I’m still planning my capsule wardrobe for Autumn 2016. I’ve made a mood board on Pinterest, cleared out and reorganised my stash, and defined my silhouettes. I made a mood board from the most essential items on my Pinterest board and a colour palette.
It’s handy to sum up my aesthetic for the season in one cohesive mood board, as well as the Pinterest collection. I store the mood board to my phone so that I can refer to it on the go. If I see a tempting fabric or accessory, I’ll look at my mood board and consider if it really fits in.
Key items include a velvet dress, lots of geometric prints, worn leather, green and flannel.
Palette
Sarai Mitnick breaks her capsule wardrobe colours into neutrals, near neutrals and accent colours; selecting 7 colours. I picked some colours from my key winter palette and some from my accent colours, tweaking them a little, to come up with a palette of eight colours. The Marigold is a little more muted than my summer version and the burnt orange is a new colour to my wardrobe. I will wear colours other than these, but I will use these colours as guiding lights to select my fabrics, shoes and accessories, this season.
I found this combination of fabrics while clearing out my stash and loved the colours together. It really inspired me. Isn’t playing with fabric great?
Wish List
I have also made a wish list of the things that I am either craving or missing form my wardrobe this season. This will help with the next part of the capsule wardrobe challenge; Planning the pieces.
- Waterproof boots or shoes for the autumn rain
- Tall riding boots that give me ankle and calf definition. May have slight heel. These will be my biggest investment of the year. I want them to be wearable for many years.
- Rain proof coat or cape
- Comfy smocks/tunics
- Long sleeve jersey tops that can be worn on their own, not just under clothing (won’t show too many lumps and bumps)
- Cosy coats
- Checked flannel
- Khaki, burnt orange, olive
- Boiled wool jersey for easy coats
- Velvet
- Tweed
- Hand-made patterns in prints and textures
- Tights in rich colours to match my boots and shoes
- Party outfit for December
- Glorious accessories
Even if you aren’t going whole hog with designing a capsule palette, making a season wish list is a good idea. What’s on your wish list? What have I forgotten?
Gosh – you are so well organised!Wish I was. However something velvet is definitely on my list as well as some skinny knit pants( ( prob Sandra Betzina) which I haven’t tackled before.
I haven’t quite switched gears to warmer clothes. It is still so hot here. I definitely want something in plaid. I have an annual Robbie Burns in January and I saw a range of colours at my neighbourhood fabric store in rayon. I would love to work with velvet – maybe in combination with the plaid? Love these inspiration boards!
Loving reading about your progress with this project and can’t ain’t too see the clothes you make. Thank you for sharing with us!
Thank you Sarah!
Oh my, that colour palette is truly divine! I might have to heed your colour advice for my dream fall wardrobe! Excellent work.
Thanks Natasha. It gets me excited. A lot of people at my knit night are brown haters and are looking to me to lead the way with brown.
I find sewn cardigans in jersey useful but havent found a pattern that inspires me to make one myself. Have you come across one? Id love to sew some autumn cardigans for layering over dresses while i wait for my slow knitting !
Yes, I’ve been thinking about this too. Style Arc has some good patterns. As do Tessuti
Thanks so much! Great pattern tips! I need to conquer my fear of sewing with knit fabrics. is it really tricky? Loving your blog posts.
These look great- thanks so much!