Handmade 10 Item Capsule Wardrobe- a New Year Challenge!

I was recently inspired by the lovely Jennifer of The Daily Connoisseur and her idea of having only 10 key items, a capsule wardrobe if you like, for each season. Intrigued, I set about designing my own ten item wardrobe as a New Years challenge to myself to use more and really appreciate my handmade pieces. I hope this challenge will also inspire me to use the pieces I have made in new and inventive ways. I of course will also build into this wardrobe items which are shop bought too as it is pretty cold in London during January and I will be needing some wooly jumpers and lots of basic tees for layering. If this is successful in January I may well continue to dress like this into February, perhaps adding or taking out some items.
So, without further ado, here are the items I have selected.

First, six dresses all made by me! My black corduroy pinafore, my denim pinafore, my blue floral dress, my black panelled dress, my tartan dress and lastly a rosey dress I haven't actually finished making yet, so here is Percy 'helping' me to cut it out. 


Update- I've decided to remove the newly completed rosey stripe dress (bottom right) in favour of my also newly finished purple corduroy pinny.



 
Next, two me made skirts: one in brown suede and on in heavy navy cotton. I love buttons. 

Lastly, the final two of my 'core ten' items are probably a bit wishful for January in the UK but as it's been to mild lately I thought I would include two pretty blouses. Neither of these are handmade, the orange is primark and the floral is vintage Liberty.


After you have chosen your 10 core items Jennifer explains how you add on a few 'extras' such as tees and knitwear to avoid freezing.
Some of these are self made but many are shop bought  as I much prefer sewing dresses and skirts for myself than tees, which frankly I find dull to stitch.

First I have five tees, one purple with a roll neck, one striped with a roll neck, then just a black plain long sleeve, a striped long sleeve and finally a striped tee I made myself!



 

Next a January essential, knitwear!
From left to right: two cashmere polo necks from the M&S sale, a lace top M&S jumper, again from the sale, a colour block topshop polo neck,  a me made striped sweatshirt from Simplicity 1317, a zippy H&M cardigan and two M&S ribbed polo necks. This may seem like a lot of knit wear but most days in January I will be wearing two or more of these at once!



 
As for coats I have a problem. I love them so very much, it will be hard to choose just one or two to wear. I think I will go for my Topshop hybrid coat and my Topshop denim jacket with Borg collar, but I'll have to see how this one goes...


UPDATE! I was sad not wearing a me made coat so I made this Vogue  9156 super cosy coat to keep me warm and handmade. It had beautiful floral lining which I will blog about soon! I also wore my red me made simplicity 1759.




 
 So that's it! 12 handmade pieces in total and as always I aim to wear at least one a day, #memadeeveryday y'all.
I hope you enjoy watching Jennifer's videos as I really do find them inspiring and motivational. I've still got a pretty full wardrobe of handmade clothes for the time being though! But this may be a step in the right direction. If you would like to join me in this little hand sewn capsule wardrobe challenge then please, please let me know so we can motive each other and chat about how it's going!

That's all for today. Thanks so much for reading and happy sewing x o x o
 

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