… I start thinking about my wardrobe again.

Coming out of winter, I always feel a bit over my cool season clothes and eager to start wearing warm season ones, but that itch seems to amplify into wanting to shake up my whole wardrobe. Inevitably I open the Stylebook app and siphon off some of that energy playing there.

Every year the way I’ve used Stylebook has changed. Initially it was all about getting pics of my clothes and accessories into the app, and my head around what I own. I tackled one or two categories at a time, culling as I went. The next Spring, after having logged what I wore for a year, I concentrated more on what I didn’t wear.

This year it’s more about maintenance – what’s looking worn and whether I need to replace it. And instead of individual garments, I’m thinking more about outfits. Tim Gunn’s and observation in this books that separates are more versatile than dresses has got me thinking.

So I turned to the Looks feature of Stylebook. I had the looks divided into casual/neat casual/formal categories. That, at least, made two things apparent: I had half as many cold season Looks as warm, and I hadn’t entered oft-worn combinations like knitwear and pants/skirts/ts and jeans. Both are because there’s not much use in creating obvious Looks. The feature is better for coming up with matches I hadn’t thought of.

I decided to re-sort them into skirts/pants/dresses, then divided those into casual and dressy categories. Also, I’ve found it’s more efficient to include several tops to go with one bottom rather than create multiple Looks for that bottom, so I made that my general approach, aiming to have a Look for all skirts and pants.

Now it was obvious that Looks that felt sad were based on tired, old pants. No surprise, really. I’ve resist retiring them because it’s hard to find pants that are comfortable and look good. What to do, then? Hmm. It would be a whole lot easier if I had a casual pants pattern that fit well and was quick and easy to sew.

The last time I attempted to make pants I used a commercial pattern and it did not go well. But I have a shorts pattern I like, and the pattern for one of the pants that needs retiring. And it turns out I have a jumpsuit pattern I picked up somewhere. Maybe by laying them on top of each other I can come up with a pattern that’s worth adjusting, and eventually develop one that actually fits and looks good.

Hmm. I must be in a particularly optimistic mood!