#use12 capsule wardrobe

Ta da!  IT IS DONE…

I can finally present, in entirety, my #make12, or #use12, capsule wardrobe… yes, that funny little project I’ve been chipping away at all year… hurray!  Phoar!  I cannot be more thrilled with this funny little collection, right here!  And how it all worked out in the end, with just a few minor nudges and fudges here and there.

The pieces

from left to right; all pieces linked to their own blog post:

raspberry suiting mini skirt

pale blue damask summer skirt

blue corduroy flared skirt

yellow blouse

moss green swing tee top

chocolate brown, wide leg trousers

salmon pink tee

forest green LS merino tee

avocado green jacket

white, appliquéd blouse

mint green leafy dress

teal green clogs/ shoes

and I also got out a bonus set of underwear  Thanks to my sewing buddy Jane for modelling these! She’s such a good sport  🙂

the aforementioned nudges and fudges:  I used all of my fabrics bar one; my precious green fish leather from Iceland… however I used some of another green leather from my stash for the shoes.  At the same time, I used the yellow for underwear, so used the last leftovers from another project for the yellow top, so that was kind of a bonus too.

does the capsule work?  So, I had great fun dressing up and mixing and matching all the pieces as much as I could.  There could be some combos I missed? but this is as far as I got before exhaustion set in… but I’m so excited to get them mingling all together like this!  My beautiful new teal clogs do go with absolutely everything, which is cause for great celebration!! however since some of the outfits are quite wintery, I put on my black tights and black boots for some of the looks, because that is how I’ll wear them in reality.

Phew, that’s a lot, eh.  More outfits that even I thought possible!  Now I’m completely exhausted!  and also have a vaguely over-indulged feeling, like maybe I shouldn’t add any more clothes to my collection for a while…?! but of course I still have fabric in my stash, and I still have plans too!  It might be a good idea to  focus on more things for others though, for a while  😉

Thoughts?  I think the thing I like the most about all these pieces is that many of the fabrics were precious in some way; souvenir buys, or gifts from family and friends; that I was too frightened to cut into, for some reason or another.  I really wanted to force myself to finally enjoy these lovely pieces, and to wear and appreciate them.   At the same quite a few of the fabrics were smallish, leftover, orphan scraps in my stash, that were too big to throw away, and were just sitting there taking up space.  I feel really good about finally clearing some of these out and usefully; if that makes sense!  I did try to choose a set of colours and textures that I thought looked nice together, and it’s really exciting seeing that most of them really do play together as nicely as I was hoping.

I already know I’ll wear a lot of these outfits, maybe not all of the combinations that I put together here “speak” to me, but just playing with everything like this gave me lots of ideas.  Of course, several of the earlier made pieces have already gone into heavy rotation, and been worn all year long, while some things are nigh on brand new and not been worn at all!

I think this is the second capsule wardrobe I’ve ever made, and doing it was just as much fun as the first time.  I wouldn’t even mind having a go at another one next year?? maybe??  Do I even dare?!  It would have to be very very different from this one… but the cogs are already turning  😉

For the time being though, I am satisfied.