In the past few years I’ve been slowly getting more and more intentional with planning my me-made wardrobe. A couple years ago I went through the whole wardrobe architect process to really hone in on my style, look at what gets worn the most & least out of my wardrobe, and gather inspiration in Pinterest.
This past year I discovered bullet journaling. (Which you can learn more about here) I love my bujo (bullet journal) because I’m an avid planner, and the layouts in pre-made planners were never quite right for my needs. With the bullet journal I can customize to my hearts content.
So when planning my 2017 makes I decided to review my wardrobe architect process and create layouts in my Bujo specifically for wardrobe planning. My goal is to sew one pattern a month (some patterns I will be making multiples of). Along side my “day job” running the restaurant with my hubs plus my many side projects I think this is a reasonable number in order to not be overwhelmed. Plus putting a specific number on how much I’m going to make forces me to be more strategic and mindful about what I choose to make instead of trying to sew all the things that I won’t necessarily wear day to day. Ideally I will be able to squeeze in other personal projects such as refashions or home DIYs along side the set pattern for each month, but life happens so I’m not going to pressure myself about it.
I chose 5 silhouettes each for fall/winter and spring/summer based on the wardrobe architect method. Then I made a spread for each silhouette. Spreads include the name of the silhouette, corresponding season, a space for a sample sketch, another for fabric swatches, and spaces for cataloging both items I have in my closet and patterns I have my eye on that fit said silhouette.
Then I took stock. I looked at which silhouettes I already had a lot of and which ones were lacking. I thought practically about the things I wear on a daily basis and what garments fit my lifestyle. I went through my fabric log to see what options I had available. (I’m trying to do mostly stash-only sewing next year). I narrowed down the HUNDREDS of pattern options available in each silhouette to a few favorites. I asked myself hard questions about what I ACTUALLY like to wear vs. what the dream-life me wears in my head. I went outside the box of my set silhouettes to consider other items I’m lacking (i.e. a swimsuit). I compared the silhouettes I chose out of my head vs. the ones that pop up a lot in my “my style” pinboard (hello overalls!!)

Then came the hard part: choosing. Just 12 patterns – 6 for spring/summer, 6 for fall/winter. (Considering the Texas weather). I’m still actually working on completely narrowing it down, but I have several ideas penciled in. I blocked out a page with a space for each month, considered the weather and when I would like to have certain pieces done by, and started making cuts & filling in projects. Y’all… this was SO HARD. So many times I caught myself trying to squeeze in an extra project each month. But I just kept going back to the process, visualizing my wardrobe as a whole and how everything would fit together.
Stay tuned for the final reveal of my 2017 me-made capsule.
Do you use a Bujo for your sewing planning? I’d love to see your spread! Me-made planners not your thing? Colette Patterns just released the most beautiful sewing planner this year. Use something else? I’d love to hear about it!
Love this! What a great idea to spread makes over the year. I may just have to copy this.
I use my bujo to plan and have to say it’s been really helpful – especially paired with the WA series
I have to spread them out so it seems less overwhelming!
Thank you!!