Prep for the Wardrobe Competition

Okay, so I have decided I will enter the PR wardrobe competition. One look at the sea of black and grey on my washing line this weekend convinced me once and for all to get out of my rut and embrace some new colours. From what I have been reading on the discussion boards people seem to have a lot of great ideas and I can't wait to be a part of it!

My plan is called "A Parisian Spring in Perth", being of course in the southern hemisphere where we are going into spring rather than autumn. My plan started from the fabulous hand woven silk tweed I bought a couple of years ago when I first started working at the fabric shop. It was the end of the roll so I was stoked there was enough for a jacket - Chanel style of course! The fabric and its equally gorgeous olive silk satin lining have been waiting for me to attend to them ever since so finally I can get this fabric out of the sewing room and onto my back where it belongs! I have debated joining the Go Chanel or Go Home as everyone is doing such a great job over there at offering support and advice, but I think the commitment of posting to two blogs plus writing reviews of all my patterns on PR, whilst maintaining a pretty high production rate might be a bit much. I'll still be reading though.

The colours in the tweed have really inspired the palette of the wardrobe. I have all the fabrics I will need but may slightly tweak a pattern or two here and there as I go along (I am particularly concerned about the pattern for the pale lemon lawn). The wardrobe will consist of:

1 topper - the aforementioned Chanel-style jacket
4 bottoms - Dark olive pants and skirt, taupe skirt, navy pants
5 tops - ivory tunic, lemon top, floral blouse, teal and cream t-shirts

This plan is not only going to be a challenge time-wise but style-wise too - THERE IS NOT ONE THREAD OF BLACK ANYWHERE! I don't wear head to toe black all the time or anything but, like most people, I do tend to fall back on it pretty readily. Also, I am usually pretty timid about prints and mixing a floral with a tweed is pretty out there for me, but I am confident they compliment each other quite nicely.

I am itching to get going but I can't cut anything until the competition starts tomorrow. I have cut out and altered most of my paper patterns and have toilled the jacket. Actually I have done that twice since I was originally going to make McCalls 5007 but I ended up not liking the style on me, I switched to McCalls 4972, convinced I wasn't going to like it but am now in love - the shape of the jacket is going to be fab!

I have also made a practice pair of pants from the altered pattern I've been posting about lately. It worked, they fit really nicely. Sorry no pics yet as my fella is working nights at the moment - as soon as I see him in daylight hours I'll get him to take some photos.

So I am as ready as I'll ever be, and can't wait to get cracking.