Doctor T Designs

For the month of September, Pattern Review is running a mini wardrobe sewing contest. Typically these contests run a bit longer and require more pieces, but for this year’s contest it only requires 2 bottoms and 3 tops, all which must mix-and-match. Since I need to get together a back-to-work “hybrid” wardrobe (3 days on site, 2 days remote), this challenge actually seems perfect for my personal wardrobe needs. I already have fabric picked out for some trousers I need to make, and I am thinking that the top I never got around to making as part of my last year’s mini-wardrobe plans would also be great to have this year. Since I’ve already made a few of the other pieces from this original collection idea, I’ll have to come up with a few additions for the tops. But since I already have 2 trousers and 1 top planned, with fabrics selected, that just leaves me with 2 more tops to decide on. As a bonus the rules say you can use “as many or as few” patterns as needed, so I think I could either make 3 tops of the same pattern in different fabrics, or I could maybe add a few easy to sew knit tops to the list to save a little time. This flexibility works well with my currently very low sewing mojo… minimizing the time spent adjusting patterns and maximizing the time spent actually sewing is probably a good thing for me right now. Since I plan to use the same trouser pattern for both pairs of pants (if the test-fitting goes well), maybe I can manage to create a full back to work micro-mini capsule with only 2 or 3 patterns? It’s seems like a pretty efficient way to sew.

Thus far, I’m considering using some combination of these patterns:

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And I’m keeping to a similar color palette as my full mini-wardrobe plans from last year, focusing more on the grey and navy colors, and pulling in a bit more blue from the trouser fabrics I have selected:

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Since I think that a lot of these items will also work well with the garments I was working on for last year’s mini wardrobe plans, I’m considering this to be my “micro-mini wardrobe” plan. The Butterick top is definitely a cross-over into both sets of wardrobe plans if I decide to make it for this, and the pants should work well with the two tops I already made last year (as well as some of the tops that survived the recent wardrobe review that I felt the need to do before heading back to work). I can’t say my sewjo is at an all time high, but I am actually feeling a little bit of motivation to get back to working on sewing projects. It’s times like this that I really like having Pattern Review and other external motivators to give me a little boost to get me excited to sew again. I’m not even worried about finishing in time for the contest; but at least having that goal for the next month should help with the sewing motivation, even if I don’t quite make it in time for the contest deadline.