Blog Diary - Grand Finale

I finally named my SWAP, which I have been blogging about since December, The Drafting Demon Swap. By the time I submitted the pictures for the contest voting I was so tired of every aspect of it; the garments, the fabrics, the colors, pattern drafting, etc. I felt that all the other SWAPs were fresher, more coordinated and better executed than mine. I had to prepare and sew samples for a ASG presentation the same week the photography had to be done. I was a bit stressed. In fact I seriously considered bowing out of the contest at that point, and not sending in photos. So I was totally shocked that it won the Grand Prize in the SWAP contest sponsored by Stitchers Guild the sewing discussion board over at www.Artisanssquare.com.



Pictures of all the SWAPs, every single one of them a winner, can be viewed at
2009 Swap Photos

I just want to say a very heartfelt "Thank-You" to everyone whose vote contributed to my receiving this wonderful award. And for all the hard work the Stitchers
Guild folks did in planning and running the contest. I know it took an enormous amount of time. And thanks to the very generous sponsors who made it possible for every one of the contest participants to receive a prize.

Now on to spring/summer sewing

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!

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.