Travel Wardrobes - and Plus-Sized Pattern Pyramid Update

It seems as though I have been sewing lots of items, very few of which actually work with each other, and I am really not sure why.  Faced with having to choose clothes to take with me on my month long trip to Australia, I was a little worried about how much I would need to take with me.  I was also a little disappointed in myself for not having planned this out more carefully - after all, the tickets were bought a few months ago and I have had plenty of time to plan.  Having said that, I have spent some most enjoyable time reading the Vivienne files, which discusses wardrobe planning as well as Design Seeds for color inspiration and with the principle of making my clothes 'work', with that in mind, I tackled my wardrobe and selected some garments . . . . . 18 in total of which 7 are bottoms (6 skirts, one pair of cut off trousers), the rest are tops such as shirts, cardis and vest tops (shells).  In order to decide how well these clothes would work together, I had fun drawing rough diagrams on the back of an old 'page a day' calendar - and this is what I ended up with:

I am calling this my 'green/blue/orange' collection (above), from which I can make 7 'looks' - and that does not include doubling up by adding the cardi as an extra layer.  There are 3 RTW garments here - the blue sleeveless top, the orange sleeveless top and the blue cardi.  I have already blogged about the chartreuse shirt and Sorbetto, as well as the cabbage skirt.  The blue/green skirt is a simple 4-gore skirt made out of summery cotton, with a white cotton lining.  I was really pleased when these all came together - maybe this packing malarky may work out!

 

Next up is the 'pink and natural' collection'.  Again, 3 RTW items (pink cardi, pink sleeveless top, brown cardi) and from these 7 items, I will get 10 looks - also, not including adding the cardi's as extra layers.  The pink striped skirt was worn during Me Made May, and the natural shirt and Sorbetto are the same links in the first collection.

By now I was feeling pretty good, so I threw in two more skirts (brown RTW - 10 additional looks, white RTW - 10 additional looks) and a pair of cut off trousers in navy (RTW, 8 additional looks) - see below.

I now have more 'looks' that days, I really can't believe this!  I have thrown in 4 RTW white t-shirts/vests, my undies, a cream canvas jacket and a few lightweight scarves and I am WELL under my luggage limit!  Woohoo!!!  You know what that means . . . . . I can bring home lots of fabric :)

So, contrary to what I thought, my clothes have been co-ordinating rather well with each other.  What is very interesting is that this exercise highlighted the gaps in my wardrobe which I have filled with RTW clothes - I will focus on those items (cardis, skirts, cut-offs) in Spring next year as these collections are ostensibly Spring/Summer wardrobes.

Due to the nature of being on holiday - I hope to get lots of photos of these garments 'in action' . . and I hope to goodness that the weather holds otherwise I will be wearing all these tops with the jeans I am traveling in!!!

I am intrigued to know how you all co-ordinate your wardrobes - travel/work/play wardrobes - whichever ones are applicable to you?

A quick housekeeping update about the Plus-Sized Pattern Pyramid that I was lucky enough to win in May.  Unfortunately, I mislaid the winners address, and have been unable to make contact with her (Laura, if you read this, I have LOTS of patterns and will get another pyramid sent off to you!) and so I have been in contact with the runner up - the lovely Anne of  Pretty Grievances, and the patterns are on their way to her - so make sure you stalk her blog for a chance to win!!!