Project 333 – summer review

Suddenly it’s October!

The beginning of October marks the end of the summer season of P333 and the beginning of the cold weather clothing seasons. Which means it’s time to look back and see what I loved, what I wore, and what needs to be retired. (I’ll share my fall wardrobe soon.)

I’ve tallied what got worn the most in September and also what got worn most over the season as a whole. My spreadsheet is here. I’ve added a second sheet for the fall and winter months. My method of tallying and pictures of the clothes I’m talking about are in previous posts here. More information about Project 333 rules and guidelines here.

Things I love and wear:

Sept most worn: blue printed jersey dress (midi length), jeans, light purple tank, pink striped tee, black v neck tee, navy cardigan, black cotton long sleeve cardigan, pink sweatshirt, layering tanks (3 different colors), and linen shorts. I define “most worn” as anything that shows up at least 4 times, ie about once a week. 

I “split my wears” a lot between my 12 dresses, but I think I’m OK with that. Over the 3 months of summer I wore a dress 55 times, and of those, 15 wearings were my favorite blue print midi dress, and 11 were my striped tank dress (which is cool and easy to wear at home on a very hot day).

I always get a lot of use out of my cardigans, so maybe it’s OK that I have so many! I haven’t worn my hot pink cardigan very often lately, even though I am wearing my hot pink sweatshirt. The (identical style) navy cardigan just fit my mood better. It’s probably the most useful thing I own at this point – I can’t believe I didn’t get it out with my spring wardrobe in May. Since I got it out in April I’ve worn it 24 times. Considering I have a lot of cardigans, that’s a lot of wears.

The 3 “Kate” dresses which are the same style in different fabrics got 13 wears between them. In an ideal minimalist wardrobe I would only keep one or maybe two of them, but they were made by my friend and they are versatile and fun and each of the fabrics is very different. The oldest one has been in high use for at least 5 years now (I remember I wore it a lot when my nephew was a babe and he’s 5 now). It needed a minor repair a few years ago, and at this point it’s getting worn in/out. Eventually it will have to be retired. I will keep some of fabric to make into something new. The newest dress is only a year old, but there’s no reason it won’t last many years, especially since the oldest dress got a lot of wear on the front seams at my library job, but I’m not lifting totes full of books any more.

I have 8 bottoms in my wardrobe and they got about 62 wears over the summer season. I made a point of wearing my new linen shorts a couple of times right at the end of summer when the weather was still lovely – I paired them with a light sweatshirt. I didn’t want to move into fall clothes before it was time (the weather was still saying summer, so shorts or a sundress was still appropriate, even though I could have worn jeans and a tank just as easily).

Things that are on the chopping block:

My never worn items include 4 dresses, 2 tanks, a grey striped top, a bright pink cardigan, and 2 things I have decided to pass on – an unflattering maxi skirt and a non-waterproof non-breathable rain jacket. One of the aforementioned dresses is also in the donate bag – the cheap trendy aqua chevron dress. I wore it a lot last year, but I’m already over it. It will be even more passé by next summer.

The 2 tanks are not the form fitting ones I use for layering. They’re tops I have hanging front and center, but don’t choose to wear. The lilac one was superseded by the dark and light purple tanks I was gifted in July. It’s still good, but probably unneeded. The emerald polka dot one is awesome, but… I don’t know. I don’t usually choose it.

My blue capris are very useful, especially for walking the dog and gardening (pockets!) but they don’t fit well. They are too long in the rise in the front and that’s not an easy alteration, so they need to go. I wore them 10 times since I got them in July… not bad, but not good. Next year I will once again search for long shorts with pockets. My yoga capris might be on the chopping block too – they are a little too tight and would be so much more useful if they had pockets.

I barely used my purple Target cardigan at all this year and it might end up being donated. I have it with my white and purple skirt (and a white underskirt that goes with) in my mental “should I keep this?” pile. The skirt is really pretty. I get compliments when I wear it. It’s the last of my printed cotton long full skirts. I searched high and low to find a tank that would go with it (and then someone gave me 2 more tanks that coordinate perfectly, although they are all useful for other things as well, so that’s not an argument for keeping the skirt). I love the skirt. But I might be done with wearing long full skirts that almost touch the ground. If I wear them at home they make going up and down the stairs to do laundry treacherous (and they drag on the basement stairs even when I’m not tripping on them). They’re warm in the shoulder seasons, but too hot for midsummer. I might be convincing myself to let the skirt be part of my fall and spring wardrobes…  I really don’t want to let go of it because the print is so pretty and it was a thrift score that I’ll never find again. I might give it a trial. If it’s around I tend to wear it here and there.

Going forward…

I have my fall wardrobe mostly in place. I have a few new pieces this year. I feel like I’m severely lacking in color, but a couple of small additions might make a big difference. I will share pix soon. I’m trying to remember that it’s still in the 70s now, but it will be close to freezing and wet by Halloween, and by the end of December it could be very cold again like it was last year – only 12-20F at the Xmas tree lightings. All of that needs to fit into this next season’s wardrobe. In some ways I’m thinking about this next season as being October all the way through March. The weather in December is mostly the same weather we have all the way through until spring comes. There might be some things I’m wearing in the next few weeks that won’t be needed again until next spring, but the only reason I can think for making a changeover on Jan 1st is boredom. Functionally I don’t think it’s necessary. I will think more on that as I’m writing my fall wardrobe post.

Well, thanks for letting me think aloud about these things. I don’t imagine it’s terribly interesting to most people. I tried to edit out the really boring parts. I promise I’ll have lots of pretty pictures for the next post.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jo:)

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