Into Autumn with Pantone's Spring colours

 The idea of Pantone colours has slowly seeped into my consciousness over the past couple of years. Pantone is a company who declare themselves to be 'the world-renowned authority on color'. Each year, amongst numerous other things, they hold a two-day secret meeting to choose the 'Colour of the Year' for the following year. In 2013 the chosen colour was emerald green. A colour palette is designed around the main colour. This palette is then used by the fashion and other industries to plan and design their upcoming ranges.

Pantone 2013 Spring Colours (source)

This year, Sewing Pattern Review are holding a competition to sew a two-piece outfit based on the Pantone 2013 Spring colour palette. Any combination of colours can be chosen as long as the 2013 Pantone colours are the prominent colours in the outfit.

 Well, I can't resist a sewing competition, especially with such delicious colours to choose from. I love the muted colours from the palette and when I saw this chiffon incorporating hues of 'grayed jade' (14-6011), 'African violet' (16-3520) and highlights of 'Monaco blue' (19-3964), I knew it would be perfect. I also knew exactly which pattern I wanted to use - the tunic (No. 112) from Burdastyle 11/2012.

Burdastyle magazine 11/2012

For the second part of the outfit I used  lovely, soft, knit fabric with a slight stretch in 'grayed jade' (also used here to make a top). I used Vogue 1247 to make a skirt.

Vogue 1247 (Source)

I made the top as a tunic style, according to the pattern. I decided to leave the pockets off as I knew I wanted to wear it tucked in for this outfit and they would add bulk in the wrong places. I will wear this as a tunic as well though. I decided to make the slit in the neckline less deep than in the pattern and leave it open at the top, omitting the button at the neckline. I prefer a more open neckline on me, especially on a top with sleeves. 

I was careful with the finishing of the chiffon seams and used tissue paper (torn away after sewing) to sew the hem and cuffs so the fabric would hold its shape. I like the way the neckline and collar sit on this top.

The skirt was made exactly to the pattern except that I added 17cm in length as I was cutting it out. This seemed to be just about the right amount for me as my last version of this skirt was a tad short. The slight stretch in the fabric meant that I did need to take in the side seams a bit. It also made more of a challenge to sew the pockets and I kept getting puckers where the front yoke joined the lower skirt piece. Several attempts were needed for that section!

The back view.

Truffle was beside himself being on a real farm....with real cows!

Progress on this outfit was hampered significantly due to the boys being home for school holidays! The skirt was made the day before we went off to a farm-stay in Nannup, south of Perth, for a few days when I should have been packing and preparing for the holiday! I wanted to finish the outfit so I could use the farm scenery as a backdrop for the photos.

 I don't usually get the chance to take bush and farm pictures. The farm was lovely and we had a very relaxing few days bushwalking and helping to feed the cows. We had beautiful, sunny, autumn days in the mid 20Cs.

So nice to get back to nature for a bit, not that I had much use for this outfit down there on the farm!

It's fun to dress up and pretend though :)

Voting in this contest will run from the 3rd to the 9th of May, 2013. There are some fab entries so get on over there! Oh yes, I found both fabrics on sale for $5/m each, so the entire outfit cost me less than $20.