WARDROBE TRACKER | JAN -MAR 2020 UPDATE

Winter Wardrobe Tracker

Not even the pandemic can stop my wardrobe tracking. Ok, since I am staying at home for the past 3 weeks now, there was not a whole lot to track lately, but I already got the bulk of this period in before that, so here I am with the update for the second quarter of Year 2. If you are wondering what I am on about, check out how I decided to record every single thing I wore every single day for a year. I called it One Year Wardrobe Count project. The full Year 1 results can be read here and Year 2 Quarter 1 here.

So, I’ve got numbers for you from January to March.

WARDROBE TRACKER – WINTER NUMBERS

MY TOP 15 MOST WORN ITEMS

This time I excluded shoes and outerwear, because I tend to wear pretty much the same pieces day in and day out, so I wanted to see how my other types of clothes were performing. I also had to go to 15 items as there were loads of items that got the same number of wears and it was hard to identify just the top 10. The underlined and bold listed ones are made by me and the ones marked with a * are new for this period.

My overall most worn items in the past quarter (and overall) remain the I Am Artemis Oversized colour block coat and my old suede ankle boots. I also refashioned an older pair of over the knee boots by removing the top piece to make them below the knee, and they also got a lot of wear.

Navy skinny jeans*22
Thermal turtleneck14
Black knit turtleneck6
Black long sleeve top crew neck6
Wool pinstripe culottes6
Grey cardigan*5
Beige sweatshirt5
Blue Rosalie sweatshirt5
Navy ribbed cardigan4
Black skinny jeans4
Medium blue skinny jeans4
Beige jumper4
Navy cable jumper4
Grey asymmetric skirt4
Black crepe culottes4

A FEW OF THE TOP 10 ITEMS:

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BLUE ROSALIE
WOOL PINSTRIPE CULOTTES
BEIGE SWEATSHIRT

TOTAL UNIQUE ITEMS WORN IN Q2: 81 (previous Q=98), OUT OF WHICH SHOES: 7

MONTHLY AVERAGE: 47 ITEMS (previous Q=54)

TOTAL INDIVIDUAL ME-MADE ITEMS WORN: 35 (previous Q=31)

ME-MADE: 43% (previous Q=37%); RTW: 54% (previous Q=61%) ; REFASHIONED: 4% (previous Q=2%)

NUMBER OF ITEMS WORN ONLY ONCE (ONE TIMERS): 34 (previous Q=38)

NEWLY COUNTED VS PREVIOUS PERIOD: 7 (previous Q=23)

MOST WORN BY CATEGORY:

ClothingTop15
 Jumper12
 Dress11
 Trousers6
 Jacket5
 Cardigan4
 Jeans4
 Outerwear4
 Skirt4
 T-shirt4
 Shirt3
 Jumpsuit1
 Vest1
FootwearBoots3
 Ankle boots2
 Trainers2
Grand Total 81

MOST WORN COLOURS:

Black35%
Blue19%
Grey14%
White6%
Beige5%
Green5%
Pink4%
Red4%
Purple2%

Movements

This is about how many new items made it into my wardrobe this period and how many were taken out, for various reasons. To note that the ‘out’ category refers to items that I had already recorded in the spreadsheet (i.e. have been worn since Oct 2018).

IN: 5, of which 3 sewn, 1 pair of handmade shoes and 1 item repaired and back into the wardrobe (though it was sewn years ago)

OUT: 3, of which 1 swapped, 1 to recycling

FANCY TRACKING YOUR WARDROBE TOO?

WARDROBE TRACKER – WINTER INSIGHTS

OVERALL

I am so glad that I tracked improvements on all my categories! Fewer unique items, fewer onetimers, higher percentage of handmade vs RTW, much fewer new vs previous period (60% decrease). I also noted that my obsession with the colour grey is actually finally coming through, having moved up to 3rd in my colour ranking!

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TRACKING

Up until the lockdown, I was on a roll with my tracking. Afterwards, it became a bit harder to decide what to actually track. I was wearing loungewear or gym clothes most of the time, and those are not being counted as per the rules of my challenge. So I decided that the lockdown tracking rules will be that I count street clothes that I don’t normally wear in the house. So for example, I am wearing my ‘stay at home jeans’, which are patched to death and faded and a t-shirt and jumper that I normally don’t wear at home, I will only count the jumper and t-shirt. Or if I am wearing my home clothes at the weekend and then go out for a run wearing leggings, trainers and a gym top, that will only track as home clothes.

SAVE THIS FOR LATER ON PINTEREST

Winter wardrobe tracker results

ACQUISITION

Again adding a few more items to my wardrobe than the previous period, but still, if I unpack it, it’s less bad than it looks. I sewed 3 new items and made a new pair of trainers. One of those was planned (a cardigan), one kinda jumped the queue (a new version of the Mira dress that I have been thinking about for a while) and the trainers were a sort of a wearable sample as I was in the Netherlands to train with Roderick from SneakerKit.I also had a bit of a remnant from the cardigan that I didn’t fancy keeping in my stash, so I made a quick sleeveless jumper/vest with it to get it out of my hair. It already got a lot of wear while staying at home, so I’m not sorry.

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The best part though was fixing my first proper pair of Ginger Jeans that I made back in 2017. Their zipper broke the first time I wore them, so they were sat in my To-men-pile since then. I finally beat the procrastination demon and fixed it. It took less than 20 minutes, but then proceeded to spend almost 2h trying to fix about 20 cms of topstitching!! Grrr! Anyway, they are back in rotation and absolute winners! Probably the best jeans I ever had, so comfortable, perfect fit, just amazing! I just got fabric to replace the black skinny jeans I had to recycle and I can’t wait to have another pair of jeans with a perfect fit.

WEARING

In this period I wore 7 new items (5 new to the wardrobe). This is definitely an improvement vs last period, so I am making my wardrobe work harder than last time. This is a really good thing, and I’m happy with that. I also maintained my 3 new sewn items/quarter ratio, which is in line with my plan to keep it to 12 items/year maximum. I am also sewing loads of masks for a charity that asked me, so there will definitely be much fewer projects in the near future. My sewing mojo keeps coming in spurts, so I would not be surprised if I have a binge in the next period of the mood strikes me.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, I am super happy with the numbers this period. I really took the conclusions from the previous period to heart and kept things more restrained. It was quite a cold winter (for the UK), and my cold-weather wardrobe is quite small, so that kept me tight.

On of my plans for the lockdown period is to do another big clear-out, and also do a proper inventory of my wardrobe, to make sure I record most things and come up with a final number once and for all. I am still working full time from home, so still really busy, but hopefully, by the time this is over, I will be able to tick this one off.


HOPE YOU ARE KEEPING SAFE AND WELL. TELL ME IN COMMENTS WHAT LONG POSTPONED SEWING OR CLOTHES RELATED TASKS ARE PLANNING TO TICK OFF FROM LOCKDOWN!

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2 Comments

  1. 8 April 2020 / 9:09 PM

    Hey Alex,

    Loving this post – you’ve just prompted me to update my wardrobe tracker, I’ve not collated anything for 2.5 weeks so I’ve caught up now!

    This tracker is such a brilliant idea. Case in point, I reviewed all my zero wear items and noticed there were quite a few vest tops lurking in there. So I bought a packet of green dye and voila I wear them a lot more now! This activity has made me more thoughtful about my clothes and the key colours I want in my wardrobe. It has also made me think about what I can change to existing pieces, instead of buying new. So keep up the good work!

    Easter weekend I will be packing away my winter wardrobe and saying hello to my summer clothes. I think I’ll be looking through what I have and see if there are any gaps. As well as checking my handy spreadsheet of course!

    Thanks for keeping me inspired (especially through this current time).

    • sewrendipityalex
      Author
      8 April 2020 / 10:35 PM

      Thank you so much Liz for your kind words! It really made my evening. I sometimes feel these posts are a bit self-indulgent, but when I hear from readers like you, it makes me really happy. It sounds like you already got so much out of this process, super well done! I am a massive fan of dyeing, such a great way to revamp old items and put them back into wear! Thank you again for sharing your thoughts!

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