SWAP Diary Jan 11 2009

I started sewing my 2009 SWAP garments during my 2 week holiday vacation. I spent a lot of time and effort planning prior to that. Some of it wasted on daydreaming about the lifestyle and the clothes I would like to make versus what my lifestyle really requires.Digging through my stash for coordinating fabrics, and perusing pattern magazines. I was ambivalent about churning out 11 garments for my current lifestyle and size again this year. I decided to incorporate a personal sewing/development goal into my SWAP. I want to improve my pattern drafting skills, so I challenged myself to draft all the patterns from instructions in the various Japanese pattern magazines I have accumulated. I chose the challenging "SWAP Trail". Most of the garments I chose came from issues of Lady Boutique, a Japanese monthly pattern magazine that features garments for the "housewife". The styles in Lady Boutique are a bit more conservative and traditional (Western style) than the other well known Japanese pattern magazine Mrs Stylebook. The quality of the photographs and printed pages are not as "glossy", and the age of the models is older (30, 40 and 50’s). There are lots of jackets and skirts, with a smaller number of knit tops, blouses and pants. The styles I selected are similar to those found in the big four pattern brands; Vogue, McCalls, etc., and that is actually my safety net. I wanted to be able to compare my drafted patterns to ones I had already made or that I knew would fit me based on past experience. And if I really start struggling with the drafted patterns, I wanted the option of abandoning them and switching to the big four patterns. Here is my storyboard.

and my fabrics.


Drafting instructions and pictures from the magazine are in my Flickr SWAP 2009 folder (link is on sidebar)

So far I am doing well. I have made wearable muslins of 2 blouses, 1 pair of pants and the jacket. And have completed one blouse and pair of pants. All were "learning experiences". More to come in the near future.

SWAP Tops

Sewing time has been sparse in the past two weeks. My husband has been traveling a lot for business, working on windmill farm construction in Indiana and W. VA. So after getting home from my job each day, I had full responsibility for dinners, homework supervision, driving to sport events, music lessons, hair cuts, etc. I did manage to complete two more tops for my SWAP. Both were very easy patterns.

Vogue 8392 includes a view with three tiers of ruffles on the sleeve which I liked a lot. The fabric for this blouse came from a large size RTW skirt, bought on sale, specifically to be cut up. It had two layers of crinkled grey/silver silk, with three rows of ruffles at the hem. I cut the sleeves so the ruffles were at the bottom edge. This saved me a lot of work and gave a similar look to the pattern.

The second blouse is Vogue 9771, is a bias cut cowl neck top made out of out of a woven polyester. The fabric is cross woven, with bright “Safety”orange (the color that hunters are required to wear in many parts of the USA) threads in one direction, and turquoise blue in the other. This makes the fabric iridescent, changing color when I move. Funny, the orange and blue combine to look more like mauve with blue accents. This top was super simple to sew. Cutting it out took a bit of time as the front and back pieces had to be cut from one layer of fabric, and I had to make sure the fabric stayed on the straight of grain while I am pinning and cutting the pattern pieces on the bias.
My youngest sister flew in from Arizona this weekend and all the siblings got together at my parents house in Maryland for a visit. We haven’t seen her in a couple of years. It was great fun reminiscing, eating Mom's cooking, and sis got to meet her new niece and nephew, adopted shortly after we saw her last.

Hopefully there will be more sewing time this week. I think I will change my SWAP wardrobe pattern and go with a diffent jacket in the same fabric. The collar of the current jacket is hard to coordinate with tops.