Neon is just one of the trends being touted out there for spring 2020.  And, . for the “oh-no-the-eighties-are-back crowd”, hang with me; I am putting myself in the neon realm.  But first….

2019 Update:  Last year in a sewing group I frequent, Roz of Sew Much Fabric guided attendees through finding a style icon and thereby determining our fashion “leanings”, according to figure (silhouette), coloring and lifestyle, and thereby creating a mood board for zeroing in on the most suitable wardrobe – making nothing that might languish unworn in the closet.   The graphic below depicts what I did in 2019, and sadly did not complete the plan; but am carrying on like a good pilgrim…

That plan has not seen complete fruition, but the garments I did make were worn repeatedly last spring and throughout the year!! I love it when that happens.  I made things that were “me”.  The plan stands and will see completion — some day.

Moving to 2020:   Starting with this colorful page in InStyle magazine, I am inspired to bravely cross frontiers and add neon to my Spring wardrobe this year.

Amazingly, there were pieces in my stash that qualified. I would call my collection really bright pastels rather than real neon, except for the coral ponte knit.  More amazingly, I had two Missoni scarves which became inspirational, along with the magazine page.  Of course, I needed some things to tamp down all that neon.  Therefore, the neutral pants (black, white, navy and khaki) that were already in my closet were pulled out, and I added three new fabric purchases to balance the neons, and almost-neons, all from Sew Much Fabric. As I said before, my goal is to sew down the stash, but never to turn away from good fabric that can easily be incorporated herein.

Pile #1

Pile #2

My first make will be the yellow stretch denim which has been hoarded for far too long.  I need you to cheer me on so I can use up this pile of fabric in a cohesive Spring 2020 wardrobe.

New-to-me silhouette:  I will repeat the silhouettes that worked for me last year, but will try one new silhouette, which happens to be this maxi dress, called the Charlie Caftan by Closet Case Patterns.  It’s new because I usually avoid cinching in the waist; and this maxi pattern has a waist. I’ve set aside the watermelon rayon challis in Pile #1 aside for this pattern. 

Plus, I plan some detail-tweaking on the other “looks” (aka sewing projects); note how the vocabulary changes with viewing too much fashion/sewing tv reality shows…..

Spring and Summer 2020 promises to be a sewingly busy one for me, the details for which are forthcoming in later posts.

To all my snowbound friends — spring is not too far behind.

Samina