What my Wardrobe Looks Like Now

It's been a little while since I wrote about how my wardrobe is coming along and it's definitely changed a little over the last few years.  I have to admit that I have strayed a little from how I had originally planned the make up of my wardrobe to be at the start of 2021.  However, I do think this is probably a little normal as I'm making a number of my clothes now and there are a number of styles and techniques I've been wanting to try.

The most obvious difference is probably that it's a little larger than it use to be or how I had originally planned it to be.  This is party because I have been enjoying having clothes that actually fit me in the items I've made myself, which has meant that I've made more than I really needed to.  However, I have also become a little bit more relaxed when it comes allowing myself to buy new or second-hand clothing and I have been especially bad at this when it comes to t-shirts.  I do think I needed a little more clothing than I had originally thought as I do sweat more than I thought, which means I do need more clothes I can rota before washing them.  However, I definitely didn't need as many as I had brought.

The new makeup of my wardrobe is 40% (16 items) were brought new (though many of them are actually pretty old now), 35% (14 items) are home made, and 25% (10 items) are second hand.  For the new items that I'd brought recently I have tried to make sure that they were either ethical or helped support a charity or organisation in some way, but sometimes I just needed to buy a specific item and couldn't follow this idea.  I will have these items for a long time though, but I really shouldn't need to buy anything new for a while now.

There are still a few more items that I plan on making in the near future, which include a couple of tops, a pair of trousers, and a jumper, but after that I don't really see my wardrobe growing much more on the homemade front.  I have definitely moved away from my original plan of just making a few items so that I had only what was practical, but I think I want to stear myself back to this idea now.  There are a few items that I think I could declutter and I will be going through everything to see if there' something I no longer want or really use, but mostly I think I'm just going to stop buying in new items and just keep using the those I have already until they get too old to keep wearing.  And then I'll just not replace them.

Even though my wardrobe is bigger than I had previously wanted it I love that so much of it is now handmade by me, and that they are the items that I wear the most.  It's also good to have things that are more my style and which actually fit my body shape.  It's still not quite the cohesive wardrobe that would probably be quite useful to have, but that's because my style is so varied.  However, I have been trying to use fabrics and yarns from a specific colour range to help tie things together and this is probably something that I'll continue to work on in the future.  

Changes to my Wardrobe

A little while ago I wrote about what my plan was for my wardrobe moving forward.  I'm still working towards this plan, in fact I'll hopefully complete it by the end of this year, but when I was looking at my wardrobe the other day I suddenly realised that I have a lot more clothes than I had originally planned to have or had in the past.

Obviously I also have work gear as my job is outdoors in all types of weather and some additional items like thermals that I keep for work, camping, or if we travel somewhere cold, but I'm not going to include them here.  In fact, the small amount of clothes I have for work compared to the large amount of non work clothes is bordering on hilarious when you think about the fact I spend more time at work.

So, this is my wardrobe right now:

• Jumpers and cardigans - I now have two cardigans, one for warmer weather and one for colder, and two jumpers, again one for warmer weather and one for colder, all made by me.  There's one more I want to make but that'll be it on the knitted jumpers front.  I also have a fleece which I use when walking and camping, and a hoodie that I like to wear now and then.

• Trousers and shorts - I have my homemade 1940s style trousers that I basically wear all the time, a pair of outdoor trousers which I usually only wear when we're walking, and a pair of trouser I got from Niger twenty years and which I still wear.  I don't see me ever getting rid of these, they'll have to fall apart first.  I did make a pair of more tailored shorts as I had planned (paperback shorts), but then decided to make a second pair using fabric with the map of middle earth on it for walking in.

• Skirts - I had only really planned on have one or two of these, but I now have four.  The first is a Ra Ra skirt I've had for years and was made in the UK, the second is a black one that use to be my Mum's which I'd borrowed for a funeral and she'd told me to keep, the third is the skirt I made using the left over fabric I'd had of goldfish fabric, and the last is of course my wedding skirt that I was meant to have shortened already but still haven't had the heart to.  

• Dresses - this is still the same one as I had before and which I plan to replace with one of the same style I'm making myself so that it actually fits properly.  I had only planned on having one dress but there are some styles I would like to try and make so it might go up to three in the future.

• Long sleeved tops - I have more of these than I had originally planned with a shirt I brought from Brewdog, one that was brought in support of the British Wildlife Trust, and two other long sleeve tops I had gotten from charity shops as I wanted just some plain styles.  I do wear all of them, but I don't really need this many so I'll just not replace them when they get old.

• Short sleeved tops - I also have too many of these, but I also wear all of them as well.  I have two pieces that I made which are the wrap top I made whilst trying to work out the top of the wrap dress and of course my wedding top, the rest are either brought mostly to support a organisation, had for ages like the purple top I wear when we go walking, or that I got second hand either from a vintage shop or from my Mum.  As with the long sleeves I just won't replace these as they get old.

• Strappy tops - I think I have the right amount of these.  A skin toned one which I did buy new as I couldn't find one in the charity shops, a charity shop find that I love but has gotten to manky I should probably throw it out, and a black one I got at Brewdog and which I really love the style of though not all the logos.  I actually think I might make one out of some of the yarn I have left over, but I'm in no rush to do that yet.

• Shoes - weirdly I have more shoes for warm weather at the moment than cold, but I guess that fits for Devon.  For what I use them for I think I have the right amount, though I probably won't replace ones that get destroyed unless I feel like I need to.

• Outer wear - this is pretty basic.  A tailored jacket, a waterproof jacket, a zip fleece, and a gilet.  I don't feel like I need anything more than that.

The make up of my wardrobe now (not including shoes and outer wear) is 14 brought new, 6 second hand clothes from charity, vintage shops, or from family, and 11 homemade by me.

I definitely have more clothes now than I actually need, but I do actually wear all the pieces so I don't see me getting rid of any of them any time soon.  I just won't replace them once it's time to get rid of them.  I did think about maybe going for a capsule wardrobe and putting some of the other items away for a bit, but I actually enjoy having the choice and being able to layer up depending on the weather so I don't see much point in that for now.  The next thing I'm going to sew is the wrap dress to replace the one I already own and once that is done I will have completed the list of things I had planned for my wardrobe at the start of 2021 - I managed to get through that a lot faster than I had originally thought.  My ideas for my wardrobe are still the same as then, but it has become bigger than I had planned.  It does make me wonder how it's going to change in the future.

Crafting Goals 2022 Update #2

I wasn't expecting to get too much done this quarter as I had decided to take a little break from crafting after the wedding as I'd done quite a bit for that and I didn't want it to turn into a chore.  However, I actually returned to it a lot quicker than I was expecting.

Vivien Fair Isle - Style Jumper

I decided to do this jumper next as we're in summer right now and this is more of a summer knit.  I couldn't get the wool recommended in the pattern (from the Knit Vintage book) and so had to buy a slightly different kind which had a different gauge. This means that I am using different needles from the recommended and I'm not sure I've gotten the tension right so I'm not certain it's going to fit quite how I originally planned, but I still like the look of it.  I've also slightly changed it as I'm knitting it in the round rather than doing each section separately.  I didn't actually start it all that long ago, but already I've gotten quite far as it's been quite enjoyable to make.  Something I wasn't expecting when it came to doing colour work.  The wool is 100% Alpaca by Drops Design and it is ridiculously soft.  I can't wait to wear this one.

The Wrap Top

I'm using the top section of the Butterick B6554 wrap dress to make a wrap top.  This is partly because I want a wrap top and partly because I want to practice this part of the dress as it's going to be the most complicated due to fitting it around my chest.  I've measured the back and front in different sizes to fit this and then I'll need to work around fitting the two together.  Unfortunately my back is actually needs pattern pack which is a size down, but I don't want to buy another pattern just for that so I've picked the smallest size in this pattern and I'll just have to make that do.  Once that's done I can transfer the changes to the top half of the dress when I make it.  I'm reusing the fabric from the culottes I made a couple of years ago but don't wear anymore.  I really do love this fabric so I want to get as much use out of it as possible.

Lord of the Rings /The Hobbit Cross-stitch - Riverdale

These types of cross-stitch always take a while to do.  That being said, I've made more progress in this than I was originally thought I would.  I really love how it's looking and I know it's going to look great beside the Hobbiton one.  This craft alway takes a back seat to the other craft work I do and I haven't worked on it for a few weeks now, but I'll pick it back up again soon.

Once these are complete I'll have the Maggie and Coddy jumpers to knit and the wrap dress to sew.  I also picked up yet another project when we were on Guernsey, and that was making a Guernsey jumper using the 5 ply wool that unique to the island.  Whilst we were there I saw the Guernsey jumper which is made using 5 ply wool that is unique to the island.  So I brought some of their wool and was kindly given a free pattern, which I'm going to use to make Ed yet another jumper.  The poor guy will soon have more jumpers than he's ever had in his whole life.  It's especially humorous as he actually runs hot and so doesn't actually need them all.  Oh well, at least it's keeping me busy and that'll probably be the last one I make anyway - famous last words.

Making my Trousers: 1940's inspired

This is a very long overdue blog that I was actually meant to have written at the end of last year, but I'm finally getting round to it now.  I've wanted a pair of 1940's style women's trousers for a very long time, but could never find a pair that was in the style and fabric I wanted that also fitted my body shape and was in my price range.  That never happened so, in the end, I decided to just make them and found an updated vintage pattern, Simplicity 8447.

I decided that as this pattern also makes overalls I would make the top of the overalls as well, but have it so that it was detachable from the trousers giving me two garments in one.  I'm not going to lie, as this was my first time properly using a sewing pattern I was quite nervous about starting this and kept putting it off.  This wasn't helped by the fact that I knew I was going to have to make some changes to the pattern to get it to fit my body shape and that I'd already read through the pattern and confused myself a little bit. 

As I was intending on wearing these trousers quite a lot (they're basically the only everyday trousers I own) I wanted to get quite a hard-wearing, but relatively thin fabric so I went for a wool suiting fabric in a lovely navy colour.  The amount I planned, and actually do, wear this item meant that I also decided to bind the seems, even though you don't normally have to do much with wool fabrics as they don't tend to fray easily, using bias binding.  This did add quite a bit more work and a little bit more of a cost to my project, but I am glad I did it.  

Of course, I couldn't be all serious about the decisions I was making and the buttons I'm using for this project have smiley faces on them.

Once I had gotten used to the language in the pattern it actually went quite smoothly, though it did still take me a few days to get it completed.  This was mainly because it took me a while to accurately get the modifications to the waistline right.  I had had to start the pattern off with a much larger size so that it fitted around my hips, and then work on the side seams and darts to get it reduced enough to fits my waist comfortably.  Thankfully I didn't have to also add length to the waist of the trousers like I did with the shorts.  I've left the extra material in the darts in case I need to increase the waist size in the future, but for now, it fits perfectly and there's something really nice about having a pair of trousers I don't have to wear a belt with.

Once I had finally worked out how much of a reduction I had to make for the waist it was a lot easier to work on the top section as, again, I had to use a larger pattern to fit the chest and then bring it into the waist.  This time I did make the waistband a little bit larger so that it could fit comfortably over the trouser waistband when the two are joined together.  If I'm being completely honest I still haven't quite gotten round to adding the attachments which would then allow me to wear the two pieces together, but I'll get round to that soon.  With the weather being the way it is at the moment it would probably be a good idea to get that done very soon.

I really like these trousers and I've worn them a lot.  In fact, I've worn them practically every day that I've been off.  Apart from some spot cleans, I've also not had to wash them very often either.  Which is a joy seeing as laundry is a never-ending task I'm very happy to reduce.  The only thing I might possibly change about these is the turn-ups at the bottom of the legs.  They are a little bit thick and I'm not sure how I feel about the size.  I might reduce them a little bit or even get rid of them altogether, but that's still up for debate at the moment and I'll wear these a little longer before I make any final decision.  I've also cut another strip for the waistband but at a larger size, just in case I need to expand these.

Now that this project is complete I'm glad that I pushed through being nervous about starting and just got on with it.  I really like the outcome and it's given me a little bit more confidence to try out other patterns for items of clothing that I want in my wardrobe.   Which is just as well as I do have quite a lot of sewing planned for 2022.