Botanical Garden Plus

here is the whole Botanical garden collection which includes
2 skirts
2 pants
1 dress
2 cardiwraps
9 tops
a total of 16 pieces

Lined olive wool trousers completed.

Lined olive wool trousers completed. These are the first item in the 'Botanical Gardens' SWAP 2010 collection.
I've used a back invisible zip and they are lined from the bottom of the facing in grey green striped polycotton. I will see how that feels to wear. hopefully a bit more of a comfy version of wearing PJ pants under trousers when its cold LOL.

The lining fabric was originally pale blue. I bought it to make PJs for DH. He said 'Yuk stripes' and I thought 'yuk pale blue' and dyed the fabric with green dye hoping to get a teal or aqua colour. Sadly I actually got an uneven murky greyed green. But that's fine for lining and although these trousers are heavy I hope they will be comfortable to wear

Olive trousers partially done

The olive wool trousers are basically constructed but need hems and lining.
I am quite pleased with them. The wool fabric is beautiful to work with.
These trousers are part of my 'Botanical Garden' SWAP 2010 Plan #2.
I have also cut out an olive knit top with elbow length sleeves. I plan to trim the neckline with lime and ivory shell buttons as an embellishment.

RuthieK's 'Botanical Gardens' SWAP 2010 Plan #2

I have been thinking about this plan for a little while, but it crystallised for me last night. I pulled this RTW top out of my box of plus size stuff to alter and the whole SWAP is based around this.

The neutrals here are olive, sage etc - greyed greens which range from quite dark through to lighter shades.

Contrasted with the brights of the hot pink, coral pink, turquoise and lime.

I will do a 'classic' SWAP of 4 bottoms (all trousers in shades of sage and olive), 6 tops (1 print, 1 sage, 2 pink, 2 lime), and an olive jacket fabric stash permitting.

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I have spent a happy half an hour pulling everything out of my fabric cupboard and putting it in 'maybe piles' if it could work for this plan. I will have to drag it all over to the window later to look at it in daylight and see which fabrics work with each other and the existing RTW items as the depths and colours vary quite a bit, some greener, browner, bluer or greyer all within broadly similar 'damp forest' theme.

I had a habit a few years back of buying 5 metres of fabric when I saw it in case I wanted to make a 3 piece suit or something. ( Kate Mathews' book 'Sewing a Travel Wardrobe' has a lot to answer for here, in particular the wardrobes from designer Joyce E Cusick who has a penchant for something known as a '6 yard wardrobe', 5 metres is about 5 1/2 yards)

So some of these pieces are enough for a whole SWAP on their own, however I AM trying to move to a co-ordinated separates look (which IMHO is harder to do well).

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Fabric has all been auditioned and indeed I can create an olive, pink, lime swap out of the stash without too much trouble.

Only got one lime top though as the 'lime' fabrics vary widely in colour and most were not suitable. I only bought lime for the first time last year so have not built up much stash in it so far.

4 pairs of olive trousers all in different fabrics. One is a 'dirty' denim which will have embroidery in lime and pink on the pockets and maybe some other locations too. The other trousers will be more classic, and two pairs will use patterns I have used before.

The jacket was already cut out and is a long princess seamed style from Burda. I shall shorten it though as the longer length looks dated to me now. The fabric is a sage, pink and coral weave - an unholstery fabric I think which works with everything OK I think.

Tops will be all knits except for one blouse, 1 cream, 2 pink, 1 olive, 1 lime and the blouse out of a wild print fabric which has all the colours in it. The blouse will be the print matching, and I think will be something unstructured with a tie neck from Burda.

The jacket will have an interesting button which will be the unusual closure unless something else strikes me first.