In the book Sewing A Travel Wardrobe by Kate Matthews from 1999 she writes
The Six- Yard Wardrobe
Designer Joyce Cusick has a busy life that includes lots of travel both for pleasure and business. She also loves to keep an eye out for special fabrics wherever she goes. She developed a 'six-yard wardrobe' approach to travel sewing after several trips to the local fabric store for more of the same material. She started with enough of the royal blue linen blend shown on these pages to make the skirt and slacks. She liked working with the fabric so much that she went back twice for more, to make the jacket and then the dress. The garments have become a well-travelled all-weather wardrobe and she reports she's worn them in various combinations at least three hundred times.
Joyce realised that if she consistently bought 6 yards of solid colour fabric, she would always have enough to sew a complete basic wardrobe that includes jacket, slacks, skirt, top and sometimes a dress.
Knowing this ahead of time makes it easy and fun to shop for fabric. She doesn't have to know precisely how much to buy of a good find at the fabric store or street market, but she's always sure that there will be enough to make up a well-coordinated grouping of versatile garments.
Today, all of her travel clothes are created from six-yard wardrobes, plus a few print accent garments and an assortment of accessories.
Spring Garden
Joyce must be a smallish size, and likes sleeveless knee length dresses as there's no way I could get all of those garments out of 5.5 metres in my size and style preferences. I think I must've worked this out after buying a few 6m lengths, but then thought that was still useful for capsule wardrobes, and particularly for the ideas I had at the time for sewing interesting trouser suits for work.
Dress Up Any Season
Cross-Season Wardrobe
4 comments:
Sounds just about possible with 6 metres of 60" stretch fabric.
I'm 5'1", 41" maximum girth at high hip.
2.25m for three fitted tees (vary necklines, embellishments etc)
Two pairs @ 1.20 m elasticated trousers, fairly fitted.
1.35m for a cardigan/jacket.
I have no scruples about piecing at underarms or back crotch if the fabric isn't quite 60".
If weather is warm where you're going, and fabric is light enough to dry in a hotel bathroom, you might even fit this into the amazing shrinking cabin bag allowance.
Love this article. I have an 8yard target myself, although I haven’t invested in this strategy in a while. Thank you for the reminder! Chris in Florida
I saw your post's title and had to take a look. I have that book and have pulled it out and looked through it often. At my size the six yard wardrobe would be on the skimpy side but I agree with the concept. It's in the same vein as Sewing With A Plan (SWAP).
Theresa in Tucson
I think when I started sewing (and was on my smaller side) I could have imagined getting several garments out of 6 yards of fabric, though maybe not a dress, pants, skirt, *and* jacket. Probably now I think I could get maybe 2 garments out of 6 years if I pick more fitted styles... I would think I'd want at least 8-10 yards to make a fully coordinating wardrobe. I do think this is a really interesting article though - thanks for sharing!
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