CD is leaving tomorrow morning, moving back West. Before she left, she upped the ante on our SWAPs a bit. Sewing Pattern Review is having a Wardrobe Contest this summer, in which participants must make 10 garments between 6/1 and 8/31. There must be 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 1 jacket or equivalent, and 1 more item of your choice. Everything must work together.
Obviously, I’m not entering this as a contest. However, I think the structure of it might make me finish up my garments. I’m very obedient, and I never miss deadlines.
So I’m making a 2-piece dress from this pretty floral sheer from the hand-me-down stash. It’s crinkly as well as sheer, so it will be a bear to cut, but I am bold. I show it with the lining I’m using with it.
I’m also showing it with the linen top I made, so you can see what a good match the top is for the muted blue flowers. 
And below I’ll show the skirt (unhemmed, but otherwise complete) with the jacket and blouse.
It’s very pretty, isn’t it? I think I have just barely enough of the blue linen from the jacket to make a pencil skirt, so those will be the two skirts.
I’ll make two pairs of pants as well, one beige and one khaki because that’s what I have on hand.
I have one top made. The other two summer tops I’ve made are disqualified because I made them in May, and because they are both prints and therefore won’t work with the floral skirt.
That’s okay, I’ll just wear them to work.
I think this will be a really pretty SWAP.
The thing about making a SWAP in this kind of structured way is that all the other contestants will give their SWAPs names.
“Flirty at Thirty” is one. “Summer of Coral” is another. “Summer of Style” is a third, so I think all “Summer of…” options are now off the table. There’s one called “Pretty and Pink” and an “Ahoy, Matey!”
I don’t feel that I’m very good at naming things, especially with cute names. Cuteness in general is not my forte.
You can suggest a name for me if you have that talent. Or I could go in another direction entirely and call it “Etude in Ampour Blue and Tuscany.”
Because, as it happens, another rule for this contest is that there must be a clear fashion statement. And fortunately one of the options is the use of Pantone’s 2010 colors. And, fortunately again, I happen to be using Pantone’s 2010 colors. Namely, Ampour Blue (I should look that up — “Ampour” sounds wrong, doesn’t it?) and Tuscany. The print also contains that aqua shade, also a 2010 color. I am just so clearly fashion statement making. 
