I have a closet full of handmade garments and I’ve lost my inspiration to get dressed in the morning … I have nothing to wear …
So the other day, I started wandering through my fabric stash and patterns and my Craftsy courses to be inspired, and I remembered I had purchased this one a while ago – Sew to Flatter: Plan your Best Wardrobe with Nancy Nix-Rice – when it was on sale. I only buy Craftsy “on sale” and if you sign up for their emails then you get notice of their sales. 😉
This course talked about colour, fabric, patterns for body type, wardrobe planning, etc. Just the thing I needed to re-discover my wardrobe!
As an added bonus, I remembered quite a while ago the staff at our office went to a colour consultant. It was fun! Interesting that there were colours that we were naturally drawn to and those we didn’t like at all. In the end we all walked away with our own “colour palette”. The colour consultant told me I was an “Autumn”, which was fine with me because I liked those colours anyway.
I hunted, searched and found my old “Autumn colour palette” deep in a drawer. I think it might finally come to some good use!
I could have done with a bit more BLUE in my palette though!
Nancy advised me to clear out my closet and MY BELOVED FABRIC STASH of any colours not in my Autumn colour palette. I haven’t sorted through my closet yet, but I have sorted through MY BELOVED FABIC STASH. I did find about six fabrics I shouldn’t have bought – like the dreaded HOT PINK! Nancy also described which patterns should be my go-to patterns based on my body type, although I haven’t sorted through my patterns yet neither. Hopefully, at least, with my next project I keep Nancy’s recommendations in mind and I won’t end up with garments like this one (wrong fabric) or this one (wrong pattern). I just realized both of these qualify for Fail February – #failfebruary – organized by Sew RED-y!
Nancy also provided a useful “Wardrobe Worksheet”. Apparently with these 12 basic garments, in your colours and style, you can plan an endless wardrobe.
Well, that certainly caught my attention, so I pulled twelve items out of my closet following the Wardrobe Worksheet. My “Core Four” in basic black – neutral skirt, pants, top, and jacket (although I had to use a cardigan).
My two contrasting pants, contrasting jacket, and contrasting print top.
My sweater set (I didn’t have one, so I substituted a white cardigan and a white print top) and my print skirt and blouse (they are supposed to match but one’s blue and one’s black).
Now Nancy Nix-Rice’s idea of a combination was to wear a top and skirt, then add a cardigan to make a second new combination … like this …
Another combination – print top and black skirt or print skirt and black top.
Same idea with the pants combinations …
So seriously, starting with these 12 garments, all either black, white or blue solid or print, I managed to get 67 different outfits! (Don’t worry, I won’t make you look at all of them!) Now I stuck with black and blue, if i had tried to use more of my “Autumn colours”, or added belts or scarves or one print dress as Nancy had suggested, I could have stretched these garments into even more combinations.
And I have nothing to wear … silly woman!
I know there a sewing blogs, etc. out there who encourage you to sew thoughtfully – like “Sewing with a Plan”. Nancy Nix-Rice also has a blog nancynixrice.com, which I am now following to get more wardrobe ideas for my future sewing projects.
I think it’s time to at least sew garments that match other garments in my closet. I already have a black (boring) Core Four, can I sew to complete a blue or red Core Four? Can I go through all my “Autumn colours”?
Do you sew on a whim or do you sew with a plan in mind?
Either way, Happy Sewing!