Doctor T Designs

So, in my original plans for my year-long Sew Geeky challenge, I wasn’t going to start my spring sewing until February 21.  However, since I’ve been sick the past week, I spent a lot of time playing around with sewing plans for my year long challenge: creating mood boards on Pinterest, choosing colors, and picking out patterns.  I’m waiting until I’m ready to move on to my other capsules before I post my plans for Summer, Fall, and Winter.  I still need to whittle my choices down a bit, and I may want to incorporate new patterns from this year when the time comes.  However, the announcement of the Pattern Review Wardrobe Contest pushed me to move up the timetable of my spring sewing plans forward a few weeks, so I’m excited to share my plans for my Hunchback of Notre Dame inspired spring wardrobe!

Above are many of my favorite inspiration images from my Pinterest inspiration board.

I’ve been somewhat obsessed with Victor Hugo’s classic novel ever since the Disney movie came out in 1996.  I was just at the right age to still love a kids movie, but appreciate the complexity of the characters and the world they inhabited.  Plus, the music and artistry of that film is gorgeous.  Throw in a strong female character who was not at all like me, but perfectly encapsulated how I’d wished I’d been, and I was set up for lifelong obsession.  And, being a precocious fourth grader, I decided I had to read the original source material, you know, as one does.  And I did it!  I spent an entire summer renewing the unabridged novel full of onion-thin pages from the library (and freaking out the high-schoolers who taught my sister’s swim class, because they sure weren’t reading books that dense, like, ever).  While the characters in the original novel are certainly much more flawed than Disney’s Disney-ified version, and while there were an inordinate number of pages dedicated to descriptions of architecture of long-destroyed buildings, I still loved the story.  To this day, Victor Hugo remains one of my favorite writers.

So, since this has really been a nearly lifelong obsession of mine, it was a no brainer to have it be one of my Geeky inspirations.  I’ve pulled images from the various Disney film and stage-show productions (excluding anything from that inane straight to home video Hunchback II which I’d prefer to pretend did not exist), as well as artist renditions and real photos of the cathedral.  As Esmeralda is one of my favorite Disney characters of all time, my color scheme for this capsule is heavily inspired by her wardrobe:

I’ve used the TCI and Prism XII True Winter palettes to choose colors that are more flattering to me, rather than drawing colors directly from the inspiration board, though for this particular inspiration, the saturated winter colors were actually a pretty close match.  I’ve chosen black and light grey as my neutrals (chosen for the colors of stone in the architecture), the main colors of red, purple, and teal (chosen from Esmeralda’s wardrobe), and accent colors of blue, yellow, pink, and purple (chosen for the stained glass windows and Clopin’s wardrobe).  For those who care about such things, here are the color numbers:

• Neutral 1: X.1.1 (black)
• Neutral 2: X.2.4 (stone)
• Main 1: TCI 4.4A (red)
• Main 2: TCI 5.7A (purple)
• Main 3: X.11.1 (teal)
• Accent 1: TCI 7.6A (blue)
• Accent 2: TCI 4.3A (yellow)
• Accent 3: TCI 3.8A (pink)
• Accent 4: TCI 6.8A (violet)

My pattern selection was also inspired by the Disney fashions in the film:

The silhouettes are a bit more flowy and loose, but still with some shaping.  I’ve chosen a bit more than my desired 8-12 pieces, but I figure having some flexibility in my plans isn’t a bad thing.  Here is a list of my pattern choices:

• Top 1: B5388 C*
• Top 2: BS-03-2017-116B
• Top 3: BS-06-2014-103*
• Top 4: S3536 (B, D, F)*
• Top 5: BS-08-2015-115C
• Bottom 1: BD 7195 B*
• Bottom 2: B5042
• Bottom 3: Ginger jeans (teal)*
• Bottom 4: Ginger jeans (purple)
• Bottom 5: BWOF-05-2001-119
• Dress 1: BS-09-2010-122
• Jumpsuit 1: M7577
• Jacket 1: BS-02-2017-103
• Jacket 2: BWOF-03-2003-109A*
• Jacket 3: BWOF-10-2003-136

Now, the astute of you may be wondering why 6 of these patterns have little asterisks by them.  That is because the requirements for the Pattern Review Wardrobe Contest is to make 6 garments in 6 weeks:

• 3 Tops (B5388, S3536, BS-06-2014-103)
• 2 Bottoms (BD7195 pants, Ginger jeans)
• 1 Topper (BWOF-03-2003-109A jacket)

And here is what my mini-capsule looks like:

I’m still narrowing down my fabric choices, and since I am mainly trying to sew from stash, a lot of the colors will be “close enough” rather than 100% from this board.  I am finding, though, that I have a *lot* of the teals, reds, and purples already in my stash.  The yellow, pink, and blue not so much.  And I’ve not really decided how to incorporate neutrals here – nearly all of my fabric pulls are super bright!  I did break down and order some fabric for the pants for the non-jeans in the mini collection.  To be fair, I was supposed to just be ordering fabric for commissions, but then I needed a bit more to bump me up to free shipping, and they had the perfect material for this pattern!  At least, in my head it is perfect.  We’ll see when it shows up, but as of now, I’m really excited.  Additionally, I may have convinced myself that my first Spoonflower order is necessary for one of the pieces I’ve listed in my larger wardrobe plans, so I have some samples en route, but since I won’t need to include that for the contest, I’m not in a rush.  So the planning isn’t completely finished (I’d wanted to have the fabrics pulled for everything and be a bit more concrete in my fabric choices), but, overall I’m really excited to start on my geeky wardrobe!