Colorful Wardrobe Planning with both Knitted & Sewn Garments, by Fides

Fides is breaking out of her style comfort zone! She’s using her custom croquis from MyBodyModel to visualize her bold & colorful new wardrobe. She’s even figured out a way to make sure her sewn & knitted garments will work well together, so she can wear her new handmade outfits with confidence. Read on to see how she did it, and what she’s planned to make! 

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To me, a handmade wardrobe consists not only of sewn garments but also of knitwear. Knitting is my creative origin. I’ve done it for years, also professionally, and I am only just now rediscovering sewing.

Having lost a lot of weight in the last year, I’ve started re-discovering myself, my new body shape, the type of clothes I like to wear and the colors. Looking at my existing wardrobe, it was rather boring… subdued colors, and not much shape or excitement going on in there.

I was used to wearing long cardigans to cover what I thought of as my ‘problematic areas.’ As for colors, my former palette consisted mainly of black, navy and maybe some olive. Wish I would have had my custom croquis from MyBodyModel back then –  Much trepidation could have been avoided! But things have changed now and I very much enjoy to be able to preview the complete outfit in advance!

And now, being inspired by the #sewhappycolor challenge by Katie Kortman has pushed me over the edge completely. The pencils I’m using to color in the croquis are completely different now. Lots of bright colors, no dark pants anymore but cheerful orange ones!

Planning for the second to fourth week of the #sewhappycolor challenge was a breeze using MyBodyModel. Normally, my brain is almost exploding from ideas, possibilities, combinations … add knitwear to the mix and it’s getting chaotic. Sitting down with the printouts and some pens was truly an exercise in bringing order into the chaos.

To be able to draw an outline, I had to commit to the garments I wanted to make. Choosing my favorite patterns from my Instagram feed, I was surprised to see that all those silhouettes looked good on me — who would have thought! Playing with variations, yes sure, but finally, to get something on paper, decisions had to be made. Coloring them in. It’s doing me good to have such clear and concise guidelines regarding which colors to use — who knows, I might have reverted back to ‘taupe’ and ‘dust’ and ‘mud’…

Everything so far has been fun, planning without any fear of making wrong decisions because of distorted body images. But now, it really started to get playful! And it helps a lot to have your swatches next to you… another form of inspiration, to have the colors, the feel of the garment in reach.

I did change a few sleeve lengths. Here, the croquis showed without a doubt what I’ve always preferred – sleeves at about the mid-section to show off the waist just look nicer on me than shorter or longer ones.

Yellow & Orange Week

Inspired by the #sewbibs Instagram challenge running at the same time, I dared going down the trousers-with-bib route. The combination I’ve chosen for this week is quite a challenge for me, with lots of firsts: First time sewing trousers, first time using linen (a stunning one from HelloHeidiFabrics) and first time sewing something in such bright colours! Of the many, many options available, I decided on the Burnside Bibs by Sew House 7. The top is a Sunny Dress, shortened to a top, by Friday Pattern Company.

Next, I wanted to check if these plans really do work with my knitwear, both regarding colour and shape. For this, I cut out paper versions of several different cardigans. I only did one half so it’s still possible to see the underlying garments. It was amazing to see how well both garments and knitwear went with each other!

Two of these sweaters are my newer makes and two  are WIPs. The Carbeth Cardigan by Kate Davies and the Anker by PetiteKnit are both finished and in heavy rotation. Both the Sunday Cardigan again by PetiteKnit, and the Les Abeilles, a test knit for Fableknitwear, are swatched and will be on my needles any day now. The Carbeth was an absolute first for me, style, color and silhouette-wise – a boxy shape!

Checking my body model sketch together with my cardigans, it looks perfect to wear with all four – Carbeth, Sunny, Anker and Abeilles – doing a happy dance here! I will just have to make sure to have the Sunny Cardigan cropped. The Abeilles is belted, so the waist is emphasized.

I love this look on my croquis, so hope to get over my bashfulness and get lots and lots wear out of it this summer!

Green Week

This outfit started off with a beautiful picture I saw online of a vintage skirt in a nice juniper green. The pattern for the Azara skirt by Deer-and-Doe is in my pattern stash anyway and begs to be sewn. So that is set. But as I want to take part in the #sewbibs challenge with this as well, I need to add a self-drafted bib. Hope it’s not too pretentious of me to say  … I think I can do that… We’ll see… keep your fingers crossed! For the top, I considered going with the Roscoe Blouse but then decided to try something new and go with the slightly higher neckline of the Raglan Blouse by Friday Pattern Company .

Again, I’m really happy to see how well all four cardigans go with this outfit, both in terms of silhouette and color. Perfect!!

Blue & Violet Week

The Adrienne Blouse by Friday Pattern Company is all the rage right now – and well deserved so if you ask me! I have done this blouse once before, love it to pieces. The outfit combined with the Joan trousers, also by Friday, looks very enticing. Chic, comfortable secret pajamas, sewn out of thick Ponte Roma knit. So this combination has been on my list before… but, guess what – my old plans were to make them in black. Nice, safe, comfortable option, right?

So no, not now anymore. This outfit will be done in a bright blue!! I don’t have the fabric yet so can’t say which shade exactly it will be in the end – but it will certainly be a happy color, that is for sure!

Checking the outfit against my knitwear paper models, it was very exciting to have a visual confirmation again — Those sleeves of the Adrienne blouse, well… they don’t really go with any of the cardigans, there’s just too much fabric to fit into them. So I’ll be knitting more scarves then.

Taking part in the #sewhappycolor challenge with the intent to sew new garments for every week is quite a task to take on. Without MyBodyModel custom croquis and those awesome planner pages, I don’t think I would have dared to start it! Check back soon to see how this has played out for me….

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Fides Fierz

Fides is an avid knitter, sewer and yarn dyer in beautiful Switzerland. She knits mainly Indie Patterns, sews both Indie and Big4 sewing patterns and also dies her own yarn.  Holding degrees in economics and project management come rather handy for a single mother of three beautiful, intelligent, lively children – and three rather unruly dogs. Her creative mind bursts with ideas for her own wardrobe, and those of her two teenage daughters (the little boy doesn’t appreciate it that much yet, but his time will come as well). Sustainability, quality, and timeless designs are her main focal points. You can find her at https://thestitcherstale.blog/ and on Instagram @the_stitchers_tale.