I don’t think I will ever have a true capsule wardrobe, but I like the idea of creating mini capsules for each season — handful of items that I can interchange with one another rather than trying to make my entire wardrobe fit together cohesively. So, this is the plan for Summer 2018.

First of all, I went onto Pinterest and started searching for color schemes I liked. I typed in things like “warm spring colors”, “soft autumn colors”, and themes started to emerge. This was just to give me a more clear idea of which colors I am currently feeling attracted to. Then I went through my previous boards and looked for things I had already pinned in those colors that would work for summer. And I fell down the Pinterest rabbit hole and my Spring/Summer 2018 Capsule board came together.

The first item that I kept pinning was a very basic notched-collar shirt in neutral solids. I think I like the notched collar because it looks a bit vintage and more casual than a standard collar. Also, this shirt style is definitely on-trend right now. Not that I need to be on-trend. But it’s always nice when my style and the current style coincide a little.

This must be a fairly recent trend, because there are hardly any notched-collar shirt patterns out there. I have found four so far, and considering how many regular collar shirt patterns there are, this is rather slim pickings. The four I found are the Willamette Shirt by Hey June Patterns, The Juliette shirt by Republique du Chiffon, the Bruna shirt from La Maison Victor Magazine (2018 issue 2), and the Natalie shirt by Seamwork (currently unavailable, but I have been informed it will be available again in a month’s time).

I immediately downloaded the Willamette Shirt, and the Juliette and Bruna are in the post. Also, the Bruna shirt is from a Belgian magazine, and the only one I could purchase online was from a Belgian shop…in Belgian. Madeline de Stoffenmadame  is the shop where ordered it from. I had to email them to ask if they shipped to the US, since there wasn’t an option when I went to checkout. But I believe they offer US shipping now! There is an English version, but I couldn’t find anywhere to purchase it online, so hopefully my sewing skills will be good enough to follow a pattern in a foreign language! I haven’t had the best luck with Colette/Seamwork patterns, but I am also looking forward to trying the Natalie when it becomes available again.

Overall, it’s been a bit of a struggle to get my hands on patterns for this type of shirt. I also considered vintage patterns, but I wanted the patterns I chose to be more readily available for everyone to try.

My next post will be about my first shirt — the Willamette by Hey June.