Gathering Inspiration for My Versatile, Expressive, Modern Fall Wardrobe

Week Two of the Design Your Wardrobe course at Seamwork focuses on setting a goal and gathering inspiration. This part was easy for me. Once I realized what my wardrobe woes were in Week One, I knew what my goal needed to be for this project. My goal is to create a fall collection of pieces that are both practical and stylish and that work together and offer options. Essentially, my goal is to create a fall capsule collection in a mix of patterns and textures. Because I want a well thought-out, coordinated fall wardrobe that is truly a collection. 

I have been gathering inspiration over the past couple of weeks in a number of ways: pinning patterns and looks on Pinterest boards, bookmarking posts from other makers on Instagram, revisiting my own pattern collection, searching the pattern library on Seamwork, and doing a bit of fabric shopping. I knew very early on what my color palette would be. I purchased two coordinating viscose crepe fabrics for my current pre-fall top and pants project, and I love the colors: cinnamon, teak, black, white, tan/sand. My color palette now has evolved into rust, black, white, and tan due to color range availability while fabric shopping. 

Choosing a color palette and fabric is the focus for this next week, but once I decided on patterns and a color palette, I couldn't wait to head over to my local JoAnn Fabrics to see what I could find. And I got really lucky on that first trip. I found a color splash denim at 30% off, tan quilted cotton for 30% off, a rust floral knit on clearance at $4.97 a yard, a patterned/textured organic cotton on clearance for $3.97 a yard, and a black and white windowpane brushed cotton at 70% off. I love the mix of patterns and textures of these fabrics. 

My first outing for fall wardrobe fabric was a great success!

I'm still looking for a rust twill for pants and twill or denim or corduroy for a couple of color-blocked dresses I want to make. This isn't Project Runway, though; I have plenty of time to fabric shop and work out the rest of the details. I have been a bit ambitious in the number of pieces in this collection, but my patterns aren't overly complicated. And I already am thinking that the color splash denim jacket may get pushed into my winter collection. 

My Fall Wardrobe Patterns

I will go into more detail about my pattern choices in a later post, but here is where my thinking is today. My fall capsule wardrobe will include two dresses, two tops, one skirt, one pair of pants, and two jackets. I  foresee a lot of versatility with and interchangeability between these pieces. 

I am really having fun planning this collection. I love having a road map for my makes over the next two or three months rather than randomly buying fabric and a pattern. This just makes so much sense!