Thursday, February 28, 2008

Global wanderings


I mentioned before that I'm planning to participate in the Pattern Review wardrobe contest. To recap, the requirements are:

- 4 tops
- 4 bottoms
- 1 dress or 1 coat
- 1 accessory

While I love to wear bright colors, I find myself gravitating towards earth tones every summer. Give me a pair of gladiator sandals and some safari-tone garments and I'm set. With that in mind, I decided to base my wardrobe on a neutral brown/ivory/olive palette.

I’m going for a relaxed, resort style wardrobe. (I think technically resort collections come out in the middle of winter for the people who escape dreary weather at home by traveling to sunny resorts, but I just like the sound of it.)

Once I started gathering my fabrics, I settled on the theme "Global Wanderings". I chose this because:

(1) The gorgeous fabric that I'll use for the dress came all the way from Ghana. It was a gift from Cidell, I’m excited to finally use this.

(2) The brown print on ivory gauze (for 5-2007-111) reminds me of Berry's pictures from Morocco.

(3) The metallic-coated linen (for 5-2007-113) is from Joann, made in China naturally.

(4) Not shown, but I'm going to do a little paisley fabric stamping on one of the blouses (7-2007-101) that will conjure up images of India (if it turns out the way I'm imagining! I'm still waiting for the inkpad to arrive for some testing.)


One of the fabrics I have didn’t make it onto the storyboard yet - an olive stretch twill that I'll use for the skirt with pockets.

You will notice that I have 5 tops, not 4. I used to have 7! I keep whittling it down. One of them will be auf'ed from the final collection.

Also, the storyboard is missing my accessory. I haven’t decided yet, but I'm thinking something along the lines of a simple shoulder/sling bag using leftover fabrics.

Of course everything you see here is subject to change.

14 comments:

Adrienne said...

Can't wait to see it all come together! I was planning on doing a "swap" of sorts for summer and I think it's just gone out the window now lol...well kinda sorta! LOL

Adrienne said...

OH and that metallic linen is gorgeous!

cidell said...

I *love* it. I especially love the great big green DRAFT on it! I'll be cheering you on from here.

Berry said...

Ever since Adrienne's sewing with a plan, I am so excited about this project. I love your picks very "trendy vacation like". And the leftover fabric sling bag is a great idea.

loopylulu said...

Hmm, it's so hard for me to parse through Pattern review's forums for some reason. This looks like fun though and I wish I had seen the contest earlier. P.S. what is e/f? I love that skirt.

Christina said...

loopylulu - EF is my abbreviation for the Burda Easy Fashion magazine (Spring/Summer 2008).

Cennetta said...

Very nice wardrobe. Can't wait to see your finished collection.

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Your storyboard is awesome! It will be fun to "sew" along with you as your wardrobe develops! Can you believe that you guys will be in LA in 2.5 weeks!?! I want to hear all about it and see lots of pictures!

Kelly said...

wow, this is amazing! I can't wait to see how it all comes together! -kb

yaiAnn said...

Wow this looks fabulous! This is where I'm stuck on my SWAP, choosing colors!

Melissa said...

Fab choices! Looking forward to seeing it progress.

Tany said...

You have put together a great wardrobe plan! I'm also a fan of earthly tones for summer!

Katrin said...

Hello Christina,

I really love your pattern and fabric choices. It really makes me already feel like sitting in a nice resort sipping a delicious cocktail.

Best regards,
Katrin

Unknown said...

I absolutely adore your wardrobe plan and look forward to tracking your progress, both here and on PR. Great job!

Charity