How I planned my swap

photos courtesy Style.com

The swap contests give a structure to sewing for a season. I think it is hard to commit to a plan, because the plan makes you limit your choices. This is my fourth year to participate in swap, and every year, I have learned something from the process. My third SWAP was a dress swap. I loved wearing my dresses last summer, but I need matched summer suits. This was my starting point for planning.

A second factor in my planning is my stash. In the initial stages, I threw lots of things together to see who would "play nicely": midnight blue tencel gabardine, ivory wool crepe, ivory suit-weight texture weave, navy stripe knit, navy and ivory stripe silk, green paisley georgette, red wool gabardine, tan wool, red poly-lycra, knit, red georgette,. . . In the end, I found that my efforts to make all those pieces work together would not result in a coherent collection.

Another early idea was to use the blue, ivory, and red together. I liked the way Lagerfeld used denim and red, white, and blue in the Spring 2008 collection, as shown above. I couldn't find anything suitable in my local stores, so I decided to shop for my print at G Street fabrics.