StyleArc Harper Jacket and a wadder

First I would like to thank all for your lovely comments on my SWAP plan. Of course I wish I had the shape of the images - they all look fab on the plan (I did widen them a little) but my sewing skills in additon to my round bod will make them look somewhat different ;-0

Below is the StyleArc Harper Jacket. It has been wrapped around Babs keeping her warm waiting on a photo opportunity.. This was made in a lovely navy stretch crepe from EmmaOneSock. I have ordered more and will eventually make a skirt and a pair of Linda pants for the Artisan Square SWAP.

Now it will be worn as per in the SWAP plan - not with the outfit shown here. Also it was very very windy and it was difficult to keep the lapels from flying everywhere and I was trying to keep my hair out of my eyes.

Orignially I wanted to use this jacket as one of the 5 tops needed for the SWAP rules as it is designed to be worn either open as above or closed with the supplied hook and eyes.

Now I don't normally wear it closed as I don't like high necklines so I closed it up and took a picture of it closed and - well let us just say that I have changed my mind about using it as a top... Not going to happen.

In the interest of showing the not so good.... here it is.

Still trying to keep the hair from flying in the eyes!

Nuh - definitely not!!! Now don't blame Harper. You can see the gorgeous Anne from Clothing Engineer wears it well.

I also have a lovely SA Abby cardi I did on the weekend away last May and now finished but it needs a plain top - which is a hole in the wardrobe..

Now onto the wadder.

I wanted to participate in the trend of patterned pants and looked at the StyleArc Lola pants.... but common sense (and Trinny and Suzanna) say that if you are large in the top half you need to balance that out in the lower half so I didn't think tapered pants were the answer. I also fell in lurve with these pants in RTW

Hence I went with Linda pants and just added more fabric to accommodate the lack of stretch. I ended up wishing I had added more ease. (More about that later)

The fabric was from an el-cheapo fabric store in Marrickville. It looks and feels like a Rayon challis but for the price I don't think so. Probably a poly cotton. Forgot to look. Excuse the fuzzy picture but for some reason my camera has decided not to flash any more which makes indoor pictures fuzzy. Need to update.

Oops - note to self - don't take morning pics still in nightie when there is a mirror behind photographed item.

Any hoo - el-cheapo thin fabric plus lack of ease - hmmmm bent over to put on shoes and heard that unmistakable sound ------------ rippppppppppp. Not worth trying to save. Fabric is too thin.

On the chopping board - oops - cutting table.

I have cut a trial in taupe jersey for the StyleArc Fiona cardi. It is a fabric hog with that band. If it goes well I will do it in an orange for my SWAP.

That's it for now. Wow - 2 posts in 2 days....