Month: July 2020

I’ve been thinking more about wardrobe planning and how to find things which ‘work together’ in the hopes of finding the secret to not buying fabric which don’t go with anything, or shades that could be paired with my existing wardrobe pieces!

The Curvy Sewing Collective has lots of posts about capsule wardrobes, but the post I started with was this one here

This 9 piece capsule is based around my two favourite pairs of Sculthorpe Pants. From top to bottom, left to right the patterns are heavy-weight chambray Waikerie Dress (View B, long sleeve), charetreuse linen Waikerie Dress (View C, added collar, long sleeves), wool/viscose Mallee Jacket, Liberty print Waikerie Shirt (View B), pink linen Waikerie Shirt (View B), moss silk noil Waikerie Shirt (View C, short sleeve), bark tencel blend Sculthorpe Pants, tan textured linen/viscose Sculthorpe Pants, mustard rayon crepe Nullarbor Cami.

Above, is the simplest of options from the capsule- the two Waikerie Dresses worn as actual dresses! The heavyweight chambray on the left is View B and the linen chartreuse on the right is View C with an added collar.

Above is both of the Waikerie Dresses doing double duty as a duster/light jacket and the wool Mallee Jacket too. Often we think of the blue denim colour as being a neutral, so it’s pretty easy to mix the chambray Waikerie Dress with lots of different colours, but the versatility of the chartreuse dress has been a real revelation to me while trying out all these different combinations!

Above, all of the ‘tops’ worn as tops with the two pairs of Sculthorpe Pants.

and below, the shirts worn as layers on top of the Nullarbor Cami.

What I have neglected to take photos of to capture the true extend of this collection is the 3 Waikerie Shirts layered under the Mallee Jacket and also potentially under each of the Waikerie Dresses too. I definitely think the moss green silk noil would work under the two Waikerie Dresses, but I haven’t experimented much with layering a collar under a collar.

The pictures show 22 possible variations from the 9 garments, with the 3 shirts layered under the jacket you’d get 6 more. 4 more possible variations could come from the collarless silk noil shirt under the dresses as dusters, and potentially 8 more if layering a collar over a collar worked for the 2 other shirts and the 2 dresses.

So, from 9 garments that’s 32 combinations (and potentially 8 more)!

The 3×3 wardrobe capsule is something that I first read about on the Curvy Sewing Collective here. The idea is that by mapping out tops, bottoms and layers in a grid (like below), you can find combinations which work together.

I’ve been experimenting with capsule wardrobes as a way to avoid wardrobe orphans (garments that don’t work well with others), but also as a way to learn how to combine colour in such a way as to plan cohesive capsules instead of discover them accidentally after the fact.

Above, my chosen pieces are, L-R from the top mustard crepe Nullarbor Cami, liberty print Waikerie Shirt (View B), natural linen Glebe Pants, plum tencel Willandra Pants, natural gingham Torrens Box Top, wool/viscose Mallee Jacket, moss green silk noil Waikerie Shirt (View C), tan Sculthorpe Pants, and the Mustard Crepe Nullarbor Cami.

Below, you can see how the 3×3 chart is organised, and the lines show different ways to put together outfits based on where things are in the grid.

Below, you can see the possible permutations which come from the yellow and red lines in the chart above. These are the outfits forms from the rows and columns of the 3×3 grid.

Below, some of the items that I included as ‘layers’ are actually just shirts. I really don’t ‘dress in layers’ unless it’s cold, so I included these since they do double-duty as tops and can really increase the possible variations!

Of course, if you’re happy to do a bit of ‘spacial mind bending’ then you can imagine the 3×3 as a couple of different tubes- as a tube that meets at the columns and also as a tube that meets at the rows. This lets you pair a bottom from the left hand side column of the chart with a top and layer that sit on the right hand side. Or to pair a top from and layer from the top row with the bottom of the bottom row.

I’ve been experimenting with testing out the mix-and-match possibilities of the current Muna and Broad pattern offerings.
A few years before I got in to sewing I tried to coordinate myself a black and white capsule wardrobe of nicer, work-appropriate clothes (I know now that neither black or white are great colours for me ). I definitely do still occasionally make a ‘wardrobe orphan’ from a fabric I love, or in a shape that I love, but which pairs with nothing else in my wardobe!

Above, clockwise from top left are the Torrens Box Top, Waikerie Shirt (View B), Waikerie Dress (View B), Glebe Pants (View A), Willandra Pants, Mallee Jacket, Nullarbor Cami which I’ve combined to make a small capsule. This is something like what you could pack for a week away (when we get back to travel).

With these 7 pieces, I’ve mapped out below the 23 different combinations that are possible.

There’s all kinds of information out there on different ways to make capsule wardrobes, different rules to follow (4 tops, 4 bottoms, 4 layering pieces, etc), but for this I just picked some items that work for cooler weather, and that could be paired easily.

Above, we have the subtle natural colour gingham Torrens Box Top and the mustard crepe Nullarbor Cami worn alone with the natural linen Glebe Pants (View A), and the plum tencel Willandra Pants. I also have the heavy-weight chambray Waikerie Dress (View B) worn as a dress instead of an outer layer.

Above, the pink linen Waikerie Shirt is worn both as a shirt and as an outer-layer atop the other options. Choosing tops that can do double-duty really open up the possible outfits for the capsule. One permutation that didn’t occur to me until after I took the photos is this pink shirt layered under the Mallee Jacket and the Waikerie Dress, which adds an extra 4 possible outfits

And here are the tops layered under the Mallee Jacket and Waikerie Dress.

This 7-piece collection was reverse engineered from existing pieces in my wardrobe which went together well- most of the concern is matching the textures and colours because all of my Muna and Broad makes do work together, just sometimes the colours look terrible together!