Just for funsies, I decided to take part in the 10×10 challenge, brainchild of Lee Vosburgh of Style Bee and co-hosted by Caroline of Un-fancy … the idea is that you select ten items of clothing that you will wear for the next ten days. I just heard about this cool challenge recently, apparently it’s been a big thing in the fashion blogging world for years! I thought it sound like fun, a good way to explore the versatility of your wardrobe, and not something that’s totally outside the realm of what us sewing bloggers do for me-made May and One Week One Pattern, my own 6 different ways roundups that I do, and other little wardrobe challenges that are sweet little diversions in the serious business of getting dressed… 😉
Technically, this round is called the Fall 10×10 but of course it is Spring time for us southern hemisphere-ers. I checked out our weather forecast and glumly noted that it was going to be all over the shop; we were expecting everything from a cold 18C roaring up to 31C in my ten day quota. So weather versatility was absolutely key!
I chose for my ten items; 1 dress, 4 tops, 2 skirts, 1 jacket, 1 pr winter boots and 1 pr oxford shoes; all navy blue and white, toasty brown and orange and my acid-yellow dress. I made everything except for my black boots. Yes, I could have chosen my own handmade black boots, but I really love my rtw ones so I plumped for those instead.
From left to right, and all items are linked back to the original construction post. The number in brackets after each item is the number of times it got worn during the 10 days of the challenge:
- blue and white check shirt … Burda 7767 I originally made this shirt for Tim; he recently did a wardrobe cleanout and lobbed it back to me. Score! (1)
- plain white Tshirt with navy blue edging ….Closet Case Nettie (5)
- tobacco brown silk blouse … MN Sudley (2)
- navy blue suedette blouse … MN Dove (2)
- navy gingham cropped jacket … Burda 10/2009/108 (3)
- terracotta pleather skirt … MN Axel (3)
- navy blue mini … Vogue 1247 (5)
- acid yellow dress … Vogue 1316 (2)
- rtw black boots, Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes (6)
- my handmade white oxford shoes (4)
Accessories like bags, hats, umbrella, hosiery, jewellery and scarves aren’t counted in your 10 pieces… which is awesome because when you want, nay NEED tights and scarves so you don’t freeze to death, being able to add those things to the ten items helps a TONNE!!
SO! My outfits for the ten days…
Thoughts:
I did thoroughly enjoy planning my 10-piece mini-wardrobe… I LOVED my colour scheme and I really love all the pieces I picked and how well they worked together. I even enjoyed wearing my outfits for like, the first five days or so. After that I was kinda like; I wanna wear something different noooooow! inwardly whining like a spoilt little brat. I mean, I loved all of my combinations, but once I’d imagined them all in my head, then it felt like a bit of an anticlimax to actually wear them. I suppose I like a bit of surprise and spontaneity when it comes to getting dressed each morning.
On the plus side, there was no need for agonising “what to wear?!” and I could just toss on one of my outfits happily without worrying about it anymore. I did like the mix-and-matchability of my choices, was pleased it catered for both casual and nice-ish, and was a little sad I didn’t get to wear some of my planned combos due to weather unsuitability.
Several remarked on IG that it didn’t look like many clothes… it’s not! 10 pieces really is quite a challenging restriction. Laundry alone… well yes that’s an obvious issue too. I had to do several random “spring-cleaning” washes, just so I could toss in some of my 10×10 items that needed to be worn on consecutive and near-consecutive days. I guess that’s not a bad thing though, hehe; all my cushion covers and beach towels are fresh and sparkling ready for spring!
Only having two pairs of shoes was kinda difficult too. My feet often start to hurt a bit if I wear the same pair of shoes too many days in a row … and even though these boots and shoes are both very comfortable, I find that even with the most comfortable of shoes, I still need to mix it up every few days for my feet to really be happy little vegemites. Exception to this rule: thongs aka flip-flops but sadly it’s still too cold to wear thongs on the regular. On that note… COME ON SUMMER!! oh please excuse me, didn’t mean to shout. Oh, ok then, I did. Like everyone in Perth, I can’t stop whinging about the awfully cold and wet spring we’re having and everyone’s desperate for some more summery weather. We keep getting little tastes of totally glorious sunshine-y warmth but then it reverts back to cold and rainy again. Booooo!
So, will I do a 10×10 again? Maybe. Maybe not. I’m moaning here a bit, picking out all the negatives, but it was a fun diversion, really. It’s always a good exercise to explore the possibilities of a restricted wardrobe for a little while. Almost like a little mini-travel wardrobe! Oh, except without the fun, actual travelling part, of course, haha.
All said and done, I enjoyed it. I’ll see how I feel about it when the next one rolls around.
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This looks like a really interesting challenge, made even better with handmade clothes. Your clothes look so lovely lined up on a hanger!
thank you so much! 🙂
That is a fun challenge. I couldn’t do that challenge without a pair of trousers/jeans!!! I notice you are without a pair of gingers. Jo x
thanks Jo! and I actually do have a pair of gingers! made them years ago. I’m wearing them just two posts ago, on the beach with my blue hoodie
You are so good at mixing and matching your wardrobe. This is something that I struggle with. That’s why when I make a top or bottom, I usually make something to wear it with immediately otherwise it won’t get worn.
thanks Shirley! yes, that’s a great way to get a nice cohesive wardrobe, so you always know you have a “set” 🙂
Great idea, this challenge. It inspires me to sort out my closet to see what items work, where I have redundancies, and where there are gaps to fill. It would also help for planning a travel wardrobe, to test out a small group like this.
I clicked on the Norwegian gingham jacket, which I love, and saw a nice shot of you and Sienna from behind. Sigh. I miss that silly girl. How about a picture of Clara to cheer us up? I could use a new one every day.
thanks so much Sankati! I really love that Norwegian jacket too, one of the reasons I chose it was to make myself wear it more! That’s so sweet of you to say about Sienna, and Clara too. I really miss Sienna still, though having a crazy new puppy helps to occupy some of that energy!
I loved finding you on IG and now I’m following here as well. The blue top is fantastic and I loved the pattern shop you linked. I’m going to have to find a similar one in the US. My inspiration for wanting to try to make my own clothes came from this beautiful T top from brand Jamie & the Jones. It gorgeous and so my style but at $248 it’s WAY more than I’d ever be comfortable with. I have to go the fabric store today, since I’m short one single panel for my daughters costume (doh!) and I may just have to browse through some patterns….
thank you so much Andrea! it’s so satisfying to make your own clothes, and you do save a lot of money if you’re copying expensive things like that! I hope you enjoy searching for the perfect fabric and patterns, and creating your own unique style that you can be sure no one else will be wearing! 🙂
Such minimalism for a gifted and talented sewist like yourself! I feel your pain Carolyn 🙂 I was so curious to see what you would pick for this 10 item challenge – did you pick them because they are your favourites or they would just go together well and look like you’re not wearing the same thing too often? 🙂
haha, thanks so much Kathleen! yes, I would not describe myself as a minimalist, unless restricting yourself by making it all yourself counts in some small way to keeping numbers down!
As to how I chose: I picked some of my favourite items, and fleshed it out with some basics. It helps that when I make my clothes I always purposely try my best to make things that fit in with the rest of my wardrobe somehow… I tend to stick to similar silhouettes that I know suit me, and make a lot of solid coloured things; it’s pretty easy to mix and match solid colours 🙂
Lovely choices! And I am in awe of your ability to remember the pattern company name/number of each pattern!
thanks Angela! one of the benefits of keeping a blog is that if you forget a pattern number it’s pretty easy to look it up! but also I have a very good memory for random trivia like that 😉
We stole your spring — it’s been a really really hot fall in Massachusetts this year. Think multiple 80-90F days. We still haven’t dropped below freezing EVEN AT NIGHT at it’s heading towards Halloween.
I love that yellow dress so much — just seeing it in your outfit rotation is so much fun!
ah no! please give us our spring! 😉 I really envy you your fall in New England, my memory is that it is one of the most spectacularly beautiful places to live at this time of year 🙂 and thank you, the yellow dress is becoming a firm favourite for me, I just love it despite its somewhat weird origins 🙂
This is a challenge I hadn’t heard of. You executed it very well – but I can understand the thrill of moving away from those 10 garments when it’s over .
thank you Kim! it’s fun to do these silly things every once in a while, even if you find yourself looking at all your other lovely clothes the whole time and being like “why the heck am I even doing this thing?!”
I was surprised at how diverse your outfits looked in spite of the restriction. The varied weighting of colour made your outfits rather different. Everything you write about the joy of sponteanity or more or less need of washing are conform with my thoughts. Thank you for sharing your experience!
thank you so much SaSa! I was determined not to pick an overly neutral wardrobe, to keep it interesting for myself too 🙂
It’s interesting, I realise now with my maternity wardrobe it’s not far off doing something like this challenge. And you’re right – after a while the lack of spontenaeity and need for planning ahead the laundry gets a bit stale…. your colour palette was lovely – I’m impressed you got through without a pair of jeans too!
thank you Sarah! A maternity wardrobe is a natural “capsule” so to speak… and you’ll find yourself not wanting to wear it EVER AGAIN afterwards! I do wear jeans, but not that frequently, so I decided to leave them out. I actually prefer skirts and dresses to be honest 🙂
It seems an interesting challenge but really, nowadays I have like 13 pieces of clothing and am already doing that…. my challenge to the moment is creating time to sew!
To finish, I’d like to join the chorus all the way here from Brazil… COME ON SUMMER!
Always inspiring you, thanks
thank you so much Juliana! That’s amazing, 13 pieces of clothing is very impressive, how do you do it? The good thing about summer being just around the corner is that little summer dresses are so quick and easy, and FUN to sew. I can’t wait!
I love the concept and the outfits that you put together look amazing but I think I would struggle. Well I say this but I had the flu last week and all I did was get up throw on the same pair of jeans and lay on the sofa so on that kind of week I could manage! You have inspired me to try though I will link back when I do. x
thanks so much Dianne! it’s a fun thing to do every now and again. not too frequently though, I must admit! I’m suspecting I’m a closet maximalist at heart, really!
What a nice colour palette, Carolyn! And yes, it looks like very few clothes on the rack but then your outfits are all so different – once you start mixing it produces a lot of variety. I’ve always liked the 10×10 idea but have never been organised enough to do it myself; I guess it could be done just as a mental exercise, to avoid the laundry issues, right?! About the shoes – maybe the closest you can get to flip-flops for winter are ‘barefoot’ shoes. Virtually all my footwear’s now Vivobarefoot, and those I can wear for weeks on end with no foot/knee/hip pains. My view is, if you can’t wear them every day then they’re not really comfortable!
thanks Nina! I think having a nice cohesive colour palette is key to success. I was determined to have minimal neutrals to keep it interesting for myself too, and I have a lot of solid coloured clothes which are quite easy to mix and match 🙂 It does feel a little unspontaneous to actually wear the outfits but I’m glad I did it in the end, just planning it without seeing it through would have felt like unfinished business 🙂
Precisely my issue Carolyn, boredom. I tried the capsule wardrobe thing last winter and was surprised at how much I needed to move on to another season for light relief! Your colours all look so fab together. Can I ask, what if you’d needed to go to an opera? The ballet? Drama? Romantic dinner? Good to give these things a try, you’re a brave one. Meanwhile back in the east, we recently had no rain for 72 days, thankfully yesterday we had a sprinkle!
thank you Lesley, and yes a formal occasion would be a real spanner in the works! you’d have to include a fancy dress and shoes and that’s two whole items out of your ten that you can’t really wear for the remainder of the week, right there bam! I guess picking your ten days strategically? but you’re right, it’s a pretty artificial exercise. My own little challenge was in having both wintery weather and full on summery weather to cater for, a formal occasion AS WELL would have made it way too hard for me!
I can understand that feeling of being bored halfway through. That’s just like me at the end of my last pregnancy when maybe ten things fit at all and I was so tired of it all! Your combinations were lovely, though.
thank you Becky! oh yes a pregnancy is not exactly a fun time to be getting dressed, I remember that well. The long term benefits sure outweigh the short-term inconveniences though, trust me!