Sewing with a (vague) Plan

I am still intending to enter the Stitchers Guild SWAP, though my plan is a bit fluid because I haven’t been able to find the fabric I want for some of the tops. Today I realised that its not much more than a week until the SWAP actually starts (on 26 December) and if I want to take part, I will have to go with my current, rather vague plan. So, even though SWAP stands for Sewing with a Plan, and I only really have half a plan, I am still going to go for it.

I am doing the classic SWAP so require six tops, four bottoms and a free choice item. I can have one hand knitted item, and one previously made item. All the items must look as though they come from the same closet and should mix and match. The twists for this year’s contest are:
One item must be pattern matched.
One item must be embellished, have sashiko type quilting or be embroidered.
One item must have unusual or statement closures.
The closures item has given me a headache. I’ve come up with plenty of inventive ideas, but really wouldn’t want to wear many of them. I have a rather classic style so a jacket closed with fishing line and doorknobs isn’t really my thing. I am going with statement buttons on a coat or jacket, button and loop closure on a collar, and either bound or hand picked zippers on a skirt as my options. I’ve read the discussion thread and I think others are considering similarly understated closures so hopefully I will be within the rules.

The biggest gap in my current wardrobe is black trousers, and bright polo/roll necks. These are my winter uniform and I only have a few tops and one pair of trousers that I still like or are fit to be seen in public. I would like to use the SWAP to rectify that, but it would mean going fabric shopping since although I scoured the show last month, there was nothing in the colours I wanted to use for the tops.

Jenni’s Black Rainbow SWAP.

Free choice item
Either a black wool crepe tailored jacket, which will be done during my Tailoring course
OR
Black wool full length coat. Burda Style 12/09 Number 102. I rather fancy contrast vintage buttons on this, possibly a mismatched set (if that makes sense). I saw mismatched but toning buttons on several designer RTW items on my last snoop shopping trip and thought they added a bit of wit to otherwise ordinary items.

Four bottoms.
Black twill stretch Jeans Marfy pattern. I will embellish these, though to what degree I have yet to decide.
Trousers – black with a red pinstripe. BWOF or Marfy pattern.
Trousers – black with a dark grey/blue pinstripe. BWOF or Marfy pattern.

The fourth bottom will be a skirt and I am considering a plain black Marfy Flippy skirt, a Marfy skirt with zipper closure and zipped pockets, and a grey tweed skirt with a hem flounce. I want to make all of these, at some point so which goes into the SWAP will probably depend on which one shouts loudest at the time.

Six tops, chosen from:

Lavender print poly (pattern match item) TNT darted blouse pattern with pussy cat bow.
Lavender self dyed silk Marfy ring collar top with button/loop closure at collar. Buttons will be lavender coloured, clear acrylic, shaped like roses.
Black/purple/violet knit Cowl or polo neck top
AirForce Blue viscose lycra knit Polo neck top
Black with roses Rayon woven Darted blouse.
Red poly wool knit Pattern not yet finalised
Cyclamen poly wool knit Pattern not yet finalised.
I have all that fabric in stash. However, throughout the contest, I will be looking out for knit fabric in plain colours so that I can replace some of the tops with bright polos.
I also have an alpaca sweater on the needles currently, which would count as both hand knitted and pre-made I guess, since I started it a while before the SWAP started. Its a rather nice brownish red and would work with the plan rather nicely though that requires me to actually get on with it of course.

I reserve the right to remove at least one of the planned patterns/items and replace it with something from the new Marfy catalogue. I am absolutely itching to pre-order this catalogue. It can’t be very long now. I checked my records, and last year the pre-order E mail went out on 12 December. I hope I haven’t been missed off the list this year.