12 Months 12 Outfits - March Assignment

I have been really frustrated in trying to generate a palette from the photo of the scarf; I just can't get a good enough photo to pull accurate colors.  This is my latest try, using a pic I took of the scarf hanging from the slatted door.  The colors are better than the retail image I've been using...not so muted...but the slats do show through the scarf and I think the shadows behind make the colors a bit muddy when I try to copy them out.  But this is the gist of where I think I'm going....black and denim blue as the neutrals, with royal blue, green, white and red as the accents. 

The green reads as an olive because it's blended somewhat with a tan color...in the spots where it's pretty much solid, it's more emerald.  But that makes it hard to match up. 

I'm thinking it doesn't have to match up dead on.

Anyway, this is all important because in March I will be branching out beyond the three basic colors I started with...black, white, and royal.  And I am resigning myself to the fact that this is not going to be a 'get dressed in the dark' wardrobe; some of the things will likely not lend themselves to pairing up with other things. But that's ok.

I've been perusing the March Outfits that Janice posted and trying to see what I think I can do with my wardrobe.

The March outfit is, in a nutshell, a skirt, a sweater, canvas shoes, another scarf and a watch.

I really like wearing skirts but have found that, since menopause obliterated my waistline, skirts are not terribly flattering.  Like wide legged pants, they tend to just make me look kinda stumpy. I've kinda moved towards dresses that don't emphasize the waist for my dressy outfits in the past couple of years.

Except for my Hippie Earth Mother skirts, which I wear with cheerful abandon.

Hm.  Could I use another one? Maybe? 

If I had enough yardage in the right color in the stash I just might.  But I don't think I do.  Those skirts use about 6 yards...gathered bias tiers and all...

Back to the plan.

So, I thought, maybe I could make a set of culottes that look like a skirt?

Hm.  I went looking through patterns and found McCall's 7131, which is pretty much exactly what I would be looking for, should I decide to do culottes.  Side seam pockets and everything.  And I so happened to have the chance to run over to JoAnns on the other side of town to pick up the pattern.  Just to show the blessing of the pattern, McCall's were on sale for 1.99.  And I also found some cotton/lyocel denim chambray, light enough for a skirt...or culottes.

So.  Back to the picks for March.

In all but two outfits, the skirt is the basic wardrobe neutral...and the neutral is predominant in both those skirts, one being the neutral w/ white stripes, the other being the neutral w/ an ombre into the accent.

So that means a black...or basically black...skirt/culottes.  Unless I want to introduce the second neutral that I would use for the 2019 SWAP...denim blue. Because, in all honesty, if I weren't doing the SWAP I could very possibly just pull one of the black/basically black skirts that are already in the closet.

In the same two wardrobes as the skirt variations, the sweater is a repeat accent color that has been used already.  Both of those wardrobes still only have basically 3 colors in them, although one of the scarves is a print w/ more colors.  The other 4 outfits introduce a new accent color, and the scarves in those outfits repeat the new color.  For the most part, the canvas shoes also repeat the accent color, although two of the wardrobes have shoes in the neutral.

Sweaters...um, I have issues with sweaters.  I love wearing them, but my office is in a 50 year old building w/ a 50 year old HVAC system.  A boiler and a chiller, to be exact.  Which is either ON or OFF.  And our particular corner gets less than optimal air flow...so it's pretty much an oven year round.  In the summer, other parts of the building...with better ventilation...are downright cold. Which all boils down to LAYERS being the name of the game.  Instead of a sweater, I'm going to do a twinset. And I have a goodly chunk of emerald green jersey knit that would do.

I don't wear a watch anymore; the Fitbit serves that  purpose.  But maybe I'll get a new band to go with the outfit if it looks like it would be cool.

I have some fairly hefty black Tencel twill that I bought absolutely ages ago to make a Sewing Workshop Tahoe pant...which is a pattern for funky culottes that look like a wrap skirt.  I'd love to make that, but that pattern is so old that I actually CUT IT OUT instead of tracing it...and I'd have to grade it up now.   And it's a tricksy asymmetrical pattern.

Or, I could make the new McCall's pattern up in the new chambray. Bonus for that: I already have a scarf with a blend of greens and blues that would work.  Green canvas shoes in a size 7 WW are not likely to be found, however.  I'd have to go w/ denim blue, which is slightly more likely to exist.

So...think, think, think...