Sunday, May 20, 2007

Sewing Red


Though I haven't been blogging much, I have been sewing. One recent project was my attempt to copy a dress worn by a business client. It was a black and white print sleeveless dress. The armhole facings/lining were red so when she moved her arms, you caught glimses of red. I thought it was neat visual suprise. My version turned out pretty well. My review of the dress pattern and the different variations of sleeves/hemlines I tried can be read at http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=20473.
I must admit red is my favorite color. I get a mental lift when viewing red. It is hard to describe, but it is like an increase in mental pleasure. It would be interesting to find out if my brain waves change, or synapsis open up, or something. Paintings with large sections of red, red flowers, red fabric. I recently bought Bulgari Ou The Rouge purfume at the duty free shop on St Martin and while the scent is okay, I suspect the red box had a lot to do with my purchase. When I was working on this quilt, I would get a good feeling just looking at the fabrics. I have decided I want to be buried in this quilt. It will line my casket. No shiny white satin for me.
My husband tryed to take advantage of this color preference early in our marriage. He was doing his best to convince me of his need for a pickup truck, and the concluding line of his arguement was "and you'll really like it cause it is red!". I agreed to buy the truck, but not because it was red.
Does a color affect you this way?

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

2007 SWAP Winners

The winners of the Timmel Fabric 2007 SWAP (Sewing with a Plan) contest were announced back on April 30. The winners:

1. Glam Bam Thank you Ma'amShannon M. - LaSalle, ON, Canada
2. Le Rouge et le NoirLaura P. - Bucharest, Romania
3. Chasing ButterfliesSummerset B. - Northfield, NH, USA
4. Its Not Easy Being GreenTerese R. - Burlington, ON, Canada
5. Apple Pie ala ModeAudrey Y. - Richmond, VA USA

There I am at number 5. I am both thrilled and amazed. There were so many great SWAPs, representing tons of creativity and hard work. Check them out for yourself at the Timmel Fabric site. http://www.timmelfabrics.com/2007swap.htm The winners were based on votes of contest participants and Stitcher’s Guild members. Thanks to all of you that voted for my SWAP. If you want to try SWAPing yourself, there is a similar contest over at http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/sewingclasses/board.pl?t=20889 that is just getting starting.

By the way, because of generally negative feedback on my proposed SWAP name of WWW for Wonderful Work Wear, I thought very hard on it one day and decided the colors of the fabrics were predominately russet red like apples and cream like vanilla ice cream. "a la mode" is an often used term for something served with ice cream. It also means according to the prevailing style or fashion from the French translation à, in + la, the + mode, fashion. Both usages appropriate for my SWAP. Hench the name Apple Pie a la Mode, in case you were wondering. It also is one of my favorite desserts, after anything chocolate.

I am trying to use SWAPing techniques for my summer sewing and only being partially successful. I do have a start on one that includes tan, white or brown bottoms with turquoise, teal and coral tops . But I have veered off course to sew a few dresses in fabrics that don’t fit in with that color scheme. More on that soon.