2012 Spring & Summer Palette Challenge

Woohoo! I’m going to do a sewing challenge! Apparently, twice a year, Colette Patterns hosts seasonal wardrobe “palette” challenges.  For this one, the idea is to pick a color palette for Spring and Summer, make a “mood board” (with examples of your colors, fabric, inspiration, etc.) and then make as many garments as you can, in 8 weeks.

Here is my mood board (I totally had fun making this by the way):

I already had the first two fabrics and had been eyeballing the third.

The first fabric swatch, going from left to right, is a vintage fabric that I bought from Etsy. The listing was for a 60s style back satiny fabric, possibly a polyester nylon blend. I am just learning about fabrics, but it really is silky and smooth to the touch, so maybe it is a silk polyester? Whatever it is, I think it will make a great Violet blouse.

The second fabric (the yellow and red peacock looking print) is from Joann Fabrics and is rayon challis. I have discovered that I love rayon. I was already planning on making  the Colette Truffle dresst next (it is the third project in the Colette Sewing Handbook), so this will be the first garment I make for this challenge.

The blue and pink fabric is cotton lawn from Pacific Fabrics and I will be making the Crepe dress out of it.

The accessories in my mood board are mostly from Forever 21. The pink shoes are from ModCloth and the other two shoes are Miz Mooz. I love Miz Mooz shoes. The red and brown sandal is already on it’s way to my house!

It took me a week to make my Meringue skirt and about three weeks to make my Pastille dress, so I think I can make three garments in eight weeks. I hope I am not getting in over my head. If I pull this off, in just eight weeks, I will have three new handmade garments for my Spring/Summer wardrobe!

8 thoughts on “2012 Spring & Summer Palette Challenge

  1. Good luck with the challenge! I like all three of your choices but I’m totally in love with your third fabric. If it helps with your confidence level, all three of those patterns should be very easy for a beginner and I definately think you can do it, especially since you own the Colette Handbook.

    1. Oh and I hope you don’t mind a little unsolicited advice. If you find the silky fabric difficult to manage, you can drop it in a slurry of cornstarch and water. Let it dry or iron it dry and it will stiffen up almost like paper. When you’re all done, rinse with water and voila!

      1. Thanks for the tip Samantha! I was wondering what was going to happen when I tried to sew that kind of fabric, because I had heard that it might be challenging. I will definitely try that. I also love that you called the mixture a “slurry”. This kind of advice is exactly the reason I started this blog. Keep em’ coming!

  2. I love your moodboard, and especially your fiery peacock fabric! I’m planning on sewing a truffle dress as well for the challenge, it’s such a pretty pattern. Can’t wait to see how yours turns out.

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