Summer 10x10!
Friday July 27th was the start of the Summer 10x10 Challenge.
I happened to discover it by seeing Handmade By Carolyn's post on Instagram of her 10x10. She's a long-time participant in this challenge and I love seeing how she utilizes her handmade wardrobe in new ways on these challenges. Two other 10x10 participants I have admired are Meg from Sew Liberated patterns and knitwear designer Carina Spencer. Meg has a great blog post about what she learned from one 10x10and her Instagram photos from different seasons have all been inspiring to me. Especially since she wears a lot of her own patterns and it's so cool to see how creatively she styles them. Another super-inspiring 10x10 that also features Sew Liberated garments (including one of the coolest iterations of the Metamorphic Dress of all time!) is Carina Spencer's Spring 10x10.
I love these examples that include gorgeous hand-created clothes, knits, and shoes in rich, delicious colors and prints - they are my kind of capsules! Anyone with $$$ can buy a bunch of $200 linen tops in neutral colors and pair them with a $250 designer denim and $300 pairs of shoes and look nicely put together for 10 days... and if that's your jam, that's cool. The standard minimalist fashion color palettes and tropes just don't resonate with me. I like vibrant color, unique items, mixing prints, and no pants please.
Anyhow, long story longer... Thursday night, when I accidentally discovered the challenge started the very next day, I threw caution into the wind and decided to participate for the very first time. I've been wearing a lot of my new favorites in heavy rotation already, so I thought it would be a fun experiment and might guide future making plans if I realize a hole in my current wardrobe.
The creators say you can plan you 10 items in 30 minutes & encourage you not to agonize over it... but I got sort of overwhelmed. Here's why.
I'm going to present at a conference in the middle of this 10 days and I already had an outfit in mind that would have been 3 of the 10 pieces... but none of those items lend themselves to being included in other combinations... so I got stuck on what to choose for the remaining 7 items, until I let go of my preconceived plan. I decided to wear something different to the conference to give myself more flexible pairing options the other 9 days.
Also - it's crazy hot and smoky these days so I have been wearing light and simple stuff & as little of it as is practical and socially acceptable. When everything just feels gross and exhausting and you want to go swimming instead of get dressed for work, the thrill of combining garments in new ways doesn't feel as alluring as a cooler weather version of the challenge.
However, once I freed myself from plans, grabbed a bunch of my favorite items and lined them up on my ironing board... I started to get more inspired. I went to bed knowing about half of what I would choose, with an outfit planned for the next morning.
As the day wore on I mulled over what I wish for from the next 9 days to come and it all started coming together and I actually did chose my final 10 pretty quickly, after 24 hours of contemplation.
Here's what I chose.
Day 1: Blush tee + cardi, copper Gypsum skirt
Day 2: Black floral maxi + blush cardi
Day 3: blue Peppermint peplum tank, navy cardi, moonphase Gypsum skirt
Day 4: white Sorbetto tank, blush cardi, copper Gypsum skirt
(did laundry)
Day 5: black floral maxi over blush tee with blush cardi
I'm pretty sure my wild card item will be my copper/blush Metamorphic dress. I was going to choose it initially but it was SO hot the day I was choosing that I freaked out when I tried it on because it is pretty thick and heavy with two layers of linen.... but now I'm thinking that it will be good for work where it's nicely air-conditioned all day and I'm about ready to cash in the wild card for tomorrow's outfit.
I have a couple days of photos on Instagram, but it's been so gross with all the smoke and I've been really busy, so I am not going to stress about capturing all the outfits in real-time. Rather, I am going to try my hand a pretty flat lays of all the outfits when I finish up with 'lessons learned' at the end of the 10 days.
I happened to discover it by seeing Handmade By Carolyn's post on Instagram of her 10x10. She's a long-time participant in this challenge and I love seeing how she utilizes her handmade wardrobe in new ways on these challenges. Two other 10x10 participants I have admired are Meg from Sew Liberated patterns and knitwear designer Carina Spencer. Meg has a great blog post about what she learned from one 10x10and her Instagram photos from different seasons have all been inspiring to me. Especially since she wears a lot of her own patterns and it's so cool to see how creatively she styles them. Another super-inspiring 10x10 that also features Sew Liberated garments (including one of the coolest iterations of the Metamorphic Dress of all time!) is Carina Spencer's Spring 10x10.
I love these examples that include gorgeous hand-created clothes, knits, and shoes in rich, delicious colors and prints - they are my kind of capsules! Anyone with $$$ can buy a bunch of $200 linen tops in neutral colors and pair them with a $250 designer denim and $300 pairs of shoes and look nicely put together for 10 days... and if that's your jam, that's cool. The standard minimalist fashion color palettes and tropes just don't resonate with me. I like vibrant color, unique items, mixing prints, and no pants please.
Anyhow, long story longer... Thursday night, when I accidentally discovered the challenge started the very next day, I threw caution into the wind and decided to participate for the very first time. I've been wearing a lot of my new favorites in heavy rotation already, so I thought it would be a fun experiment and might guide future making plans if I realize a hole in my current wardrobe.
The creators say you can plan you 10 items in 30 minutes & encourage you not to agonize over it... but I got sort of overwhelmed. Here's why.
I'm going to present at a conference in the middle of this 10 days and I already had an outfit in mind that would have been 3 of the 10 pieces... but none of those items lend themselves to being included in other combinations... so I got stuck on what to choose for the remaining 7 items, until I let go of my preconceived plan. I decided to wear something different to the conference to give myself more flexible pairing options the other 9 days.
Also - it's crazy hot and smoky these days so I have been wearing light and simple stuff & as little of it as is practical and socially acceptable. When everything just feels gross and exhausting and you want to go swimming instead of get dressed for work, the thrill of combining garments in new ways doesn't feel as alluring as a cooler weather version of the challenge.
However, once I freed myself from plans, grabbed a bunch of my favorite items and lined them up on my ironing board... I started to get more inspired. I went to bed knowing about half of what I would choose, with an outfit planned for the next morning.
As the day wore on I mulled over what I wish for from the next 9 days to come and it all started coming together and I actually did chose my final 10 pretty quickly, after 24 hours of contemplation.
Here's what I chose.
- Summer oxfords (used, ebay)
- black floral maxi tank dress (1990's vintage, thrifted + mended)
- white Sorbetto tank (memade)
- blush pink linen cardigan (thrifted + mended)
- navy cotton cardigan (thrifted)
- pale blue linen Peppermint peplum tank (memade)
- moon phase Gypsum skirt (memade)
- copper paisley Gypsum skirt (memade)
- blush pink v-neck short sleeve tee (thrifted and mended)
- WILDCARD - one thing still to choose as needed
Day 1: Blush tee + cardi, copper Gypsum skirt
Day 2: Black floral maxi + blush cardi
Day 3: blue Peppermint peplum tank, navy cardi, moonphase Gypsum skirt
Day 4: white Sorbetto tank, blush cardi, copper Gypsum skirt
(did laundry)
Day 5: black floral maxi over blush tee with blush cardi
I'm pretty sure my wild card item will be my copper/blush Metamorphic dress. I was going to choose it initially but it was SO hot the day I was choosing that I freaked out when I tried it on because it is pretty thick and heavy with two layers of linen.... but now I'm thinking that it will be good for work where it's nicely air-conditioned all day and I'm about ready to cash in the wild card for tomorrow's outfit.
I have a couple days of photos on Instagram, but it's been so gross with all the smoke and I've been really busy, so I am not going to stress about capturing all the outfits in real-time. Rather, I am going to try my hand a pretty flat lays of all the outfits when I finish up with 'lessons learned' at the end of the 10 days.
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