Plethora of Purple

I finally finished the purple wool jacket. It was a lot of work. Here is a picture of it worn with the matching pants. I like how the lighter purple looks like a short cropped jacket. But together the pants and jacket are a lot of purple. I would not normally wear it without a blouse. Though my photographer thought it was a good look, and actually wanted the zipper pulled down a bit. Boys, don't they ever grow up? I had to put up with his wise cracks because I dragged him away from the football game, during the commercials, to take the picture. I have quite a few blouse fabrics that coordinate with this color purple. They include the purple/orange and purple/green prints shown below, and a purple/sky blue stipe and a purple/red print.

This time of year is very busy. I am hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner this year, so a lot of my spare time has been spent painting, removing wallpaper, recovering dining room chairs, etc. "Spiffing" up the house in preparation for the guests. Holiday parties are starting to appear on the calendar and I always want to make a new dress for these events. The first one is tomorrow night. The young engineer, that my husband mentors at work, is receiving an award. My husband and I have been invited to the award dinner. I thought that was very nice. I whipped up Vogue 1056 yesterday in a magenta wool knit that has been in my stash for at least 15 years. Despite being stored in a box with moth balls, it had some holes and fading . Cutting it out took the most time. In addintion to working around the fading and holes, there are some odd shaped pieces that have to be cut out of a single layer of fabric. But it is quick to sew , including the slip like lining , which is included in the pattern. I am not putting on makeup or proper undergarments today so a picture of me actually wearing it will come later.

SWAP - Sewing with a Plan

This year, Stitchers Guild Sewing Forum SWAP Discussion is sponsoring the SWAP contest. The rules are pretty generic. Make eleven coordinating garments, 1 jacket, 6 tops and 4 bottoms between Nov and April. The garments must reflect items that you would wear in a typical week of your life. I do plan to participate, but will not do any serious sewing until after Thanksgiving. I have a couple of piles of coordinating fabric in different colors sitting out in view, auditioning for this years SWAP. To make the contest more interesting for me personally, I am considering making all my garments from patterns I draft myself. For the most part, they would be from the instructions in the Japanese pattern magazines Mrs Stylebook and Lady Boutique. I have subscriptions to both and want to motivate myself to use them more, and justify the expense. Speaking of subscriptions, I received the Patrones Especial Fiesta magazine yesterday and just love, love, love this Versace dress. Ignore the way is it worn in the photo, what were they thinking? and look at the line drawing. I love the look of a black sleeveless dress with the pleated tuxedo shirt bib in front and back. I wonder if it could be worn with a cropped black jacket. Something to think about while I paint.