Sew Your Own Capsule Wardrobe | Step 3: First Outfit and Pattern Review

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Thank you so much for joining me for part three of my capsule wardrobe that I'm sewing. Now, in today's video, I want to show you three items from my capsule wardrobe that I've sewn. I also want to show you the pattern pieces where I had to go and make some specific changes so that I know it's going to work for what I want for my capsule wardrobe. One of the pattern pieces also that I do want to show you is actually my quickso top. It's got a really unique finish in the front and I know it's a discontinued pattern. So, I thought by showing you the pattern for those of you that do like to design your own pattern, you'll be able to go and actually copy that pattern and create your own top.

[00:00:38]Now, if you're only joining now for the capsule wardrobe sewing, please go and have a look at part one and part two. I am going to link them for you in the description box below. In part one, I specifically talked about the plan that I wanted to follow. I showed you my mood board, the sedukco method that I'm going to work with and I also just discussed what I wanted for the capsule wardrobe and one of them really that I wanted to concentrate on was easy sewing because my time is limited. And then I also showed you my fabric that I pulled from the stash for this capsule wardrobe, all the combinations that I did want to make. Um, I started very basic with the colors because I know I can go and add on more colors as I'm building on this capsule wardrobe. Then part two, what I did was just show you my combinations. I chose patterns for my fabric and where I had inspiration. For instance, for the layers, I had these two images from Pinterest that I really liked and I wanted to recreate it. And then for the tops, I really do like this turtleneck.

[00:01:42]Um, so that's something that I did want to do. So I did a little mood board there. I discussed the patterns that I am going to work with. Now one other thing that I wanted to mention before we move on to look at each garment is that I decided to sew an outfit at a time.

[00:01:57]I'm doing a top, I'm doing a bottom, I'm doing a layer. That way I've got a full outfit. I can wear it while I'm busy sewing the rest of my capsule wardrobe.

[00:02:07]When I also pulled out my fabrics initially, I was aware that I've got some other garments in my wardrobe that can mix and match with the colors that I've chosen. So, finishing three items.

[00:02:18]I've already got some other items that's going to work with it. I've got a bit of a mix and match happening already. And that's making it, I want to say, a nicer sewing experience for me because I know I can start wearing this immediately and just carry on with the rest that I want to sew. We're going to start by looking at my bottom layer, which is the yoga pants that I have sewn. Now, I do want to mention that all the patterns that I am showing you today is patterns that I've had for a while, I've sewn them many, many times. So, I know that they fit my body. So, I don't have to go and do a test sloper, go and do excessive changes on there. The changes that I wanted to make on my patterns was really style changes and not fitting changes.

[00:03:00]Now my pattern that I have used for my yoga pants is a silhouette pattern and it is the five piece pocketed yoga pants and it's pattern piece or it's pattern number 3413.

[00:03:12]Now I know that silhouette patterns is not available in South Africa. It's something that I bought when I went to America many years ago. I actually did go and do a fabric tour with Peggy Sages in New York and that's when I actually bought this pattern. Now, as I said, it is really something I've made so many times. I live in this pants. Um, but there were some changes for my capsule that I did want to do. I didn't want to have the side panel. Now, if you look at the pattern piece here, we've got the front and the back, and then we've got the side panel. So, this really can be done in the same color of your fabric.

[00:03:48]You can go and do a contrast color there, which really works nice with certain fabrics if you want that style, but I just wanted a side seam. I really didn't want the panel. I didn't want that extra seams showing. So, I decided to just remove this. I measured this. I did my calculations and when I put my pattern pieces on my fabric, I just went and measured the amount that I decided to add on to the front and the back. I measured it out and I followed the line that I've really got for that side seam.

[00:04:19]And I just measured and with my chalk pen, I just went and I drew a cutting line for myself. And I did it on the front and the back. I do want to mention that with my calculations that I've done, I made sure that that finished pattern piece after I drew that chalk line was still going to give me the same pattern measurements that I would have had if I added in this panel as well.

[00:04:40]And then the last piece that I've also got here for this pattern piece is the waistband which is cut on the fold. And you can see really just three pattern pieces that I worked with. It was a quick sew and it's got a finish of this yoga waistband. It's 5 cm or 2 in wide.

[00:04:57]It's got a elastic in there. So, just a pull on pants. No zips, no buttons whatsoever. Now, with this, because I've made it so many times, I also cut out my black ottoman, which wasn't part of the initial planning, but I do love the black yoga pants as well. And because I had the darker thread on my over locker and on my sewing machine, it was just a quick sew. I just ran everything together with a black h black thread.

[00:05:23]Now, with this, it is brown. It's a very dark brown. I've got a little bit of a gray flick in it. So, this is also going to work perfectly with all the other colors that I want to add onto my capsule wardrobe.

[00:05:36]Now, let's have a look at the pattern that I've used for my leopard print stretch stop. Now, this is also one of my patterns I've made so many times. And the reason why I love this pattern so much is that it's just different from the regular stretch patterns out there.

[00:05:50]You know, usually we've just got the V-neck or the round neck, but with this, I've got that V-neck. It's got a center line. It opens up in the V-neck and it finishes into a shaw collar. Another thing that I love about this pattern is that from here, I've got a double layer of fabric. So it when I've sewn up on that center seam where it's opening up, this all gets folded back and I sew it into the arm and into the shoulder line.

[00:06:16]So it already finishes that whole area for me. No extra work doing that neck finish. And then what I like also is that if I'm working with summer fabrics that's more sheer, it's a little bit I don't want to say see-through, but you can definitely usually see your bra show showing through. having this double layer on that area, it actually prevents anything from showing. So that is also one of my patterns that I do make for summer with the short uh short sleeve.

[00:06:42]Now looking at the fabric that I've used, it like I mentioned, it is my stretch fabric and it's got a beautiful stretch to it. Not excessive stretching, so it doesn't lose the shape of the fabric or the shape of the top when we make it. You can see the recovery is perfect. It's got a little bit of a rip finish in here. And I know you might not be able to see it on the video like this, so I'll have to take a photo and just add a photo for you as well. Now, the pattern that I'm using is the Quickso 3658.

[00:07:12]As I mentioned, this is a discontinued pattern, but I'm going to show you the pattern pieces. So, those of you that do like to design your own patterns, you can go and copy it. And even if you've just got a regular t-shirt pattern as well, try and see if you can go and copy this pattern work. Now, with this, we can make a dress. We can make a top with it. It's got the short sleeve, the long sleeve, as I've mentioned. And one other thing that I do want to mention, if you look at the back pattern piece there, it's a straight line. That whole shoulder line is slightly shifted to the back. So, I didn't have to go and make any adjustments that I would usually do for my forward shoulder. I just left it as it is because it of the position where it is sitting. Now, I've got my original pattern here that I copy. And I do copy it on V trace. But if we look at this, you can see that we've basically got our center line running there. And usually we will only have this half of the front pattern. But now it is extended. This part is basically copied and extended onto that other side. So let's say this is the right side. Then it's copied onto the left side. This is the section that's going to be folded back. So, what I've done here, I've just brought out my V by trace pattern as well, just to show it to you. And I think I'm going to move this out of the way. Let's just get this away there so we can see it. So, this is what I've copied for my top. There's my center line that I've drawn down. And you can see we've got the dotted line there, which is my sewing line. I've got this bit of a a seam allowance on there. And you'll also note that I've got the dot there. That is where it's telling me to stop sewing. So it opens up into the V-neck. It is slightly low. So if you want to, you can always go slightly higher when you're sewing this. But once you've sewn up to this point, this extra part of the fabric basically just gets folded back. And that is what's creating from here creating the V-neck. I do go and I base this down on that area before I start sewing it onto the back piece.

[00:09:16]Now I want to talk about the jacket that I've made. Now when I decided that I am going to be sewing a capsule wardrobe for myself, I did go to the shops. I walked around to see what has come out for winter and each and every shop had short jackets. Some of them were really boxy, some of them were oversized, but I do like that shorter look of the jacket.

[00:09:37]Now, with me wanting more casual clothing, I wanted more of a casual jacket as well. So, I decided that I'm going to look at cardigans and change the cardigan pattern to what I want.

[00:09:49]Now, I decided to use Simplicity 8177.

[00:09:53]That is a pattern that I've made before as a long cardigan. And I'm just going to show you the cardigan that I've made.

[00:09:59]And this is actually quite a busy fabric, but I do love it with a plain top and my black pants. And I made the longer version of this. Now, the reason why I chose this is because of the neckline having the round neckline. I wanted to add a collar because of my inspiration photo. If you look at my inspiration photo, it's actually got that collar. It's got pockets, like patch pockets on there. And um I decided, well, that's my starting point for what I want. So, all the cardigan patterns that I actually have is either like your boyfriend cardigan. It's your Blackwood or your Harper cardigan where you've got like this one as well. We've got a band on the front. So, with this one, I've got the round neck. So, I don't have to do excessive changes. All I had to do is go and draw up a collar pattern for myself to work with this pattern. And we'll talk about that collar pattern just now. Now, another thing that I do like about this pattern because I am going to make it in my navy fabric. That's part of my capsule wardrobe that I'm making. And with this, it's got a little bit of a flap pocket.

[00:11:01]It's not a pocket here. It's just this flap pocket over or a flap over there. I mustn't say pocket, it's a flap. And in the side seam, you've got your pocket.

[00:11:11]So, I'm going to open it up. So, you can see there is your pocket over there.

[00:11:15]Now, for me, that is a beautiful finish.

[00:11:17]I do like that um pocket in the side seam. So, with simplicity as well, this is a Mimi G pattern. She does do videos that you'll find on her YouTube channel on how to sew this cardigan pattern. So it's easy for you if you decide to do this to go and follow along to sew your own cardigan. Now my changes that I started with. So let's have a look at that. First off, but this has got a bus dot. Now I know my measurement from mid shoulder to where the apex or my bus point is. So I went and I checked it on the pattern. I had to drop the bus point a little bit. I dropped it with 1 and 1/2 cm. That is 5/8 of an inch. I'm just trying to think. Let me just go back to my pattern. I think was it 1 cm or 1 and a half? I didn't mark it on here. I did it on my fabric. I think it was about 1 and 1/2 cm that I dropped this bust point or the dart point because I wanted it to sit where my apex is, not going up in that direction. So, that was one of the changes. The other one that I did was a forward shoulder. And there I'm going to talk to you about the sleeve now as well because it is a two-part sleeve. So, on the front and the back, I did my forward shoulder adjustment. And then I think that was it. It was just deciding on the length that I wanted as well. Now for the forward shoulder adjustment, when you do a forward shoulder adjustment, you've got to go adjust the sleeve as well. So let me just bring out the sleeve pattern pieces. I've got all the pattern pieces here. So let's have a look. So this is my sleeve. And the way I decided to do the change is not my usual way that I would usually do it. I'm going to link one of my videos where I actually show you my method of doing my change on the cap if I'm doing a forward shoulder adjustment. And that really works if we're working with a one piece sleeve.

[00:13:05]Now, with this having the two-piece and I don't want to go and do excessive pattern work because this is basically where the underarm point is, where it's going to connect to the side seam at the underarm point. I really didn't want to go and redo this whole sleeve for myself. So, I just made my seam allowance marks over there. I did my seam allowance mark over there and I just lay it on top of the of each other just so I can get a feel of the pattern and I knew that as I said my usual way will be to be cutting a line here and shifting the whole cap and I knew looking at the pattern like this this is not going to work. So I went back to another method that I use and this is where you are drawing a straight line basically from your notch where your shoulder line is going to match up with the cap. And I just drew a little bit of a triangular line over there. You can see I just went and did a straight line down. So I cut on that. I left a hinge point over there. And whatever my my forward shoulder mount is that I've done on the front and the back pattern, I went and I just shifted it over to the front, closing it up. So opening it up there. I've made my back part of the pattern longer. Let's just go back to this.

[00:14:17]I actually made this slightly longer and that becomes shorter, which is what happens when we do a forward shoulder adjustment. And when I sewed this on here, it just looks perfect. This adjustment actually worked for the two-part sleeve pattern. So, I'm happy that I did it that way. When I put the jacket on, the shoulder line is exactly where I needed to be. This sits smooth over my shoulder area into the armhole as well. So all of that worked out really well for me with this adjustment that I've done. And that was really all the changes that I needed to do there.

[00:14:51]Now when I decided that I am going to do the collar, let's just look at the collar work that I've done. The first step that I did is to go and measure the back pattern neckline. And again, you're going to see I always draw my stitching line. So whatever that seam allowance is, I go and draw the stitching line there. I made a mark for myself there and also over there because there we've also got seam allowance. I measured the back neckline which measured 12 cm.

[00:15:21]And then for the front pattern, I just want to grab this part here. You can see everything's folded up um for my shorter jacket. And you'll see again a line there. This is my stitching line. If I sew the shoulder seam over there, that is where I'll be sewing. So everything is marked so that I know seam allowance is taken away. We do pattern work without seam allowance. Then seam allowance is always then added on afterwards. With commercial patterns, seam allowance is already added. So I've got to mark carefully so I know that I'm not taking that seam allowance into account when I'm measuring. So I just took my band, I placed it on there as it's going to be sewn on, and I went and I measured the front neckline. Now here if I measure the full neckline to there is 13 cm but my collar doesn't come to the front. I wanted my collar to stop more or less on that area. So you can see on that side there it's not all the way to the center front. So whatever that measurement is is what I've then taken for the front pattern measurement.

[00:16:23]And then from there I just went to my surfer designs um collar collection with Sher designs in your dress kit. We've got master patterns for different colors. And then at the back of this master pattern here as well, it gives you a lot of information on designing your collar. And especially if we sometimes look at that roll of the collar, we want the under collar to be slightly smaller than the top collar. So usually we would just draw it up a little bit smaller. But my pattern that I decided on was to do the rolled convertible collar. And I did this section over there. I didn't do the extreme point over there. I didn't want a rounded point. So, mine just curves up slightly. And I think when I drew my pattern, I've just got to try and remember, I did decide to actually just lift it with 1 cm or 5/8 of a sorry, 38 of an inch purely because of the thickness of my fabric. So, I needed it to be slightly wider than I would usually use with a thinner fabric. So, this is really a easy way to do your own collars because I am really using my measurements, my personal measurements to create this collar by just moving my tracing vellum slightly up or let's say to the left or to the right so that whatever this measurement will match my pattern measurement. I'll make a notch for whatever measurement I'm working with. And then the rest of this gets drawn with using my back measurement for that neckline. And if you want more information on this, we do have a surfer design YouTube channel. You can go and have a look at how our pattern fitting system works. But that is basically what I've done. So it was easy changes, not excessive changes. Because I started with a pattern that's got that round neck already. I really just had to go do my collar. Now I am having a lot of fun sewing my capsule wardrobe. It's really been fun. And I think what's made the difference for me is to have a plan. I know the fabric that I'm going to use, the pattern I'm going to use with it. I know what outfit I want. So, it's made it more enjoyable than just sewing once pieces that you usually don't know what to wear with it. Now, if you're also following along sewing your capsule wardrobe, please leave a comment for me.

[00:18:31]Tell me where you are in your sewing process or if you're only starting to work on your capsule wardrobe now. I would really like to hear from you. Now also remember to like and subscribe to my channel so that you do get updates as I am doing the other videos for this capsule wardrobe. And then one last thing that I want to mention is that at today as I'm doing this video I am not going to put this on to show it to you.

[00:18:56]We've got a warm day outside. It's a warm winter's day and with this jacket being so hot I know I'm going to overheat. I will definitely make a point of it of taking photos when I finish my capsule wardrobe with all the mix and match ideas that I do have with the capsule. And then we'll do a little bit of a slideshow, almost like a little bit of a fashion show, and I'll show you what all the garments look like on. So, until our next video where I'm going to show you the next three items, go and enjoy your sewing.