Winter Wardrobe Architect

So last year I talked a little about the Wardrobe Architect series which can be found on the Coletterie blog. It has been adopted by many many people out there in the blogosphere. I decided that while planning my winter wardrobe and my planned winter makes, I would adopt some of the Architect principles and be more thoughtful about the things that I both make and buy.

So how easy was it? And how well did I follow this?

Cleaning out my wardrobe of things that I don't wear and don't feel good in was really super easy, and I would recommend this for anyone. It is really reassuring that what I choose to put on in the morning will fit me, and be something I want to wear, and wow did this process make space!! I couldn't believe some of the things I was keeping hold of that were just downright shabby, never mind the things that probably never fit me properly.

When considering the shapes and styles of clothes that I wear I came up with three, my office wear of loose fitting trousers and a jumper/blouse, skinny jeans with a floaty loose top, and a flared skirt/dress. All three tend to include a cardigan of some shape or form (I looove my cardigans).

When I thought about my colour palate I chose greys and deep blues with red as the pop colour

So using these as guidelines I picket out a few pieces to make over the winter, knowing that things get in the way and I'm easily distracted I just picket out five items for my to do list.

As well as these patterns which were already in my library I wanted to make a sweatshirt too, as I may have mentioned before, this turned out to be the Fraser sweatshirt from Sewaholic.

It was relatively easy to stick to this plan, I bought fabrics with my colours in mind, even the extra projects (knitting) were much more thoughtful too. I made sure what I made would be something I would really want to wear again and again.

So from my list I made everything except the shirt dress, which I just never had time for. The colours are pretty accurate too. Most importantly, everything above here I have worn multiple times (in fact I dare you to try to pry me out of my Fraser sweatshirt!)

I got a little closer to the architect method with my knitting, my owls jumper made it into regular circulation

The rest of them didn't even get finished, so I'll let you know how they do when they are finished.

So then... Conclusions

I really enjoyed thinking about what I wear in this way, meaning that the things I make actually make it into weekly rotation. It has helped me to think about how my clothes fit together to make an outfit, how solids and patterns can fit together. It also really illustrated how the things that I want to wear, and the things I reach for everyday are very different (I really thought I'd wear skirts and dresses more for work).

Most importantly, it really showed up where there are big gaps in my wardrobe which I can fill with me-mades.

I will absolutely be using this to plan my spring makes, and hopefully the winter experiment might help me to use this tool even more effectively.