Sewlutions – Final Wardrobe Maths

Right at the start of the year I boldly entered into  the sewlutions jar with the statement “I aim to have 75% of my wardrobe made by me by the end of 2013” so with a matter of hours to spare…how have I done?

Being a behaviour analyst as my day job I love using graphs so I thought I would demonstrate my progress graphically to show progress throughout the year because I realised soon on that this sewlution relied on steady progress.

Here is my graph:

 

So what does all this mean? Firstly and probably most importantly I did not achieve my goal. I started the year with a wardrobe that was 15% made by me and I am finishing with 71% made by me…this is still an increase of 56%! I made steady progress throughout the year with two big jumps in february and july, this is because I had wardrobe sort outs at this point and cleared out a lot for charity shops or refashions.

I had a massive shock at the start of the year when I found out I had 135 items of clothing in my wardrobe…who really needs that many clothes (there were certainly items in there that i did not wear). At the end of the year I have 77 items in total, 54 of which are made by me.

Doing this challenge has taught me quite a lot about myself:

1) I have a tendency to over commit myself!

2) I love making dresses (I have made six throughout the year) but focusing on getting a balanced wardrobe made me focus on other things

3) I have finally sewn knit fabrics, making five (yes five!!!) skater dresses and four renfrews. I have no idea why I found this so terrifying now but it is a great fabric for wardrobe staples.

4) I still haven’t managed to make a pair of trousers, they truly terrify me especially after the sewing disaster with trousers for Si.

5) I love colour and choosing the colour palette helped focus my fabric selections and also meant that everything sort of co-ordinates in my wardrobe meaning I could seriously cut down on the number of clothes I have.

6) Getting dressed from a smaller selection of clothes is so much easier!!! Choice can sometimes be overwhelming.

Finally here is my favourite make of the year:

 

The skater dress has been my big favourite this year and the tiger fabric on this makes it a winner.