Finally: A Plan

I've wanted to sew a SWAP for years, but  I knew I couldn't sustain the motivation to sew up to eleven! count 'em, 11! pieces that worked together.  I settled on a mini-SWAP as an alternative.  Even with the bar lowered, I didn't have patterns that cried out to be sewn into a collection.  But then, the stars and planets aligned and the patterns fell into my lap - or out of my mailbox, to be more accurate.  The January 2011 issue of BurdaStyle contained a pattern collection that just might work!

The colors are actually much richer than shown.

I already had the main fabric.  Way back in March 2010 I bought five yards of a crepe-looking wool blend.  At the time, I had no idea what I would do with it, but it was on sale at JoMar for  $1.60 a yard and I couldn't walk away.  The quest for the blouse fabric took me back to JoMar and I found a coordinating solid.   I wanted to include a simple collarless blouse or knit top to wear under the jacket.  I thought I'd found the fabric – a solid cream colored silky polyester, similar to the mauve.  When I got home from JoMar, I realized I was missing that cut of fabric.  I laid my fabrics down while Annette, Karen and I searched through three bins of buttons and I must have left it next to the bins and gone to the register without it.  I learned two lessons from that little mistake:
1. pay closer attention to what I'm doing
2. the cream color was just too boring.
I really wanted a knit anyway. 

So, my first mini-SWAP wardrobe collection has been added to the queue!  For me, a SWAP or four or five pieces is motivating, while eleven pieces is downright frightening.  Hopefully, I'll get to it before Winter ends.

Parting shot:

This photo shows the fabric colors better, but there was a big, gray piece of fur on the fabric that I couldn't edit out.