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Wendi here. Wearing purple!

I introduced The Wardrobe Project here (with Jo’s intro here).

Today I have my first step towards a solution. It’s kind of lame that it involves a purchase instead of making something, but this was actually a really good place to start.

For those who haven’t read the original post, my main problem is that I have very few clothes to wear, and I end up wearing the same black yoga pants, black tank top, and black cardigan every single day.

Snooze.

I bought some clothes! Colorful clothes! That (mostly) checked all my boxes.

• They’re (mostly) comfortable.
• I can wear them in layers.
• They’re colorful, but not clownish.
• They seem to be well made? I’ve had them for a few months now and I always hang to dry, but one shoulder seam on one dress is already popping open. It was easy enough to repair, and hopefully it’s a fluke.
• They’re mix and matchable.

I did a TON of Google searching and eventually ended shopping at Gudrun Sjödén.

When I did the overview of what’s in my closet, I realized I owned NO dresses. None. Since I don’t like things to be tight around my waist, that seemed like a huge missed opportunity – so I deliberately went looking for dresses! I was hoping to find a dress I would like as is, with bonus points if it was a style that would be simple enough for me to copy – or at least to use as a guide when sewing my own.

I’ve tried sewing my own clothes before and it’s sooooo frustrating to spend all that time and money and end up with something that just doesn’t look good! Which you don’t really know until you’re finished. 😩

I thought if I could start with a ready-made dress I like, I could at least say, “I like this length. I like this much ease in the bust. I like this much ease around my hips. I like this kind of neckline.”

I also don’t like to have bare legs, so I was looking for pants or leggings to wear with those dresses.

I LOVE the Gudrun prints, but a lot of the garments I tried just didn’t look good on me. The knits were soft and comfy, but I didn’t like how they looked without a bra, and they tended to cling to each other when I tried layering them. The cotton dress I tried felt flimsy and kind of cheap – but the linen! The linen dresses were great! They were light and cool enough for summer, and layerable for cooler weather.

I bought two! One blue and one purple. And I bought leggings and linen pants in purple and blue too, so I could mix and match a bit.

You can see the purple dress and leggings in the top photo.

And look! The purple linen pants look great with the long purple cardigan I already had! (Plus one of my many identical black tank tops.) Yay for making something I already own more wearable!

And here’s the blue dress with the blue linen pants.

I love the look of the pants with the dress, but right now the leggings are more comfortable. (Leggings are usually too tight to be really comfortable for me, but these aren’t bad at all.)

The pants would be better if the elastic waistband was just a little bit larger. The band is stitched through a few times – which is great to keep the elastic from twisting, but not great if I want to unpick it to replace with slightly longer elastic. 🫤 I’ll probably do it for these that I already have, but I don’t think I’ll order more in the future. They’re also a little wider in the leg than I’d choose, so I probably won’t try to copy them.

But the purple dress is simple enough that I think I can copy it!

That will be for another day and another post. 😁

For now – mission accomplished.