A Wardrobe for My Real Life

One of the things I love about Me-Made-May is it also serves as a month-long wearability report: Are the clothes we make adequately equipping our lives? What do we need more of? Less of? Over and over, I read that folks want to sew more for their "real life."

I think this insight is also great to consider as you plan your special garment for the Summer Spark Sew-Along. What kind of garment will get you through your real life stylishly?

You know I can't resist a pie chart. So when Sarai and Caitlin of Colette Patterns tallied up their hours and wrote about creating an activity appropriate wardrobe, I couldn't help but copy their efforts. 

In late April, I tallied up my waking-hour activities for a week. And this is what my real life looks like:

To be fair, these charts may be a little off. It was a particularly busy time, but still, it's clear I spend most of my time in the office or at home. I go out socially less of the time, and am on the road enough that it could effect my wardrobe.

I'm a homebody, so I was curious how I use most of my at-home time. I tend to be a bit of a binge-sewer, and that's clear that was happening this week. I sew a lot for about half the month and then put things aside for the other half. So this week: lots of sewing, less blogging, and most of the time I was "just home," presumably eating and cleaning and bathing, etc.

So what did this tallying of hours teach me? I work in a fairly casual office, so I can pretty much use the same wardrobe from work to social engagements to home. Work's my opportunity to show off nicer threads (that I can bike in), and I tend to prefer stretchy, comfy things at home. And when I travel, I want to wear comfy, easy-to-layer items.

In all, my wardrobe should mostly have items that are:

• Versatile, day-to-night or casual-to-formal
• Comfortable, for commuting and travel
• Easy to layer, for changing weather/environments

For me, this translates to: Knit dresses, dark jeans, capris, cardigans, knit tanks, leggings, knit hats, scarves, a mid-weight jacket/coat. The occasional A-line or bias dress/skirt.

With a few sprinklings of:

• More formal garments for work/special events (and also 'cause I love making them)
• Loungewear for at-home only

This translates to: Woven dresses, slacks, skirts, blouses + anything I can fall asleep in.  

Highly recommended exercise. If you looked at your daily schedule, what type of garments would most serve you?