different one with a larger color range. 

That was fun.

So.  Now, how shall I interpret her choices for the first outfit of the year?

She has a pair of basic pants from the anchor color from each wardrobe; all but one has a white short sleeved t shirt...4 out of 5 are the same shirt.  The 5th one is a little dressier...and the last T is the same shirt as the 4 white ones but in black.  The cardigans are all one of the primary accent colors...again, except for that 6th wardrobe, where the cardigan is the anchor color.  But I think that sixth one is going to be a bit of a oddball all year, since the scarf for that wardrobe IS all accent colors.

Loafers and earrings in the accent.

So...here's my assignment for the first month:

Black pants, a white T and a royal blue cardigan.

White T shirts are...difficult...because it is so doggone hard to find white knit fabric that is not nearly transparent.  I've been buying white knits for years, trying to get something suitable.  I think I have one or two pieces that should be safe.

The black and the royal are ready to hand. 

Here we go!

The Sewing has started for SWAP...

At least, it's started on the Stitcher's Guild site.  I'm not going to even decide what I'm doing first until I see what Janice's picks are for the January wardrobe sets.  Pants and cardi in the main neutral with an accent top?  Accent pants w/ neutral top and cardi (twinset)?  Or will she do something other than pants?  I kinda doubt that...she has long maintained that a good basic pair of pants is the best first garment in wardrobe building.  But she has used a different neutral/accent combination every year so far...and with three pieces in the January set, she's pretty well exhausted the combos already.  So I'm not sure what we'll see when the posts go up.

But I've been digging around on the SG site and found that there have been some more definition/explanation added to the rules, one of which has me wondering if I can actually meet the requirements AND stick to my 12-months 12-outfits plan.  See, I'm required to pick two neutrals...which isn't at all hard, but I can only use 5 total pieces of additional fabric for the accents.  In other words, I couldn't have black and gray for my neutrals and then have two royal blue pieces made from different fabrics...if I had two royal blue pieces, they would have to be from the same fabric.

So that means a MINIMUM of six garments from the two neutrals, unless I manage to squeeze multiple garments from a length of fabric.  Twinsets R Us and all.

This may complicate things; if the picks for the month happen to be all accent pieces I could be in trouble.

But I have decided on ONE garment....my Epic Trench Coat from 2014 has never actually made it into a SWAP wardrobe; it was the only piece of the plan I actually finished that year.  And it will work well with the color scheme, so it's going to be my pre-made garment.

Which means I can't use the taupey brown again, as I don't have any more fabric to use for even shorts or something.

So more pondering, with decisions to be made this week after the new scarf inspirations and the January choices are up.  I'm kinda curious to see what scarves are chosen this year; I confess, last month I did a pretty thorough look through the Hermes site and picked out six scarves that I think met her criteria for wardrobe inspiration...so I'm curious to see if I guessed right.

Just so Facebook has a pic to put with the post when I link it up, here's a reminder of the inspiration scarf for this year's new wardrobe:

In other news, I ordered some more dark green fabric in case we use it again in choir next December.  A piece of poly/lycra stretch velvet, which I hate sewing and am not fond of wearing, but the COLOR was just gorgeous.  A yard of sequin-encrusted lace and  some forest green poly chiffon.  No pictures, because my cutting table is currently in use as a Christmas wrapping station (oh, yes, we traveled for the holidays so our family Christmas gathering will be January 1st...the 8th day of Christmas, for those who track such things.  I still have the trees twinkling and the Christmas music playing and everything.  Bucking the culture, but it works for us.... ;-)

2018 sewing recap post coming sometime soon...not that there's that much to recap, lol.  Next year should be different...

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.