Extracts from The Perfect Wardrobe series of articles

 extracts from article by Lynn Cook in the Australian Stitches magazine Volume 5, Issue No.3 titled the "Perfect Wardrobe".

Wardrobe 1

Here is the formula: Stage One - make 11 garments. These are: 2 pairs of pants; 2 skirts, one in a solid colour, one in a print or check; 2 simple tops, one solid, one in the above print; 4 tops, in colours which coordinate with the solids; 1 simple cardigan jacket in a solid colour.

To make sure that your formula works, choose 2 basic colours, add a third complementary colour, and make sure the print has the two basic colours in it. For example: beige and navy might be your basic colours. Add a skirt in gold, a print in navy/beige, and let the 4 tops be the fun colours that spice up the wardrobe. You could add rust or ivory to this colour selection. If those are not your flattering colours, try navy and burgundy with accent colours of ivory and pink. And you can't lose with black and white; then the whole spectrum of colours is there for the accent colours.

Wardrobe 2

Stage Two: make the following 10 garments. One cardigan - in one of your basic colours 3 long-sleeve tops in tones that coordinate 1 long skirt in a print 1 blouse or top in the same print 1 knee-length skirt in a solid colour 2 more pairs of pants in tones that blend with your palette

If skirts are not your style, simply replace them with pants. Or vice versa, but keep the right number of bottoms and tops to give you maximum versatility.

If you have noticed, prints are kept to a minimum. If you tend to choose printed fabrics when you sew, you will find that your wardrobe is very limited because they only go with themselves or one other item. The prints chosen in this plan are very carefully selected so that they bring out at least 2, and perhaps 3, of the solid colours already there. This ensures that these garments will go with everything even if you split the top and skirt up and wear them separately. 

Tip: With two-piece garments, such as a skirt and blouse in the same fabric, be sure to clean both pieces together at all times, even if one hasn't been worn. Otherwise you may have a blouse that fades to a lighter tone than the companion skirt.

 

Wardrobe 3

Keep in mind your fabric choices. If this is a wardrobe for work, you will be choosing suit-type fabrics and perhaps silk or silkies for the tops. If this is a casual wardrobe, then make the fabrics casual. Plan it around denims or cottons, or knits.

If you get bored with the selection of garments, try interjecting a vest in an interesting fabric that will work with at least 3 of your pieces. Or this is the time to do some embellishing or other fun-stuff. But limit yourself to a vest until you have the wardrobe complete. Otherwise, you are right back to where you started from - a lot of clothes, but nothing to wear!

Wardrobe 4

UPDATE: August 2000 - The latest edition of Stitches has more of Lynn Cook's "wardrobe with a plan". She has added six new pieces: teal jacket and skirt in faux suede; teal pull-on top and pants in knit fabric; navy cropped pants (jacket too, not shown), cream top; and cream wool jacket.

Entire Wardrobe

Wardrobe 5

Lynn Cook, has added another seven pieces to her wardrobe. This selection has her going off in another colour direction, but many of the pieces still work with the previous wardrobe. This wardrobe is much more casual, with pants and shirts being the mainstay, plus a great casual coat in one of my all-time favourite fabrics, corduroy.

 Notice the colours are all in the same tones, with sage green, cream, beige, and taupe, a muted wardrobe that suits Lynn's work-from-home lifestyle.
Once again, notice the lack of prints. Solid colours have much more versatility when it comes to mixing and matching. Besides, everyone remembers your printed clothes and they look "older" faster.

Tip: When adding new items, make sure that the new addition will work with at least 5 other items in your closet to make this plan really work.

The patterns Lynn used for this wardrobe are: white jacket - McCalls 2341, corduroy coat - Burda 3079, beige pant - Burda Studio 3130, sage pant - Butterick 6420, cream blouse - Simplicity 8973, short-sleeve blouse - Simplicity 8973, and beige shirt - Butterick 5208.

Alternate Wardrobe 1

In the same volume, there is a second wardrobe article. This one was made up by Maree Pigdon, a dressmaker and sewing teacher in Australia.

Note the difference in colours - this is a high contrast collection, perfect for the person with strong colouring.

Maree based her wardrobe around the Harris tweed blazer, then added pants and skirts that would coordinate. I particularly like her use of casual shirts in this other-wise dressy wardrobe.

Maree has injected charcoal and red into the plan.

Note again the use of casual shirts and tops in this wardrobe.

If you have any scans of the original articles, I would love a copy. Please email me at sew dot ruthie dot style at zoho dot eu