Amnesty – Capsule Wardrobe

Hello there! I bring you a repeat of November’s challenge. I was so sure I was going to finish this before November ended, but I ended up doing the buttonholes on the shirt on the first December, and then leaving the buttons for a while because I’d already missed the deadline. So amnesty month next was perfect.

This is the start of my capsule wardrobe. While I haven’t taken photos of these with other garments, the whole point in making them is that I want a new, slightly more professional wardrobe.  Next year I’m going to be based in the local hospital for my studies, and there is a loosely semi-professional dress expectation. I’m expecting that a lot of what I wear day-to-day currently will fit that, but not all, so I’m trying to fill the gaps, based around half-circle skirts and tops to tuck in – something that still feels like me, while being less frivolous than some of my older makes are. The shirt also looks pretty great untucked over pants – although that would require wearing pants, which I don’t often do.

The skirt was a quick make – I wanted something that wouldn’t take too much brain power or time, but would be satisfying; so I went through my (actually rather small) stash and found this rayon twill that my (step-)grandmother gave me. She ran an antique store until recently, so this is one she’d picked up for that, but she gave me free choice of the fabrics she had lying around.

It’s a hastily drafted half-circle skirt, on a somewhat slithery fabric, so the lines were not actually all that straight. I corrected most of that in sewing, but it’s still got a wee bit of inaccuracy. However, it does what it’s supposed to – I wanted a plain, nice skirt that I could wear for semi-professional occasions, without feeling like I was impersonating someone else. There is not much else to say about it.

The shirt is my second Granville (the first is here) and it is ever so much better. To be honest, the first one isn’t bad, except for the collar (which is slightly disastrous) and some slight pulling at the bust. I did an FBA to fix that, and moved a bunch of the waist shaping to the back seams instead of the side, but could have done more actually. So the fit is slightly better, and the collar was entirely solved by following this tutorialover at Four Square Walls. I’m pretty well proud of my collar. And all the constructions. French seams everywhere! Perfect collar and pretty decent sleeve plackets! All is going well!

I had a lot of fun taking photos in my garden at home for this, and have also been having fun choosing the most dramatic ones. Since I’m in Wellington at the moment, there’s always some wind, which is perfect for showing off circle skirts.

 

I think I did a pretty amazing job on constructing the shirt. fact, I was going around telling people how amazing my shirt was before I’d even finished it. Looking at the photos is actually pretty good for my comfort levels – looking through them it’s easier to go “ah yes, is nice” instead of “ooh not sure how I feel about this” which I sometimes do in the mirror.

So, the details:

Skirt – rayon twill gift, zip from a second hand shop

Shirt – cotton lawn from a Lincraft sale (some $10/m), buttons from Mum’s jar.

And some guts shots:

In my Christmas sewing, I’ve actually managed to hit at least two other months during Amnesty month (Put a Bird on It and Check it Out) for two of my sisters, but both gifts were finished on Christmas Eve and wrapped without photos, so I unfortunately can’t show you them. But if you watn any more information on this one, it is on my blog.

Happy New Year everyone!