Seasonal Sew Wardrobe: Destination

The Sew Alongs and Sewing Contests Facebook group hosts regular Seasonal Sew Wardrobe challenges, and a new challenge started mid August, on the theme of  "Destinations."

I have been looking ahead recently, and realised that there is a gap in my wardrobe for dressy sort of clothes that could also be worn in an office environment.

Every time I have an event that requires dressing up, like fancy dinners, baptisms etc, I struggle to find something in my wardrobe to fit the occasion and me. Special events will start becoming more frequent when my son starts High School in about 15 months time. The current SSW theme seemed perfect for addressing this issue, and came at just the right time. To fit the challenge criteria, 8 garments must be sewn, for any destination of your choice. I've named my collection: "Office to Evening", so it covers everything that I expect these clothes to be able to cover in the future.

When I started this challenge back in August, I was still predominantly a WAHM, working on my own business when not chasing around after my children. I have since taken up a part time job, and my need for dressier clothes actually decreased rather than increased, as I am provided with a branded black polo shirt for work, so only need worry about what to wear on my bottom half. My new job also meant that I also relinquished the majority of my sewing time, so will not actually complete the challenge. I will blog about the items that I did finish, and continue to work on some of the other items that I had in mind at a later date.

I didn't want to spend a lot on this mini wardrobe, but wanted it to be as versatile as possible, so set myself some criteria:

• Use stash fabric only
• Don't spend any money on notions (unless absolutely necessary)
• Wherever possible, pieces should match in with existing wardrobe items
• Because I want pieces to mix in with existing items, they won't all go with each other, but should go with at least two other items in this collection of clothes

On my first look through the stash, I found enough suitable fabric to make more than 8 items, with a vague idea of what to make from each of them. I since found an additional piece that I had put aside to exit the stash, which I obviously bought before I quit my last office job (12 years ago), as it would make a lovely suit of some sort, so it's had a reprieve, and in as well!

I'll blog about each piece that I made, and hopefully get around to doing a post to show how the pieces mix and match (both with each other and with existing wardrobe pieces).

(Until now), I haven't worked in an office for more than 10 years, and the vast majority of the clothes that I wore then, don't fit anymore. A few years ago I took about half of my (handmade) suits to a clothes swap, without even taking photos of them. I'm pretty upset with myself for not keeping a record of all the clothes that I spent so long making. To stop that regret getting any worse, I decided to document the remainder of my former work suits. I won't do it here, but one day I hope to take photos of them all and bore you keep a record of all that sewing.

Most of the jackets are still OK, but without a skirt, dress or pants to go with them, aren't much use on their own. I did find some fabric in the stash from one of these suits, with just enough left to squeeze out a skirt, so will bring you a blog post soon of the new skirt, with it's matching jacket. Which, incidentally is what I wore to the job interview of the job that I have now, so it must be a winner!