I have focused on sharing the journey, but today I am sharing the results! I will list the patterns used, fabrics, and share a few days of outfits. I just used my phone camera and collage app to make these, so its not going to win any photography awards 😀 Its just for my own organization and documentation purposes. (#usewhatyouhave and start now). I didn’t set a number for myself because in the past that has sabotaged my task-oriented brain. I just made a list of what I want to wear and sewed it up over a couple months. It came out to be 5 tops, 3 bottoms, and 1…

Once I had chosen a color palette (side note: I think it may be more descriptive to call it a “color story”) , I went into my closet and pulled a few things that a) I really like b) are in the palette and c) fit the season the collection is intended for. Many more garments than these will fit with the collection pieces, but I am simplifying this project to avoid overwhelm. (I get overwhelmed by options.) I made a rough chart that included the pulled garments and that list of wardrobe “gaps” (see Part 1). I lightly shaded in the squares of pieces I have in grey. The…

Color. The first thing I realized when I dove into the world of capsule wardrobes was that unless I started wearing beige, not many of the popular examples would work. I do love color, brights and neutrals, equally, in their place. I understand the theory that having a 100% neutral wardrobe would optimize the combinations and allow a smaller wardrobe to go further. I just couldn’t make it stick personally. How long would I last in a fabric store, confined to beige… That said, having a basic palette is pretty much the only way to effectively start a collection. It doesn’t have to be basic as in black and white,…

*This is going to be a series on my process of sewing a collection, and ending my wardrobe angst. The opinions and issues in this series may only ever apply to me, but since I have spent so much time researching capsules and collections, I will add my experience to it to be taken however it may! * Lets start with a few things about me. I used to thrift shop like crazy, I now sew like crazy, and both have resulted in an abundant and spontaneous wardrobe. I teeter between loving organization, loathing excess, and don’t-limit-me-I-love-fashion. However, if my wardrobe (or sewing/shopping habits) was working for me, I wouldn’t…