Capsule: rough round the edges

I had a lot of different ideas of what I could enter into this months challenge: but my need for work wear won out. I can say need hand on heart because it was clearly identified in my Me-Made-May exploits and was on my Autumn/Winter Wardrobe Wishlist. Therefore it was a need and not a frivolous pursuit of new outfits…  But I perhaps bit off more than I could chew.

I decided to start with a top which I’ve had in my head for a while. It’s a real collision of patterns: the body is Colette’s Sorbetto, with the sleeves from the Laurel dress, and the hemline from Deer & Doe’s Datura blouse. It was a bit touch and go but I’m pretty happy with it. Should you be interested in how the collision took place I wrote more about it here (there’s plenty of pictures too!).

I initially decided to take the path of least resistance and make a nice black pencil skirt to go with it. But as I’ve been wanting to make trousers for a long time, this seemed as good as any time to get started.

In a nut shell I’ll summarize the trousers as, err, a learning project. While I did a lovely job on the pockets and zipper, the fitting of the trousers posed a slight issue which led me to literally slash seams open.

I think to begin with I chose the wrong size and fit – I went with size 14 average fit. But given how much I ended up taking in I probably should have chosen size 12 slim fit. Note to self: never felt a seam unless you are sure of your fit. And never, ever felt a seam on your first pair of trouser. Just don’t do it. My trials and tribulations are chronicled here should you be interested.

Essentially my capsule wardrobe taught me quite a  lot this month, and I’m happy with the end results as I learned a lot. But its all a bit rough around the edges.