Working In More Color

Carolyn told me on the last blog that I had better share what I ordered while I was hobbled by my foot...Well, I didn't put that design wall together with Fabric.com for nothing! I pared down what I had set up there and placed an order for some fabrics that I thought would tie in with the SWAP that I had already started for winter. To recap, the items that I have finished so far are:

1. Grey wool pants
2. Purple rayon jersey drape-front shirt, plus a scoop-neck tee from the leftovers
3. White rayon jersey drape-front shirt
4. Lavender jersey cowl-neck shirt
5. Orchid stretch poplin princess seam shirt
6. Black, purple, and orange rayon tunic/dress
7. Black and grey cardigan with scoop-neck tee to match
8. Black boiled wool knit blazer

That leaves the wool knit dress, 2 charmeuse shirts, 2 pairs lined pants, a lined skirt, and 2 knit shirts. Of the remaining items, only one (periwinkle charmeuse) is not some shade of grey, black, or combination thereof. One of the advantages to this is...everything matches. But a disadvantage is it is a bit boring. Working the purple and orange into the dress was a step in the right direction, but I wanted to find an additional color to work in...and settled on blue.

The top is a wool/mohair blend boucle. On one side, there is a very distinct horizontal stripe, but if you flip it to the other side, that stripe is muted (both sides are shown in the photo above). Second, is an italian wool sweater knit with black, grey, blue, and turquoise stripes.

The sweater knit is on it's way....I TRIED to order it from Fabric.com...but apparently dawdled too long and it was sold out. But, since the rest of the fabric was on its way, and the whole point of the blue fabric was to work more color into the SWAP, I found the same fabric on Sawyer Brook's website, and purchased it at twice the price (sad face).

This new set of fabric allows me to continue with my "Garanimals for Grown-Ups" plan...as most of the blue items will coordinate with the gray items from the original SWAP. So, if the last set are the purple monkeys...these will be the blue giraffes.

Since this is a new set of fabric, I was thinking of joining the Endless Combinations Contest on Pattern Review. Incorporating the two fabrics above, here is how I can see this working:

First, the boucle will coordinate with a new blue rayon slub knit for a shirt and brown/grey worsted wool for pants or a skirt that I also purchased from Fabric.com:


The blue will also coordinate with the sweater knit, and the pants fabric will coordinate with a printed rayon. They rayon also coordinates with a grey corduroy that I purchased for a skirt (all three fabrics are new):


From here I can build out into other fabrics in the stash....For example, that same print will coordinate with both a brown denim and khaki twill in the stash...how about a pair of brown jeans and a twill jacket?


The same brown denim pant will coordinate with a printed rayon knit that I bought in Texas and also a white burn-out rayon knit that is new:


That white burn-out knit will also coordinate with a black RPL for pants and a gray rayon knit:


Which of course will both coordinate with the boucle that we started with and the sweater knit that is on its way:


Because black, grey, and white is also incorporated into my original plan, much of what I sew will also coordinate with the items made for that SWAP, which I plan on continuing to work on through the winter.

For the patterns, I plan on using the following:

1. Boucle (new): Collarless jacket, McCall's 6041
2. Sweater Knit (new): simple crew neck, probably from New Look 6735
3. Blue Rayon Knit (new): Burda 09.2010.121, turtleneck
4. Worsted wool (new): pants, probably the Burdas I make all the time
5. Gray Corduroy (new): Pencil skirt, possibly with added cargo-type pockets
   
6. Printed Rayon Knit (new): Hot Patterns Mighty Aphrodite Draped Tee
7. Khaki Twill (from stash): Butterick 4610, no lining, but topstitched like a jean jacket
8. Brown Denim (from stash): Jalie Stretch Jeans
9. Brown and White Floral Print Rayon (from stash): Hot Patterns Draped Tee, or another Three Graces Tee
10. Burn Out Rayon (new): Three Graces Tee
11. Black RPL (from stash): Hot Patterns Marrkesh Pant
12. Gray Rayon Knit (from stash): Hot Patterns Draped Tee

I have to say I am really loving the printed rayons...perhaps I will start with one of those! Today I am going to prewash and go through my patterns, I will let you know what I cook up!