To SWAP or not to SWAP?

As you know I love sewing co-ordinated wardrobes and SWAP (sewing with a plan) is the classic home of this. Even though Julie Culshaw of Timmel fabrics closed her business, the SWAP lives on at Stitcher's Guild and 2011 is the 8th year of the SWAP contest.
Each year there is a new twist on the original approach, which go in different directions and are meant to take the challenge on further. I have participated for multiple years in a row.
SWAP on stitchers guild

I'm probably not going to particiapte this year as I am moving in February, and between Christmas and Easter will have just a table in the bedroom for the sewing space. I will still be sewing I am sure as its a great stress buster and creative outlet but I need to be able to sew at my own pace the things I want to sew.
Anyway if I find that after Feb I have loads of time to sew then maybe I'll suddenly catch up and be producing garments but somehow I doubt it.

Interestingly in 2011 Pattern Review have left out their full wardrobe contest from the list. Theirs had 10 pieces not 11, but I think it was still too many for a lot of people to participate. They will still be running the mini-wardrobe contest in 2011 (in March), though they are not repeating the Endless Combinations in 2011, the 2010 Endless Combinations is running now and finishes on Tuesday 14th December.

Open to anyone with no prizes other than camerarderie and the garments you produce is Elizabeth's 6 piece collection sew along on Stitchers Guild. I try to play along with this every season if nothing else, though I bend the rules to suit me something shocking, making dresses in winter and leaving out the coat etc as I fancy. Elizabeth is very understanding about this, which I appreciate, and I may even come into line one season.

I have been slowly working on a small collection I call 'Winter Berries', but so far have only made 2 black items (shrug, trousers), not really seeing much of the Berries yet. It's supposed to have a black skirt, a print dress, a knit top and some other stuff which will be red, but I'm not getting a huge amount of sewing time at the moment.

I am away with work 4 days next week, so there may well be a big lot of nothing on the blog for a while.

Wardrobe Sewing

As may be apparent I am pretty much a wardrobe sewer. I was already interested in the concept of a mix and match wardrobe, right back to when I read in Mary Spillane's 'The Complete Style Guide' in 1991 a little section at the back on Wardrobe Planning for Your Season (The US version of this was called 'Color Me Beautiful, Looking Your Best', and is more easily obtained). Then later I cam across SWAP (sewing with a plan) on RustyBobbin's home page at the time, and then moved on to trying to sew wardrobes myself.

I am now completely a wardrobe sewer though on my own terms. I love all the wardrobing books, but am never going to own a knee length sleeveless shift dress in classic black despite their recommendations because its not my style nor flattering to my body shape.

What I like about wardrobe sewing is the sheer practicality of having clothes which were chosen to work together. I always loved the store displays in the department stores showing all the pieces of a particular collection worn in different combinations on 3 mannequins but quite apart from the cost of buying all those pieces at once, the hem lengths, jacket length, combinations of colours and some styles just didn't work for me.
So when I am wardrobe sewing I am doing my own version of one of those department store collections, only in this one all the colours suit me, all the hems are at the right length and all the styles I have chosen. I suppose it the long winded version of being my own personal shopper.

I know some people sew outfits, and that's great if that is what works for them. What I like about the capsules/wardrobes approach is beause the pieces mix and match my outfit is not thwarted by the fact that one item from an outfit is in the laudry waiting for enough items needing the same cycle, or special spot treatment. It doesn't matter becuase I have other bottoms or tops that would do instead.

Joy asked 'I would love to get a glimpse inside your closet! Do you find that you really wear outfits as they have been planned in wardrobes, or do you end of mixing up the assorted pieces?'
Thank you for the complement Joy :-)
I do mix the pieces up a bit between the capsules. My 'Inspired by the Sea' Collection in Navy and Teal overlaps well with last year's SWAP in Brown and Turquoise. But not at all with others. I must admit I generally avoid making something belong explicitly to a collection by having contrast buttonholes or something. For instance the recent waistcoat and top for the Newspaper collection, will work with the red pieces when I sew them, but I have deliberately left off any red accents (buttons/buttonholes/topstitching in red) as I could still wear those pieces with lime or teal from other collections if I wanted to.
I will make the black jeans in the collection with red top stitching though as I have other black jeans with turquoise or orange accents which I can wear with other colours.

I've found that I now have a basic set of colours I use over and over, so after a few seasons the colours start to repeat themselves. This definitely helps with getting dressed. I also have a wide range of fun necklaces and handbags in the various key colours so I can pull outfits together.

I also buy RTW pieces and mix those in as well. These are in the same colours as well. I tend to buy plain tshirts and dark pants, the occasional pantsuit, and RTW jackets. I'm not great at sewing jackets that fit, so RTW lets me be dressed without having to sew every item. I don't see that as cheating in any way. My goal is not to have an entirely homemade wardrobe, but to have one that's completely ME and works for my lifestyle.

I'm still working on that goal but its getting closer all the time :-)

Next wardrobe

I have pulled the fabric out for my next wardrobe. Its going to be in black, red and off white
I am planning 5 knit tops, 5 pairs of trousers, 1 dress and a jacket.

Tops, all knit
- black and white floral print
- black and white stripe
- red and white fan print
- white/black/red floral print
- ivory with black print

Dress, knit
- red/black/ivory print
leftovers as another knit top.

Trousers, all wovens
- charcoal linen
- black denim with red top stitching
- black pinstripe
- black with white stripe
- charcoal with white variegated stripes

after this it gets more vague. I have some black satin lining so can make leftovers from the pants into waistcoats. We'll see might be too much to have 4 waistcoats to go with the formal trousers
I also have some heavier black fabric and some red linen either of which might be a jacket or coat
and leftovers of some other fabrics in the same colours which could perhaps be more tops
red fan print knit (different red than the other one, so could not go together)
black and white print knit
both of these could have parts in plain black knit to make a whole top.