Earlier this year, the ladies over at Sew Altered Style challenged the makers of the internet to dive into PANTS. January and February were dedicated to making casual pants. The interpretation of “casual” was left up to the individual maker, so I chose the ultra casual pull-on pants from New Look 6399.
THEN the clever ladies decided to challenge us even further by prompting us to create a 7×7 capsule wardrobe using at least 2 handmade items, one of which had to be bottoms (not necessarily pants, but if you did just make a pair, clearly you could use them).
I’d never given much thought to a capsule wardrobe. Most of my days are now spent either sewing, editing, researching, or shooting. Mostly things that are done sitting down, except for the one hour of time I spend at the gym on the daily. What that translates into is a very casual, jeans & t-shirt heavy rotation of clothes.
In my former life though, I had to travel a LOT, so I would of course pack mini capsules every time I had to get on a plane. When the husband and I went to Europe for our 2 week beer-laden honeymoon, I packed for exactly 7 days assuming we would be able to do laundry at least once and it worked out perfectly.
You see, we had to travel light so we could stuff our luggage full of delicious beer for the return home.
Back then, I depended a lot on black, especially for work events. Black slacks went with EVERYTHING and also camouflaged the fact that I was wearing black sneakers to run around my events (a veteran event planner knows the value of a solid pair of shoes). So for this go-around, I wanted to level up my wardrobe planning. I have to report for jury duty in two weeks, so I decided to use that as the catalyst for this particular capsule.
My rules were:
- no black or grey (too easy, and this is of course my year of the signature colors!)
- no jeans (you can’t wear them to court)
- comfortable but pulled together
And that’s how I ended up matching greens and browns to burgundy. It totally works!
The inspiration for the color scheme came from this NY&Co shirt, a pink floral drop sleeve v-neck that might have been the very last ready-to-wear (RTW) item I bought last year. The color scheme is reds, oranges, burgundies, and greens.
So with that, I picked the following (clockwise):
- The aforementioned shirt
- Burgundy cigarette pants (RTW from NY&Co…which is probably why they match the top so well!)
- Camel colored straight leg pants (me made, can totally pass for not-pajamas, shh!)
- Dark red tee-dress (me made Franken dress)
- Brown slim fit ribbed turtleneck sweater (RTW from Old Navy, probably over a decade old…)
- Olive green v-neck knit blouse with 3/4 sleeves and button tabs (RTW from NY&Co)
- Burgundy and cream cardigan (me made Circle Cardigan—
not yet bloggednow blogged!)
3 out of the 7 are me made! I found that pretty incredible. They all mix and match nicely, and they are all outfits I would actually wear. In fact, the day I was inspired to do this, I had actually worn the burgundy pants with the pink top and my Circle Cardi (that has been used every single day since I made it last week–I love it so much!!)
I’m pretty simple when it comes to jewelry, accessories, and shoes. I could wear any of these outfits with either boots or flats, which is great versatility. It’s difficult to determine what the weather will be like in March. We’re having a very cold February, but could very well be sweltering in 2 weeks. Regardless I think my capsule will be weather-appropriate. If it’s too cold, I can always throw on leggings under the dress. If it’s too hot, then maybe I’ll trade the turtleneck out for a sleeveless shirt with a similar color scheme to the v-neck.
