Marsala?

Adrianne from On The Windy Side is one of the hosts of the Pantone Colour of the Year Challenge for 2015. Entries close shortly, but I have been mulling the challenge over in my mind for quite some time. I have seen some absolutely stunning evening gowns in marsala, but it is most definitely a colour I haven't been drawn to when fabric shopping. I prefer to think of it as a rich red brown, rather than a browny brown. I am mentally grouping it with other warm wine/berry hues. Dark red garnets, deep burgundy, rich plums and burnt tangerine belong with marsala. On its own it is rather a drab offering. In fact, it can be sort of a pinky mushroom gill brown, which is delightful when discovered under the cap of a field mushroom, but a bit insipid out of context.

Mr Mouse and I went for a prowl through the stash to see what we could come up with. We started with a true marsala - linen shirting which I used many moons ago to make a rather masculine looking shirt (with mother of pearl buttons- in case you are interested). Apparently I never dispose of anything that may possibly come in handy, and indeed these pieces of marsala linen form the basis of my creation (the original shirt is long gone): 

Then we found the piece de resistance- a pair of rich wine coloured dungarees in velvet. No, I never wore these, but must have decided the fabric was a pretty colour. 

Proof that I am not responsible for making these abominations. Oops- I think I may have broken the "dryclean only" rule! 

Then Mouse and I pulled a selection of fabrics from the Kaffe stash (mainly). Do they go? Mouse thinks so. Most have a touch of marsala, or tone in with the dungaree plum.  

Amazing how the colours look from photo to photo. I fiddled around to try to get the true marsala tone as the baseline, but even that varied lots from photo to photo. In this last one the orange really glows. Burnt tangerine?

Mr Mouse thinks next year the Pantone Colour of the Year will be a lovely grey. 

So we have some fabrics, of varying weights, and no pattern. What shall we make? Time for bed. This is going to take some brain power (and patience with that thick velvet and light quilting cottons). 

Ed. on Friday: Just fiddling with the layout etc of the blog - man those dungarees are hideous! You'll be pleased to hear I rescued the lovely fabric by taking the scissors to those bad boys.