Next: BWOF 08-08-129 Blouse & BPF FW-08-411 Pants

After giving my sewing room a good cleaning, I'm ready to start my next project. I am so ready for winter to be over, I'm making this is my last winter project. Everything after this project is considered "transition". I'm using wool for the pants that has the potential to irritate my skin and make my legs really dry and ashy so I'll be lining them. The blouse is a tweedy looking cotton. I bought both pieces on my last NYC shopping trip. (Doesn't it sound like I shop in NYC all the time!) It's hard to tell in the photograph, but the fabrics are brown. I like the browns, but they don't thrill me. Is there a law that says we have to wear somber, dark colors in winter? If so, it's time to repeal it. Show me a bright color before I scream!

I'll probably change the cuffs on this blouse. I don't own any blouses with elastic cuffs. Maybe I should have at least one, if only for the sake of variety. But then, maybe the reason I don't own a blouse with elastic cuffs is because I really don't like them. And yes, those are more tucks on the sleeve cap. Lately, I seem to be in a tucking rut.

The pants, from Burda Plus Fashion, have a subtle, but unusual detail with the hip pockets. The seam extends past the usual point at the hip and goes down into the thigh. Plus size BWOFs have details I see nowhere else. That's one of the reasons I like BWOF so much. The plus size offerings from the Big Four are pretty homogenized and I can't imagine them having hip pockets like these. Before I adopted my "All Burda – All the Time" policy, I felt like I was making the same blouse or pants over and over again, regardless of the pattern. I've never had that feeling with BWOF.

With the lined pants and the tucking sleeve cap, this project could take quite a long time to finish. So, I have a nice, long audio book to listen to as I work on this outfit – Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. This book is a perfect choice for wallowing in the misery of winter. Hopefully, this outfit and audio book will be the last cold things I'll have to deal with this season.