SWAP - "Sew With A Purpose"

I *heart* that acryonym.

SWAP = Sew With A Purpose. Ergo, to create a 'series' of outfits that work together and co-ordinate color/pattern/style wise. In contrast to my normal sew bits'n'pieces style, I love the idea of heading to the sewing machine with a plan!

I thought I'd try a set for Lolly to wear to daycare and with just 2 1/2 days to get it done in, I think it turned out well.

Unfortunately by the time I got around to taking these photos she'd already been half a dozen times and the clothes had been in contact with paint, mud, food, general toddler grottiness, etc...and been washed quite a few times. So no longer quite so pristine as when I first completed them. *lol*

They're all loosely based around Ottobre patterns, and I love-love-love how easily their clothes go together.

The set complete; 2 x t-shirt, skirt, 3/4 length pants and jumper for cooler days.

From left to right they are;

1) The skirt, made from leftover scraps of denim & using Ottobre Winter'05 skirt pattern - love those cute little pleats. Unfortunately I didn't have quite enough denim so I took off the hem allowance and then added a red drill hem allowance manually when assembling. That's the flash of red you see underneath.

2) Another Ottobre pattern, this time from Summer'02 (I think), with short sleeves and ruffled hems. The lettuce edged finish, as it's super quick and easy to do & I've done quite a few variations on this theme since then. It's from the red Colarao Cotton knit that Alice co-oped and I used some hot pink FOE to bind the neckline.

3) Lolly modelling the fit of the 3/4 length pants over a nappy & wool cover. These pants were adapted from another pair of Ottobre Summer '02 pants with a few alterations so they would fit nicely over her nappies - always an issue! They're in navy cotton denim. Next time I might do flat seams as they're starting to show a little pulling at the inner seams, due to the fray-able (is that a word? :P) nature of cotton and lots of toddler running, jumping, playing, etc...

4) The 2nd t-shirt. This one is made from another stretchy pure cotton knit from Spotlight at $4/metre and this uses less then half a metre, so a $2 t-shirt got to like that price!. I think the bright red/pink stripes tie in nicely with the other clothes. It's actually the same pattern as the ruffled shirt, but with hemmed sleeves, etc... I like how it flares out a little at the bottom. Again the neck is bound with FOE - gosh this stuff is easy to use, makes necklines a breeze - and gives that ready-to-wear finish.

5) My favourite. :) The jumper is from Ottobre Winter '05 again. I like this roll neck design alot (I have a whole slew of roll-necked jumpers I made using the same pattern), but I took off the silly pointy hem and chose my own applique. It was actually just going to be the baby fawn but then I decided to press the applique with an iron while working. Word to the wise - 100% polyster red polar fleece and heat do not mix and I ended up with a scorched spot. Arghhh! So after a few tears I designed a plan to cunningly disguised the melted patch with a little purple butterfly - heh! It's machine appliqued and the details (eyes, nose, etc...) are hand embroidered.

And modelled by our ever gracious model, who had the crankies that day & was sulking in the corner. ;P