We had a great discussion about this on Instagram a few months ago, and I thought it would be neat to bring the discussion to the blog too!
How do you handle seasonal changes? Do you put away clothes from one season and get out clothes for the next, or do you have a year-round wardrobe? Do you have big seasonal changes where you live, or is it quite temperate? And do you sew for the weather now, the season coming up, or are you still finishing that languishing WIP from last season? Do you incorporate new trends each season, or do prefer a timeless style?
We’d love to know! Share in the comments below!
I live in Ontario Canada, so experience extreme seasonal weather. My garments seem to fall into 2 categories, thin airy tops and dresses for hot weather and cozy, long sleeved tops for cold weather. Other than my summer capris, my jeans and pants cross over and are worn all year. (Oh, and I make ALL my clothes.) I do sew “out of season” though, being somewhat of an easily distracted type of person, if something attracts my sewing attention, it doesn’t matter if it’s seasonally appropriate, I sew it anyway. I blog about all of that at http://www.sewwhatyvette.com
Given that I handle seasonal change VERY badly, I’m not much for celebrating each change by getting all organized – even though I love being organized about as much as I hate changes in weather. I have a nice, but small, closet that’s strangely proportioned cuz I live in an old house. What I aim to do is to move the seasonally appropriate items to the front part so that I can see them. (I’m also one of those people who could wear the same thing 3 days in a row cuz I’m lazy that way so out of sight, seriously out of mind.) Of course, I live somewhere (Toronto) where sweaters and sleeves are more or less year round so I don’t need to move things around too much re: maximizing wearability. I’m more apt to sew something for now, rather than for another season and I get anxious if I have an uncompleted sewing project hanging about. Weirdly, I have multiple knitting projects in play – one of which you might describe as languishing – but that doesn’t seem to bother me much. I don’t know that I prefer a timeless style but one needs a bit of timeless and a bit of au courant. If a project isn’t too challenging, I’m happy to make something trendy to wear for a season. My constant goal, however, is to sew with appealing, high-quality textiles.
I live in Atlanta where there are relatively big swings in temperatures so wardrobes are definitely seasonal. Granted, one season is long and can only be classified as “hot and suffocatingly humid.” Before I did the Marie Kondo thing I had 3 closets, but now I have everything in one and I do not swap out my wardrobe. That means it’s really easy for me to see where I have needs or excesses. The other huge bonus is that I can see what styles and shapes I’m wearing all the time, and then try to recreate that regardless of the season (just swap out fabrics & details like sleeves).
I tend to sew for the current season unless it’s the waning season. Does that make sense? I sewed winter-weight garments until about mid-February and then I switched to Spring/Summer. That way I have things ready for the new season and weather changes and can shop my own closet rather than feeling like I have to go shopping!
I have more clothes than I need, I admit it, and enjoy a strategy of having a small selection hung up, wearing them a lot in the hope of actually wearing them out and throwing them away guilt free. I swap some wardrobe hung clothes for some in the 2 crates in storage under the bed.and do this when bored with the ones in circulation. If I haven’t seen something for a few months it seems fresher when I bring it into circulation again, The weather in the UK means most clothes are multi seasonal. I normally sew in season but occasionally break this rule. I only ever have 1 WIP at a time forgiving myself for having too many clothes because most of them are refashioned 2nd hand ones and sewing is a hobby I get a lot of pleasure from.
I don’t. I live in the Arizona southwestern desert. We don’t really have winter and we have a lot of summer. Winter weather means I add a coat or jacket and wear mostly pants and long sleeves. Summer means I roll up my sleeves or short sleeves although I’m more likely to wear sleeveless tops and skirts and dresses. And like Helen, I rotate my clothes, wearing a curated selection over and over. These get tossed when worn too badly and another curated set takes their place.
I live somewhere where there definitely are seasons! Up to the point where I tried a three monthly capsule wardrobe rotation which worked nicely December – February and June-August, but horribly for the other months. March, April, September and October are the worst, cold one day, horribly rainy the next and after a week the sun is shining and no one’s wearing a coat even. I am confused as to how warm I should dress on a daily basis in these months. There’s definitely some rotation going on but those transitional seasons I really don’t know what to do with
I’ve pretty much got a year round wardrobe with maybe ten things put away for the extreme seasons, since I live in relatively temperate North Carolina, and I can get away with t-shirts and camis with sweaters for most of the winter… It does make it simpler to pick out an outfit each day, since I wear some sort of cardigan every day year round because of over air conditioned buildings!
My parents and sister live in Charlotte and that weather is THE BEST.
For me summer sucks (because at least in the Chapel Hill area the heavy humidity starts in April and doesn’t leave until October), but the other three seasons are amazing!
I’m a Minnesotan. About 15 years ago I was considering a move to NC. I visited Raleigh-Durham in April and it was 90 degrees and I knew that was not the place for me! :-p
Yeah… Summer runs from April to October… Which is less than fun, so I totally get it!
I get immediate seasonal amnesia (“I’LL NEVER HAVE TO WEAR A SWEATER AGAIN”) and have to put winter things away at the back of my drawers so I don’t try to spring-clean them out of existence!
Oh no! I find that whenever I get rid of an item of clothing I inevitably end up finding a situation where I would have worn it, had I still had it!
What is a seasonal wardrobe? I’m in southern Arizona and all I do is add a few sweaters, jackets, and leggings to my year round wardrobe. I do tend to rotate through a portion of my wardrobe, wearing certain items a lot until I’m sick of them and then starting in on pieces I haven’t worn for months.
Before we moved to Colombia last year, I always switched out my summer and winter wardrobes, leaving out the pieces that work for all seasons, like most of my skirts and my woven button-downs. But now we live in Bogota, where there is only one season – eternal spring/fall with periods of intense rain. So we wear the same things year round. I keep my summer things handy because I need them when we travel.
I live in Vancouver, BC so we essentially have two temperate seasons of rain/not rain. I wear almost the same clothes plus or minus tights, a light coat and fingerless mitts. Oh, and the umbrella. I’m also an avid knitter so most of the changes happen in choosing the weight of yarn.
All the same clothes plus the addition of a raincoat for the different seasons sounds perfect!
I have two wardrobes – Winter and Summer. I don’t have room to have them all out at once so I put the opposite season away. Just went through getting out my summer clothes last weekend. I find it easier to sew summer clothing than winter clothing. And my closet shows that as well!!
I wear scrubs everyday, so my wardrobe is limited to a coat and scarf in winter, no coat or scarf in summer. I wear jeans and capris, also tanks etc in warm weather. The real change is wearing long sleeves in spring (lighter fabric) and in winter. I don’t wear long johns etc. The east coast can have some temperature extremes.
I live in Hobart Australia, we definitely have seasons but also a lot of variety in the one week/day particularly in spring and autumn. A common saying here is “if you don’t like the weather come back in 10 minutes” so I keep all my clothes but will shuffle the piles around so that the clothes I’m using more often are more accessible. I often see for the season and used to have more time in summer so a lot of my makes are summer clothes so I am trying to rectify this.
New Zealand has similar sayings for most of the cities from Wellington down! Unfortunately the weather is Wellington is often so bad that there’s also a saying that reassures folks ‘you can’t beat Wellington on a good day’, unfortunately there’s just not very many of them. Layers is key!
I’m a northerner…living in Minnesota. There’s 6 months of winter, 1 month of spring, 1 month of summerish weather, 1.5 months of summer where it’s hot and humid, 1 month of fall and 1.5 month of weather confusion. LOL! It was 23 degrees (F) when I left home today and now it’s 65. If you aren’t careful with your clothing choices, you freeze in the a.m. or melt in the afternoon.
I have a lot of clothes but also have a lot of storage. Winter started here in October. So by this time of year I am *completely* over dark colors and heavy garments and blahhhhhh. So I tend to say I have a spring/summer wardrobe and a fall/winter wardrobe. There are things that are transitional from summer to fall and winter to spring but for the most part, they are separate. T-shirts, jeans and most cardigans stay out year around.
I have separate outerwear wardrobes too! It’s rough!
I’m a northerner…living in Minnesota. There’s 6 months of winter, 1 month of spring, 1 month of summerish weather, 1.5 months of summer where it’s hot and humid, 1 month of fall and 1.5 month of weather confusion. LOL! It was 23 degrees (F) when I left home today and now it’s 65. If you aren’t careful with your clothing choices, you freeze in the a.m. or melt in the afternoon.
I have a lot of clothes but also have a lot of storage. Winter started here in October. So by this time of year I am *completely* over dark colors and heavy garments and blahhhhhh. So I tend to say I have a spring/summer wardrobe and a fall/winter wardrobe. There are things that are transitional from summer to fall and winter to spring but for the most part, they are separate. T-shirts, jeans and most cardigans stay out year around.
I have separate outerwear wardrobes too!
I’m in northern California near San Francisco. My summer wardrobe is lightweight cotton dresses occasionally capris. Winter sweaters, and windbreakers, but never cold enough to really layer up. Not much crossover from winter to summer.
Thanks for asking Gillian! This is a subject close to my heart. We perceive ourselves in Sydney, Aust to not have much variation between seasons. But in reality we can have 41C in summer – hot and humid, to low single digits in winter, extreme wind and rain events in cyclone season too. Our houses are starting to be equipped with A/C and heating but we live in constant denial. No ‘coat cupboards’ or storage wardrobes in my place so I kind of shuffle warmer knitwear in and cooler knitwear to the rear! We have 3 months of cold weather but just power through it trying to pretend we’re not really cold! Tracky dacks and sweatshirt is my winter uniform, for summer I’ll break out the linen and baggy dresses – there are days when I want to wear absolutlely nothing at all! Up in Queensland my Dad has the choice of summer shorts or winter shorts! Footwear makes me laugh because if it’s raining I’ll still choose rubbery sandals – that’s a Qld thing too!
If it’s not too cold, I’d much rather be caught in rain in my sandals than any other shoes!
I’m a layer person so 80% of my wardrobe is suitable for the whole year. When it’s getting colder I wear a long sleeve T-shirt and a light fabric sweater. When it becomes colder I combine it with loose fitted cardigan. I’ve a few short sleeved T-shirt, blouses and skirts for the hot Summer days. It works fine for me this way.
Central California coast over here, so temperatures range from the 30s in winter to the hundreds in summer. To add to the fun, it’s not unusual to have a range of 30-40o in the same day, no matter what the season. Throw in an icebox of an office, and you can imagine that my outfits consist mostly of layers.
That said, even though most of my sweaters are cardigans, I put away half of them for the summer. Likewise, the brightest short-sleeved tops spend the winter in the garage. I enjoy the ritual of celebrating the new season, even if only twice a year. And I embrace the opportunity to cull and plan.
I wish that translated into seasonally appropriate sewing. Alas, I am the queen of the april raincoat, the November swimsuit.. I try to put away something new and fun with every season, as a present /surprise to my future self, and I enjoy that a lot. But I mostly try to be forgiving of my production failings, as flogging myself over them is totally counter-productive
I’ve never lived anywhere that snowed during winter, but all the places that I have lived were ‘dress in layers’ kind of cities where the weather is ‘4 seasons in 1 day’. I’ve recently started researching ‘how to style your summer linens for winter’ so that I can try and winterise some of my favourite summery makes!
On the Canadian prairies we have about as extreme a climate as you get, decently hot in the summer and COLD in the long, long winter. So what I WEAR is definitely seasonal. A lot more pants and layers in winter, light sun dresses in summer. I sew fairly seasonally as well. But I don’t really change up my clothing storage, as I’d just have to store it somewhere else and I don’t really have anywhere else to keep my clothes. It’s definitely time for some editing though!
Another Ontarian here! For the past year I’ve been trying out a three capsule wardrobe rotation. June-september, October-January, and February-May. June-September is the easiest, just warm summer clothing, I live wearing sundresses. Come October I’m ready for rich fall colours and cozy layers. I have a few more festive peices I mix in closer to the holidays. While it’s all one capsule, I do a colour shift, from plums, to reds, to deep blue in January. Come February though I start getting tired of deep colours and start longing for spring. For February to March I focus on transitional dressing, so it’s a lot of florals and lighter colours with long sleeves or in snuggly warm flannels or other warm fabrics. I also have a small collection of core peices, layers in neutral colours, that stay in year round. I’m looking ahead to a move to Calgary and already dreading the shorter, cooler summers, as that’s my favourite season to dress and to see for.
I have a “summer wardrobe” and a “winter wardrobe” and I change between the two when i find the weather is getting to hot in spring or too cold in autumn. 🙂 I am in Scotland Btw but I did this in South Africa too.
I grew up being taught to “change” my closet to the seasons. I also had to do that for my children. It was a lot of work to reorganize wardrobes for 3 people. By the time my kids were in school I had it down to 2 times a year. Spring and Summer and Fall and Winter. Now that I am older I still keep my winter items in a bin in a closet and switch them for hot summer items. But I have noticed that the last few years I haven’t gotten to any of it. SO that must mean I don’t wear this items any more.
I am on a quest to find fewer clothes that will take me through all year long. Comfort is key. SO is warmth. I live in Maine now, so that has changed and the seasons here are not as even. The summers are heavenly and cool. But the winters can be brutal and cold. I see myself surrounded by more natural fibers all year round. My community is a thriving creative one that I think will help me get to where I wish to go!
This is a very universal and timeless topic. Thanks for asking!
[…] March Gillian asked the Sewcialist community how we sew for the changing seasons. In my quest to be more mindful with my sewing I decided to […]