Thursday, April 30, 2009

SWAP Diary April 30th, 2009 Done!

Yikes, it has been almost a month since I last posted! April has flown by.

We had a lovely vacation in Barbados, We rented this house, complete with pool and a car, in Holetown. It was a block from the beach. My husband found it while doing Internet searches for rental villas. It had rave reviews from previous renters and they were accurate.


It was a lovely base to explore the island. The beaches are very different depending on what side of the island they are on. My sons preferred the waves of this Atlantic side beach, to the tranquil scenic and tourist populated Caribbean Sea beaches.

We were the only people at this beach and the waves were quite strong. I sat on the sand admiring the view and at the same time praying I did not have to use my rusty lifesaving skills.

We toured caves, watched monkeys swinging through the trees, went sailing, swam with enormous sea turtles, and ate a lot of fresh fish. We ate in a couple of nights and I cooked some of the unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, like christophenes, and breadfruit ,we found in the local grocery store. I downloaded recipes off the Internet (the rental house had a computer with high speed access). I especially enjoyed that.

Barbados is one of few Caribbean islands, of the 17 or so I have visited, that has fabric stores. I had hoped to visit the stores and write about my visit. Unfortunately with the limited time, and being the only vote for "fabric shopping", I wasn’t able to visit any of them.

I returned from the beautiful tropical weather, and the bright colors of the houses and flowers, to the task of finishing up the jacket for my SWAP. A jacket made of brown wool. It was a bit of a chore. I so wanted to be sewing summer clothes in bright colors and light fabrics. But I got it done. The instructions are in the Dec 08 issues of Lady Boutique magazine.



.The jacket style is a slight variation of the jacket wearable muslin I made earlier. The same collar, which goes with the tops beautifully, but more fitted, with a piped sewn on belt. I also added piping to the front edge. I originally made the piping out of a weathered leather look vinyl, but the belt with the vinyl piping proved to be so heavy, it affected the hang of the jacket. I made more piping of brown silk dupiani. It worked much better. The jacket fits fine and coordinates with all the other garments in my SWAP. Now I have to take pictures. The clothes in my SWAP are winter clothes. Last weekend, which would have been a great time to take pictures, the temperatures were in the low 90’s. I have a tentative agreement to pay my teenage sons to take photos of me wearing the garments in locations or doing activities where I would wear them in a typical week. But I didn’t want be red faced and "hot and bothered" in the outside pictures. So I pushed my luck and put off the photography sessions, hoping for some cooler days before the submission deadline. Looks like my luck is good, as it is in the 60's today. I hope the cooler weather will continue tomorrow, which I have off for the company "Derby Day" holiday. A tradition left over from the time the company I work for had a plant in Louisville, Kentucky. Rather than deal will high absenteeism, and on the job intoxication the Friday before the Kentucky Derby race, they closed the whole plant. The Louisville plant is long gone, but hurray for traditions!

11 comments:

  1. I'm glad you had a wonderful vacation...it sounds very relaxing!

    I love how the piping is included on the jacket...very pretty and I totally understand about sewing winter things during the spring months...but you will have great pieces come next fall!

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  2. That house looks fantastic and so does the beach. I briefly visited Barbados while sailing down the islands way back in my teens, it was beautiful.

    The jacket looks so stylish and impeccably constructed, congratulations on finishing your SWAP!

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  3. What a heavenly vacation! How lucky you are.

    Your jacket is lovely. Nic work.

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  4. Barbados sounds so exotic..sigh! Your jacket looks great. Looking forward to seeing the SWAP photos.

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  5. Your holiday sounds just perfect...you have set me daydreaming.3

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  6. Sounds like you had a wonderful vacation.
    Your jacket looks wonderful. I like the style. Is the Lady Boutique magazine similar to a Burda mag?

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  7. What a fabulous vacation spot!

    Congratulations on finishing your SWAP! Sadly, I'm 2-1/8 garments shy :(

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  8. Your vacation sounds fantastic, and that view of the ocean is spectacular! It truly must have been challenging to work on a winter jacket after all of the tropical inspiration. But it is a stunner, especially with the piping detail.

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  9. Audrey, this jacket is FANTASTIC!! I did save a copy of the picture on my computer for future references/ideas...Hope thats okay.
    Congratulations on finishing this years Swap!

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  10. What a beautiful and stylish jacket! I love how the waist is well defined with the added piping! You did a very nice job!

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  11. That jacket is way cool. Excellent job! I know you are itching for the summer wear, but I LOVE that jacket.

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