Project 333

I've been reading Stephanie's blog for a long time now, and I really enjoy reading about her sewing ventures, as well as her efforts to create a vintage capsule wardrobe.  I'm ever in favor of a minimalist closet, and of being very intentional about my sewing efforts, so her latest blog post caught my attention.  I've heard of Project 333 before (possibly from Stephanie); the idea is that you choose 33 items for your closet for 3 months, and then rotate again in 3 months, according to the season.  I've sort of used it as a rough guide to my clothing for the past year or so, but I still felt like getting dressed in the morning was a lot of work.

I've been doing some reorganizing and sorting, as part of my ongoing effort to keep our family's clothing simple and pared down.  For a long time, I've stored off season/maternity clothing in soft Rubbermaid and Ziploc totes under my bed, as there is a scant 4" of head space under the running board, so hard-sided bins will not fit under my bed.  I use two XL 10 gallon Ziploc totes and two small 5 gallon Rubbermaid totes.  (I use the 15 and 30 gallon Rubbermaid totes for other soft storage needs throughout the house and like them very much).  

I ended up sorting out my own stuff yesterday, and ruthlessly piled items by season, fit, wearability, etc.  I pulled everything out, including off season stuff or clothes that don't fit well right now, and I realized then that my clothing was sorting nicely into seasonal piles.  A few months ago I put a bin in the basement for the few maternity items I'm keeping, plus some vintage stuff that is too small or fragile to wear regularly.  I added a few more things to it after my sort yesterday--mostly some hand mades that I like but am not wearing regularly for one reason or another. 

I decided to put all the spring-related items into one five gallon tote, all my winter skirts in another five gallon tote, all the fall stuff into one of the extra large Ziploc totes, and the winter stuff into the other. There is a bit of overlap with the seasons, obviously, particularly with cardigans and skirts, but for the most part, it is neat and organized. 

 I'm giving up on the idea of having a wardrobe that works for the whole year--it just isn't realistic when you live in a climate that swings from 100 degrees to 10 below throughout the year.  And while having a dress-heavy wardrobe is easy in some respects, I do like options with my cardigans to keep my dresses feeling fresh.  (I also struggle dreadfully with feeling cold in the winter, so sometimes I'm wearing many many layers just to be comfortable in my house).  I'm aware that a full drawer or bursting closet is stressful to me, but I have to balance that against my daily clothing needs and my laundry cycle (which is quite long in the summer time)

The end result is that I finally feel like my summer wardrobe is useful, and also that I have a logical place to go for the next season when it is time to switch things out.  I made a list of all my clothing, organized by season, and then started counting, and it turns out that I have between 26-30 garments per season, not counting shoes, accessories, and undergarments.  I have four pairs of shoes in the vestibule, which feels like enough for variety but not too much to clutter up the shoe shelf.  I may put the closed-toe navy sandals back in the basement as I wore them a lot this spring, but not as much since it got really hot and nasty (plus I'm hoping for a pair of red shoes for my birthday in a few weeks!)

So here is my Summer 30:

Separates:

Red 1940s twill skirt

Green linen-cotton Hollyburn skirt

Navy linen skirt (pictured at top of post)

White linen skirt

Feedsack blouse

Art Deco blouse

Bunny Blouse

Vintage floral lawn blouse

3 cardigans (one not pictured)

2 knit t-shirts (the other one pictured at the top of this post)

Dresses:

Green and blue seersucker dresses (blog post on the blue soon!)

Vintage medallion seersucker dress

Watermelon dress

White voile dress (eshakti)

1934 Seersucker dress

1922 One Hour Dress

Chambray dress

Pink linen dress

Mesa dress

Baby Got Quilt Back dress

Fa So La dress

Green Geometry dress

Spotty orange dress

Melody rayon challis dress (blog post coming soon!)

blue knit dress

Green cookie book dress (cut but not sewn yet)

I'm not counting things like belts and jewelry in my list, because I tend to rotate amongst a small set of items anyway, and I use my belts and jewelry for variety with my dresses, since I don't wear a lot of separates right now.  My waist measurement changes enough that I need options for belts/sashes, etc.  30 garments give me a little bit of leeway to buy or make something else this season (although, honestly, I'm ready to stop machine sewing for the season, given the heat; the Green cookie book dress might have to wait until fall).  There are a few dresses that I wore a ton in May and June, but am not reaching for now that the heat is really on, and might get reclassed in my spring wardrobe, as it is a little on the light side.  We'll see how the rest of the season shakes out.

I suppose if this is helpful to anyone besides me, I might revisit it again in the fall when I change over. (I might do so anyway, just for my own amusement).