Might as well make a plan...

As this is day 21 for the crazy morphing respiratory virus and I'm home out of the cold and not at work, I decided I might as well look at the Common Wardrobe and see how it breaks down.

I spy  knit tops... a black long sleeve turtle neck,  a black long sleeve v-neck, 3 cap sleeve t's in gray, white and black.

I spy three button ups...a white shirt, an oxford blue shirt, and a denim shirt.

I spy three pairs of pants...black slacks,  jeans and khakis

And finally there is a black knit button up cardigan.

Now, I am not going to be making jeans in this go-round; I have Lee jeans and Coldwater Creek jeans that are doing that job for the time being, and I have a Lands' End black cotton knit cardigan sweater already, but that's the 12th piece anyway and SWAP only needs 11.

So...

I really, really want these to be wearable year-round, or near year-round, which really isn't too far-fetched in North Alabama.  I can layer jackets on top of sleeveless/ short sleeved tops and they'll work fine on all but days like today when winter drops by to say 'hi' (high in the teens, but we'll be back to 60 F this weekend).

The best sleeveless top I've made, in terms of being a versatile bottom layer and flattering on its own, has been Jalie 2682.  I made the sleeveless versions in several colors, but the one I absolutely wore to death was the gray knit.  And I did wear that to death;  the fabric finally just pilled up and fell apart.  So I really think I could make that in black, white (or maybe cream, as that works better for choir) and gray and wear them all.   For a cap sleeve T, I've used the T from Jalie's  2566 Twin Set, although I've never reviewed that particular view.   Black and Gray  and maybe white or cream  again...and I'm solid on knit tops.

I don't know that I'd wear an oxford blue button up much; I *might*, but I could definitely use a white (or cream) basic button up.  All my button up shirts are severely aging...I am in sore need of not only more shirts, but a TNT pattern that I can use to make them.  That may be the biggest challenge of the whole plan...find and fit a good TNT button up shirt pattern.  Button ups are fiddly, too, and will take a lot longer to make than the knit tops, so this would be one of the slower-downers of the plan.

A denim shirt would be a good wardrobe addition, too.  I really don't have one, and there are times when a denim shirt is just the right extra layer.  I actually ordered some denim/chambray fabric before New Year's (that could, I suppose, arrive as early as later today...) with an eye to using it in the SWAP.  We'll see how it washes up once it gets here.  However, I need to do a little pattern research here, too, although this shirt will not be quite as fitted as the white/cream one.  I have a  shredding flannel shirt that I made something like 20 years ago that may be a decent enough pattern for a denim shirt, once I tweek it for, um, some changes that have occurred in the meantime.

That gets me to the bottoms; I have some lovely RPL black suiting that will do quite nicely as Jalie's Classic Trousers, which I've made a couple of times but apparently never reviewed (shame on me!).  Dressy black pants are always work appropriate and most of mine are more suitable for cool weather; I need some that will work in the summer.

I've also got some gray/cream pinstripe RPL that I bought a while back with the intention of making Loes Hinse's  Oxford Pants ; that will fit in very well with the SWAP plan so I think I will add those in lieu of the Khakis, which I already have.

I'm thinking I'll add a black skirt in place of the jeans...a simple straight skirt, maybe CLD's In The Trenches, shortened to just below knee length.   I've been wanting to try shortening that skirt for awhile, this will give me a good reason to do it.

That will easily cover the 3 packs, with lots of leeway in the groupings, so all I need are the wildcards.

At the moment, I'm thinking the wild cards could be jackets...one a fall/winter jacket made from a lovely black and white wool/lycra tweed I got at Textile Fabrics and the other a year-round black denim jacket.  But at the moment I'm not sure which patterns I want to use for those.  I don't know if I want a traditional 'jeans' jacket, or if I just want to use the black denim to make a sharp little jacket that just happens to be made of denim.

I actually think I have almost all of this fabric in the stash (or soon to arrive on the doorstep..) already, so it would really just be a matter of steeling my nerve and getting started.

Once I get over this yuckky stuff and feel up to it...