First Outfit of Spring

Well here it is the first outfit of my spring sew season. I started these two peices to be part of Pattern Review Mini Wardrobe competiton. All though I did not complete the 4 pieces of the competiton I did get a good start on my spring summer wardrobe with these 2 pieces.

The first piece is Burda Plus Fashion 02-2010-410. This tunic hip length tunic can be made in a woven or in a knit. I chose to make mine in a stretch jersey knit with orange and teal dots on it from http://www.fabric.com/. I'm loving how carefree it is but I'm not liking the fact that it makes me look pregnant which I am not. you can read my review of the pattern here on PR. I used some new idea/techniques on this top that I learned from some books in my sewing library. The titles of the two books are The Stretch and Sew Guide to Sewing Knits by Ann Parson and Easy Guide to Sewing by Lynn MacIntyre and Marcy Tilton. I will most like make this top again in a solid color because I really would like to try to create a casing that would make the drawstring go completely around you body instead of resting on your back and gathering all in the front.

The second piece is Burda Style 03-2010-136. This is a wonderful lined pencil skirt with real neat front darts that come off the side seam. Just what my belly needed. Ah! I can not tell you how comfortable this skirt is. This was the first time I lined a skirt. Let me just say every skirt I make will have a lining. Being a rectangle type of body I just want to say pencil skirts look so great on us. I believe O shapes/apples would look great in a pencill skirt too. It's all about the legs baby. I made this skirt out of some 100 % cotton white denim from Hancock Fabrics. Just can't tell you how great this denim was to sew. And did I mention the china silk polyester lining from Fabric.com. Yeally enjoyed this project it went together so well. I did have to shorten this skirt about 4 inches and add about 2 inches to each seam to the waist make it work. Resources I used to help make this skirt; for the kick pleat I consulted Easy Guide to Sewing by Lynn MacIntyre and Marcy Tilton. For the waist I used Nancy Zieman's Pattern Fitting with Confidence. Did I mention that I put 1/4 inch elastic in the seam of the waist band so it could expand and shrink with me a little. You can read the review here on PR.

My hope is to complete the 4 pieces I had planned for the PR mini wardrobe compatition and ad two more pieces to it so it is more like a Stitcher's Guide Summer six pack (six piece summer sew-along). My theme colors are still orange and white for this collection. Next up is a pair of white denim crops from my tnt pattern, Burda Plus Fashion 02-2009-411. Happy sewing.

How Do You Plan

Well mini wardrobe competition is done on PR. Like usual I ran out of time. Good thing I got two items complete and did not lose my sewing mojo. My completed items are Burda Plus Fashion spring/summer 2010- 410, which is a tunic, and Burda Style 3-10-136, a pencil skirt. I love both pieces and will photo and review them soon.

Today's temperature is not going to be above 60. I was perplexed at how hard it is to figure out what to wear for days like this. I'm sick of sweater, pants and many other RTW clothing hanging in my closet. I realized the majority of the clothes I have made are for summer and I have very few items that are for spring. So out came two of my favorite pieces (see picture). They are my favorite Khaliah Ali drawstring pants, S5074 and my favorite t-shirt B5398. Some how the two worked for my casual look of the day and I'm content and comfortable with my choice.

Back to the question how do you plan your wardrobe, SWAP or mini wardrobe? With two jobs at what seems like opposite ends of the trend pool answering this question can be difficult for me. With a degree in fashion merchandising and many years of retail behind me I'm ashamed to admit every year I buy new books on wardrobe planning. Currently on my shelf I have Nothing to Wear, Instyles Secrets of Style and Fashion for Dummies just to name a few. But it seems some how I still lack the skills needed to build a wardrobe that is functional and comfortable all year around. So I've decide that my sewing and fabric buying needs to take a more planned approach. Instead of just plopping out individual items I will be creating mini collections of 4 to 6 pieces that all relate and work together. Instead of trying to make all the items fit both jobs I will try to center each collection on one job. A few pieces might be able to cross over and that's great. Most of all I'm not going to get mad because I have to add a few RTW pieces. I know I don't have the time to create everything. Instead of worrying if I'm in trend or on point with the outfit I'm going to work on comfort and fit. Not sure if I'll every break the addiction to new fabric but hopefully holding onto some type of plan will help.

So what is your plan? How do you decide what to sew or buy?