Looking to the future

I have just sewn the last button on the final garment in my wardrobe sewing plan. I started this back in October so my original estimate of six months worth of sewing wasn’t far out – I sew slowly and most of the pieces had fiddly details. But rather to my surprise I managed to stick with the plan, and am wearing most of the results on a regular basis. This post isn’t about those clothes, because I haven’t got them all photographed, but what comes next.

I was really inspired by two patterns in the February issue of Burda: an oversized coatigan (style 105) and a slouchy v neck dress with kimono sleeves and waist ties (style 101). But obviously they’d need some things to go under them so I started looking for options and checking my fabric stash…and before long I had another eight garment wardrobe planned out.

But do I really want to commit to another long sewing plan? This one does have the advantage that a couple of the patterns aren’t new to me, so should be relatively quick sews, and it also uses up quite a bit of stash fabric. But there are also several pretty big projects in there.

Top row, left to right:

Slim fitting wool jersey t-shirt in black John Kaldor Isabella wool jersey. I’ve used some Burda line art for the image, but this is basically a remake of this simple knit top I drafted a while ago, so I’ll use my pattern. This is intended to be layered under the dress immediately below it in the picture, and also to be worn alone with the jeans.

Burda 2/2021 style 102 blouse in white tencel. This is the piece I’m least sure about. I picked the style because it’s the chopped off version of the dress just below, so saving tracing another pattern, and I felt I needed a loose fitting top in the mix, to be worn with the jeans and the leggings. If anything gets dropped it’ll probably be this one.

Burda 10/2012 style 119 wrap top in black John Kaldor Isabella wool jersey. This is to be worn as a layer under the v-necked dress and alone with the jeans.

Burda 2/2021 style 105 coatigan in black denim with light grey topstitching. To be worn as a warm layer over any of the outfits.

Burda 5/2008 style 110 utility dress in grey gaberchino. To be worn over the jersey t-shirt and leggings and maybe on its own in very warm weather. I like all the hardware and detailing on this one, although it makes it a difficult project.

Burda 2/2021 style 101 v neck kimono sleeved dress in grey tencel. This can be worn alone in the summer and over the wrap top and leggings the rest of the year.

Vogue 1378 Donna Karan pieced leggings (OOP). This is a remake of this project from 2014, which was worn until the fabric started to disintegrate. I’m going to try to use some black stretch fake leather I have lurking in stash, but it depends whether I can persuade my machine to do top-stitching on it: it’s very sticky. If it doesn’t work out I’ll use thin black neoprene instead like my original.

Burda 3/2020 style 119 straight legged jeans in black stretch denim from stash. I fell in love with susew’s version of these and they’ll go with all of the tops. I’m just hoping my piece of denim is large enough to fit them on; they’re fabric hogs.

Burda 4/2018 style 103 asymmetric trench-style coat in silver twill. This should work with all the outfits, and I have the fabric for this in stash – I’d already used it for two projects and liked it so much I bought the rest of the bolt with this coat in mind. Do I need yet another coat? No. But I can’t get this one out of my head. The style lines are similar to an Alexander McQueen design from a few years ago, although theirs has a double breasted button closure and Burda’s just wraps.

So that’s the plan at the moment. Unlike the last plan where all of the tops were intended to go with all of the bottoms, this time I’m aiming for layering possibilities. And as all pieces are in the same colour palette (or rather, lack of colour) as the last lot there should be quite a lot of crossover too.

28 thoughts on “Looking to the future”

  1. It is so interesting seeing you make your plans, you are so organised. I really like the Trench coat it looks terrific and I think you will make it, if it is playing on your mind that’s a near certainty.

  2. I’ve been toying with the idea of making the coatigan, but then I think it might overwhelm me. I like the kimono dress too – so 80s and would need to find the right draping fabric to pull it off.

    1. I think adjusting the hem length would be critical with the coatigan. I do like those large pockets!

      The dress fabric is just given as ‘rayon’ I think, which isn’t very descriptive. But it certainly needs to to drape and I think it also should be somewhat slippery.

  4. Great selection of patterns and well done for being so organised. I’m intrigued by the V-neck dress and the coatigan. And also a bit cross at my subscription service because I don’t yet have this issue. Or January’s.

  6. Thanks for this Catherine- I have Vogue 1378 and might try the leggings now – your previous post on them will help with fit. Good luck with the fake leather, I’m not sure I have the courage for that fabric!

  7. I ended up subscribing to burda recently- as a lockdown whim! so nice to have it delivered – I was very inspired by a lot of february also – and am definitely going to make the kimono tie dress.
    I have the tea dress from sew house 7 and had intended to make that, but way prefer the drape and ties of the burda (as I happen to have a few metres of a drapy plain viscose here). Looking forward to seeing your take on both the dress and coatigan

  8. Looks like a cool plan. I really like sewing with a plan but I can understand the relief of being done with it. I have my last piece from my winter plan in progress now!

    What’s the story with that Burda dress and top with the ties? How does it work?

    1. Yay! The ties are quite clever, I think there’s a large dart in the centre front seam and the tie piece grows out of the centre of it. I made a very similar Burda design when I was pregnant and that one had the detailed instructions for the month, so I’m planning to look those up again to remind myself.

  10. These seem like a beautiful yet wearable collection, especially that trench coat! Us living in Northern Europe have a special free pass to own illimited coats, if ever you waver, look outside. Good luck and I’m really looking forward to these.

  11. Kudos to you for making and sticking to your plans. It’s something I’ve never managed to do. I’ll look forward to following this one as it develops.

  12. I love the idea of planning like this. I am quit careful and put a lot of thought into my sewing plans (though do occasionally sew on a whim) but my plans tend to be quite a random selection of garments that don’t necessarily go together. This ‘mini collection’ of pieces is a great idea, and thinking through fabric choices that would work together too

  13. I’ve been obsessed with the Burda big pocket coat and with the front tie faux wrap dress for months now. Somehow I’m not surprised you picked those patterns out of the lot as well 🙂 I am especially taken with the idea of sewing the big coat out of dark denim, too. Looks like a fun garment to own, though I’d want to add some sort of a closure in the front for practicality.

  14. Great capsule, the trench and the dress were on my radar too … I might just “sew along” 🙂

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