SWAP 2017 Plan - with sketch and fabrics

Ruthie Wears the Pants!

(SWAP rules are here)


 I decided that this year no more skirts in the SWAP, sure they are easy to fit and sew and I do wear them, but I wear trousers more. I've come up with a collection that I think would work for me mostly for work for 8 or 9 months of the year, as is in the early Autumn and late Spring and with a variety of coats on top in later Autumn, through the Winter and the early part of the Spring.
I will style these with my collection of brogue shoes, leather bags and costume jewellery and I've chosen colours I love. I have all the fabrics in the resource centre and am really happy about using them.

For the Layers (Over) I am choosing two different tweed fabrics which include multiple colours, one is lighter, one is darker but they work with the same deep plain colours. Patterns not chosen yet, but I think I will do two different jacket patterns. However I may reuse patterns I have used before. I will add linings but not do any french style quilting or anything like that.

For the Bottoms (Lower) I am going only for trousers. These are likely to be all variations of the same Burda pant, but I might branch out to two. These are all plain dark colours (I have heavy hips/thighs) and those are black, chocolate, burgundy and teal.

The rest of the pieces will be Tops (Upper). Three of them will be tees from my favourite TNT tee pattern, though I might add some variations, or just go super plain. The plain tees will be black, chocolate and a claret colour.
There will be two tie neck blouses from the same pattern, one in a rich teal with silver stripes and the other in an ivory broderie anglaise (eyelet the americans call it).

Black is not really in my palette, however I need a few black pieces for the choir I sing in, and they make a good base for many other things. I will add a necklace or scarf to lift the colour when it is near my face. I have some necklaces I love which I think would work really well against a plain backdrop.

All of the things can be worn in any combination though I think some of the combinations will need a co-ordinated scarf or necklace to link them (and the jackets will help with this). I might even have fun with my beading supplies making some new necklaces.
(However in this SWAP not everything does have to go with everything so it isn't a big problem)

Top Row L-R
Multi coloured tweed for jacket, ivory broderie anglaise (eyelet) for blouse, multi coloured tweed for jacket
Centre Row L-R
Black jersey for tee, brown jersey for tee, claret jersey for tee, teal stripe woven for blouse
Botton Row L-R
Black trousers, brown trousers, burgundy trousers, teal trousers.

I do have some options where I could switch out the burgundy fabric trousers for some faux leather ones in the same colour, the chocolate trousers for some stretch jumbo corduroy ones. That would take things away from the work wardrobe though so I'll try not to do that. It is great though that I have so many options with this palette.

I've been really restrained on the prints this time as I've gone for more colours. I suspect once the machines are threaded up a few extra print jersey tops will also get sewn up and maybe some plain cardigans too (probably one print top and one cardigan in each colourway knowing me) however I will try to stay true to the plan.

One thing I have found very boring on past SWAPs was sewing a lot of items in the same colour so I am hoping that this approach will help keep things fresh for me as I can move on to the next colour when I get bored.