Amanda designed a spring 3×3 mini capsule wardrobe on her MyBodyModel paper doll

My Sewing and Knitting Plans for the New Year

Thoughtfully planning my sewing and knitting projects has become an incredibly satisfying practice. Planning a season or two ahead can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but hopefully by the end of this post you will realize how approachable it actually is!

Since my sewing queue currently has a few items on it, I decided to plan my new year’s sewing goals with Spring in mind.

Collecting Inspiration

When starting my planning process, I don’t always have a particular garment or fabric to go off of, so I head to Pinterest. I like to spend some time just pinning things that I like or find inspiring. I truly believe inspiration can be found in really unusual places. Two things I find to be particularly inspiring are interiors and art; the use of texture, color, and line in art and interior design translates quite well to apparel.

Perhaps a more unconventional reason I find interiors inspiring is because I often picture what someone in that space would wear – or better, what I would wear if I were there.

Amanda's spring mood board with images of interiors, color and fabric swatches, clothing and floral inspiration for her sewing and knitting projects.
Spring mood board made on Milanote

Choosing a Starting Point

When planning for Spring, I knew there were two garments I would finish sometime in the winter that I was excited for, so I decided I wanted to plan around them. Having some frame of reference does make the planning experience more focused.

The Aloft Pullover from Brontë Swannick in beautiful hand dyed yarn from my favorite local yarn store was really the focal point of my entire planning process (to inquiring minds: the yarns and colors I am using are Big Sister in mohair and Full Moon in light hearted). While I likely won’t be able to wear this sweater all day since I live in the South, it will still be nice to have in the mornings and evenings. 

Amanda adds texture to a sketch of her Aloft Pullover sewing and knitting plans, drawn in gray using her MyBodyModel croquis, while surrounded by a coffee cup, knit fabric swatch, and art supplies.
Adding texture to my Aloft Pullover sketch, drawn using my personalized croquis from MyBodyModel 

The second item I planned around is the Hazel wide leg pant from my dear friend Becky Jo at Workhorse Patterns in a dark green bull denim. To be quite frank, I was not sure that I could pull off a spring wardrobe with these two in mind. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I nailed it. 

Setting Guidelines

I decided to base my plans off of the basic 3×3 mini-capsule idea from MyBodyModel. With this in mind, I needed 2 more bottoms, 2 more outerwear options, and 3 tops. 

The next place I head to in the planning process is Milanote. This is the best site/application I have found so far for creating a digital mood board. One of the best features is the ability to drag your images and links directly onto your Milanote board. I added the two items I knew I was making to my mood board and then began adding elements from my main Pinterest folder until I found a general vibe that felt good and made sense together. One key part was making sure I had swatches from the bull denim and my sweater. Milanote has a great function of adding color cards which can be customized with a dropper tool to pull out colors from pictures you’ve added to your board. 

Shopping My Stash

I used the dropper tool to pull out colors from my sweater and my pants. I then shopped my stash to see if anything fit with the clothing items. I found a beautiful silk twill in a sort of teal that I had previously acquired from my mom’s fabric stash, and I also found a dark indigo stretch denim. 

Amanda holds up a stack of fabrics from her sewing and knitting stash, including a dark indigo stretch denim, teal silk twill, and dark bull denim.
Fabrics from my stash I pulled to use. From top to bottom: dark indigo stretch denim, silk twill, and bull denim 

Looking back at my moodboard, I knew that the silk twill would make the perfect Dezi skirt to fit an outfit I had added and that the denim would work great for a Midway Jacket (which was one of the few patterns I knew I wanted to make).

Paper doll style sketches of the Lesper Lines Midway Jacket, Seamwork Dezi Skirt, Workhorse Patterns Hazel Pants.
Lesper Lines Midway Jacket, Seamwork Dezi Skirt, Workhorse Patterns Hazel Pants, all in fabrics from my stash

Filling in the Gaps

Once I shopped my stash and assigned patterns to fabrics I already owned, my next step was to pick other patterns that felt like they fit. Sometimes my moodboard has images of specific patterns I know I want to make, but oftentimes it’s just images of outfits I like. 

I already had 2 outerwear and 2 bottoms planned, so I was in the home stretch!

I had the Quince day robe and Lucy jumpsuit printed a month or two ago and both fit the mood, so I went ahead and added those. 

Paper doll style sketches of the Seamwork Quince Robe and Lucy Jumpsuit.
Seamwork Quince Robe and Lucy Jumpsuit

All that was left were tops. I looked through the patterns that I already had, found the Helen’s Closet Reynolds top (and dress) and the Seamwork Angela bodysuit, and thought they would be great additions as well! I knew a t-shirt would take me far and have been eyeballing the Tyra tee from Just Patterns for weeks, so I added that to my plans as well. 

Paper doll style sketches of the Just Patterns Tyra Tee, Helen’s Closet Reynolds Top, Seamwork Angela Bodysuit
The tops: Just Patterns Tyra Tee, Helen’s Closet Reynolds Top, Seamwork Angela Bodysuit

These 3 tops will pair perfectly with my 3 bottoms and 3 layering pieces:

Paper doll style sketches of the Seamwork Quince Day Robe, Aloft Pullover by Brontë Swannick, Les Perlines Midway Jacket.
The outerwear: Seamwork Quince Day Robe, Aloft Pullover by Brontë Swannick, Les Perlines Midway Jacket
Paper doll style sketches of the Seamwork Lucy, Workhorse Patterns Hazel Wide Leg, Seamwork Dezi.
The bottoms: Seamwork Lucy, Workhorse Patterns Hazel Wide Leg, Seamwork Dezi

Choosing Fabrics

Planning fabrics is honestly the hardest part of planning a few seasons ahead. Not many stores have Spring fabrics right now, and there’s lots of potential for really amazing ones when Spring gets closer! That being said, for the purposes of this planning session, I did not order any fabrics but did find things that I thought would work beautifully while online shopping. I figure if they’re still available when I’m really ready, then it was meant to be!

I found a solid brown french terry for my Lucy jumpsuit and a beautiful striped jersey from Blackbird Fabrics for my Tyra tee. For my final three items, I found a light purple jersey for my Angela, floral cotton lawn for my Reynolds, and honey colored sweatshirt fleece for my Quince from Fabricworm that I thought would work beautifully. 

Sketching and Coloring

The final (and my favorite) step is sketching it all on MyBodyModel! Erica was kind enough to gift me the online coloring course at MyBodyModel’s Illustrated Style School. It was my first time using markers and many of the techniques. I cannot recommend it enough if you find coloring and prints intimidating!

Paper doll style sketches of a gray knit sweater and pink floral tank top from Amanda's sewing and knitting plans.
The Intro to Color and Prints course really helped me take my fashion illustrations to another level

Making Outfits!

I love manipulating the individual items into different outfits on my paper doll from MyBodyModel. I cannot wait to make them come to life! 

Amanda's spring 3x3 sewing and knitting plans, paper doll style, surrounding a colored version of her MyBodyModel croquis wearing a pink floral tank top and dark green pants.
My spring 3×3 plans and MyBodyModel paper doll
Amanda's spring 3x3 sewing and knitting plans, paper doll style, surrounding a colored version of her MyBodyModel croquis wearing a gray knit sweater and long blue skirt.
I love all the outfits I’m planning, but I have a feeling this will be a favorite!
Amanda's spring 3x3 sewing and knitting plans, paper doll style, surrounding a colored version of her MyBodyModel croquis wearing a dark brown jumpsuit and bright blue jacket.
Trying more outfits on my MyBodyModel paper doll
All of the garments in Amanda's 3x3 sewing and knitting project plans, including: Just Patterns Tyra Tee, Helen’s Closet Reynolds Top, Seamwork Angela Bodysuit. Outerwear: Seamwork Quince Day Robe, Brontë Swannick Aloft Pullover, Les Perlines Midway Jacket. Bottoms: Seamwork Lucy, Workhorse Patterns Hazel Wide Leg, Seamwork Dezi
Here are all the garments in my 3×3 mini capsule collection!
Tops: Just Patterns Tyra Tee, Helen’s Closet Reynolds Top, Seamwork Angela Bodysuit. Outerwear: Seamwork Quince Day Robe, Brontë Swannick Aloft Pullover, Les Perlines Midway Jacket. Bottoms: Seamwork Lucy, Workhorse Patterns Hazel Wide Leg, Seamwork Dezi

Which outfit is your favorite?? Do you like planning your knitting and sewing projects a season ahead? What’s your favorite part of the planning process? Let us know in the comments!

5 thoughts on “My Sewing and Knitting Plans for the New Year”

  1. Thanks for sharing your wardrobe planning process with us! I loved learning about how you pull the colors from your existing stash, and the tools you use (like Milanote and Pinterest) to collect your inspiration! Can’t wait to see how this collection of garments looks sewn up in real life.

    1. Milanote is such a neat tool! My friend Alex (ADifferentStitch on Instagram) turned me onto it! I will definitely be sharing progress along the way! 🙂

  2. Fabulous!
    I love the process details – it gives me a path to follow yet still come up with something that suits me.
    Thank you,
    Sue

  3. Amanda- you did such a wonderful job bringing us into your thought and work process!
    Your focus on idea of planning ahead rather than making hasty decisions just to get a garment or sweater completed is such a good principle.
    I know as a knitter, planning ahead is really important as there is more of a time delay in the task of knitting…however enjoyable it is (-;=

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *