Sewing a capsule collection: Stage 1 - Planning

It is almost a new year and I am setting goals. At least goals for my sewing.

While I generally hate new years resolutions, I am making one this year: stick to the plan. I like having a plan, but when it comes to sewing I am the proverbial dog seeing a squirrel. Every pretty pattern I see, I want to chase. But not this year. This year my husband and I are planning on taking a trip in the late summer, and by then I will have completed my very wearable capsule collection.

I started off by using Seamwork’s Collection Planner. It helped me think through some of the basics of the collection, starting with the mood of the collection. Classic, Vintage, Comfortable.

These three words came easily. I have been working this past season on clearing out my closet of all of the things I don’t wear, or don’t fit my ideal personal aesthetic. Paring down my winter wardrobe to neutrals and two statement colors helped me realize how I want to present myself, and my previous wardrobe was holding me back.

This summer collection needs to be comfortable for travel, and work with warm days and cool nights. I want to incorporate my passion for vintage clothing by using some vintage patterns with unique details. Classic silhouettes will fill out the bulk of the collection.

Now comes the hard part: Palette. Choosing neutrals was easy, I will always choose black and white. Seamwork’s palette exercise has you choose neutrals, basics, and statement. The basics came pretty easily too, tobacco/dark ochre and dark cobalt. These two blend well with each other and the neutrals for a very classic scheme. It’s the statement color that had me stymied.

Lavender, sea-glass, hot pink, yellow… no not yellow, you look slightly ill in yellow. I was avoiding red. I love red, but I fear looking like an ‘Ugly American’ when I travel abroad, and a red, white, and blue color palette might be a bit too much. So instead I moved on to planning my silhouettes. Spoiler alert: I chose red anyway.

I started by making a list of the activities I imagined us doing on our trip, and then a list of what I would need to bring for a couple of weeks. The resulting list looked something like this:

pants (2)
shorts (1-2)
skirt (1) midi length so works day/night
dress (2) one woven, one knit
blouse (3)
t-shirt (2)
jacket (1)
sweater (1)

You may have noticed that the drawing doesn’t adhere directly to the list. This is because when I started looking for patterns that would work as mix-and-match pieces I got greedy and wanted them all. I gathered tons of images (etsy favorites list: 84, pinterest board: 74, burdastyle patterns: 20), you get the picture. After all of that I managed to narrow it back down. The pruning was difficult and ended up removing some beautiful vintage patterns in my stash that I haven’t found the right use for yet. But, I had to be ruthless. That’s the whole point of creating this capsule collection, honing in on a central theme.

One of the things I found in my search was a beautiful vintage wool boucle in white and ivory with threads of blue and red. That did it, red was in!

I have started tentatively planning the fabric choices for each of my pieces. I found a couple of very special fabrics that I bought right away, and for the rest I have lots of swatches coming in to help me decide.

I have enjoyed this struggle to plan. It has helped me do some soul searching when it comes to personal style, and work the editing skills I utilize so often in 2-d design. I can’t wait to keep going.