When I put my most recent capsule together I was clearly hoping the weather was going to be similar to what we had in May last year.

We had more wind and rain and much less sun than I'd bargained for. As a result 8 items in this capsule weren't worn, and I had to add warmer items - two long cardigans.


I've been putting together capsules for a few years, you'd think I'd have sussed it by now, but I'm always a little too optimistic about the weather!


My outfits show how the weather went back and fourth between being warm enough for bare arms and ankles, to cool enough for layers, and everything in between. But there was not enough sun, not nearly enough, jeans dominated my outfits. I love my jeans but I was looking forward to wearing some dresses, and my new yet-to-be-worn jumpsuit.

To make up for it I wore it on the first and second day of June, it was a delight to wear and lovely and cool in the heat.


24 piece capsule for June


The warm weather has once again given way to clouds. I've probably still been too optimistic with my capsule for the coming month. My summer wardrobe far outweighs my winter one and I want to wear my summer gear as much as possible, and girl can hope, right?

I've got two items that have never appeared in a capsule before, a few old favourites, and 18 of the 24 items are pre-loved. Now all I need is plenty of sunshine!

You can see how the weather changed over the course of April just by looking at my capsule wardrobe outfits. We started with chilly days and rain, but by the Easter weekend my ankle grazing jeans and short sleeves were only just about cool enough.



It didn't take long for the cooler weather to return, and it was back to jeans and jumpers, but wasn't it glorious while it lasted? Thank you, more please.

Jeans and long sleeves dominated my current outfits until yesterday, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more sunshine and warmth. All this rain is great for crops, gardens and filling water butts but it's not good for my soul. I'm at my happiest when the sun is shining and I can feel it's warmth on my skin.

In previous spring seasons I've found it hard to put a capsule together because the weather can be so unpredictable. This spring I decided to tweak it every month, hoping that I'd be adding more summery clothes each time.
I have 24 items in this capsule, six fewer than in April, which is more than enough to see me through the month. Twelve items remain from the April capsule, with twelve added, and only seven items are brand new, 76% is pre-loved - a statistic that brings a smile to my face.

April was a mix of cold days and delightfully warm days, my capsule served me well, but I did wish I'd added more lighter tops and fewer jumpers (why did I think I'd need ten jumpers?!). I've redressed the balance for May, and dared to hope that I'll be in need of a pair of shorts.

I wanted to add some rarely worn items to my May capsule. I do have a habit of reaching for my favourite items which leaves things languishing in my wardrobe, forgotten and unappreciated. I've sidelined my trusty navy jumpers for now. I feel little bereft at not having either of them in this capsule, they're usually to hand, season after season. But not having them will make me wear other things, and it's likely I'll find other outfit options that I like because of it.

In addition to trying to wear my less worn items I've also had a really thorough wardrobe clear out and listed a lot of items on ebay. I feel there's little point in having a capsule wardrobe if I'm constantly adding more and hardly wearing the vast majority of it. Better to sell it and hope someone else will make good use of it.

The point of having a capsule was to limit my spending and to make the most of the items I already own. I enjoy having the capsules, and I do feel like I wear more of my wardrobe because of them but it's failed in curbing my spending, I'm still adding too many items.
I now have, what I hope will proved to be, a wardrobe of clothes that work well together and are a joy to wear, making putting together capsules much easier, and easing my guilt at having clothes I simply do not wear.

I have that wonderfully refreshed feeling you get after decluttering. I don't intend to buy any clothes in May, possibly even June too. The shopper in me is going to have to take a little holiday.

Come on May, let's see what you've got.

Having just 30 items in my winter capsule was more than enough to see me through the season. In fact I had two items that didn't get worn - red shirt, khaki mini skirt. I am a creature of habit though and I tend to reach for my favourite items over and over again. You can probably guess... red floral skirt, mustard jumper, blue skinny jeans, long winter coat (which wasn't actually in the capsule to begin with, but I swapped it with my short grey winter coat - it was a bargain charity shop find and I wanted to wear it!).

Roughly 43% of my capsule was pre-loved this time around, with the new stuff being staple items - jeans, navy / black jumpers, stripe tees - that will be worn time and time again. I did donate three items to charity as I'm trying to whittle down my wardrobe to pieces I adore. Reasons for donating can be filed under 'it doesn't sit quite right', and 'it left fluff on everything'. Despite liking these items these reasons are enough for me to pick something else to wear instead, I figured they're not worth keeping and someone else might get more wear out of them, that's the hope anyway.


What are the reasons that make you part with clothing? What's the weirdest reason you've parted with an item?

Ah spring, it's almost here at last! The warm interlude in February awakened my love of bright sunny days that are warm enough to leave the house without a coat. I'm hoping that the sun will be back with us sooner rather than later.

The improving weather turned my thoughts to my spring capsule, I'm looking forward to wearing some recent purchases, mixing them with older items to create new outfit combinations. My cropped jeans are making a reappearance, and my cropped dungarees their first. And the green skirt is back now that it's been mended and is wearable once again.

I've decided to make my spring capsule monthly, just like I did in the summer. It allows me to wear more of my wardrobe, and it lets me tweak the capsule depending on the weather. Spring and autumn are always tricky to get right as the weather is difficult to predict.

This is what I'll be wearing in April.
I've got plenty of things for cooler days, but have enough for days when the sun comes out.

Happy spring!

This capsule marks the start of my fourth year of seasonal capsule wardrobes. I briefly pondered whether to bring it to a close but as I've found them easy and enjoyable, so I decided to keep going.

The jury is still out on whether they'll remain seasonal or switch to monthly, but until I make up my mind here's what I'll certainly be wearing in January, and possibly for February and March too.

I've only included 30 items this time as I found I had a few things that I didn't wear last season and a few items that were only worn once or twice. I have more summer clothes than for cooler weather so having fewer items in this capsule seemed like an obvious choice.

I find it interesting to see what gets worn the most, I obviously reach for my favourite items more often than not. This info will come in handy if I ever get around to clearing out my wardrobe and actually removing some unworn clothes.

I've been living in jeans and jumpers recently, with a skirt thrown in once in a while, so I've stuck to that for this capsule, why fight the inevitable?

I've got some old favourites and a few new-to-me items, some colour and plenty of stripes. What more could I possibly wish for?

These outfits show the temperatures getting lower as the month of September progressed. I started in a short dress with short sleeves, and towards the end of the month I was wearing huge scarves.

To be fair the weather has been wonderful. But the temperatures did start to dip at the end of September, and we had some cool winds to take the heat out of the sun's rays.


I had optimistically added three pairs of shorts to my September capsule but none of them were worn. However, it was nice to be a little cooler after the soaring temperatures of July and August.

I hear we're in for a harsh winter, so talk of shorts and sundresses will be shelved (or should that be wardrobed) for a while. I do like a cosy jumper and have been known to wear a huge scarf or two.

How terribly British, a post about a capsule wardrobe that talks more about the weather than the outfits! That said the weather dictates what goes into each capsule, and every outfit I wear so it does almost make sense...

Anyway I liked putting together a monthly capsule for each month of the summer, when you can't rely on the weather it gives so much more flexibility.

There is no denying that Autumn is upon us. The days might still be sunny and bright but the evenings are drawing in and temperatures are dropping, but the biggest sign is that I'm wearing socks again after months of walking around barefoot.

I enjoyed having a monthly capsule over the summer but I'm back to seasonal capsules now. My autumn capsule still has a lot of my staple colours of grey, navy and black, but there's a lot of colour in there too. There's a mix of old and new, or new-to-me items and I'm looking forward to creating new outfit combinations from it all.


I've got 36 items in this capsule, 14 of which are pre-loved. After watching Stacey Dooley Investigates: Fashion's Dirty Secrets (read more about that here), and discovering just how polluting and damaging the fashion industry is (I knew it wasn't great, but I had no idea about extent of the problem), I have a renewed determination to reduce the amount of new clothing items I buy.

I have plenty of clothes. I don't need any more. And need is the key word here. I've been keeping track of why I've bought the things I've purchased this year and almost every purchase has been made because I wanted it. I don't go out every weekend and buy bags and bags of clothes, I think my purchases are quite small in terms of quantity and most are pre-loved, but when I see the devastation the fashion industry causes, it makes me stop and think 'do I really need to buy brand new?'

The answer is almost always 'no'.

What the fashion industry is doing to this planet is nothing short of terrifying. I feel that the only thing I can do is to restrict the number of new items I buy to the things that I genuinely need e.g. underwear or shoes. I know that I can find anything else I might want in charity shops, they always have plenty to offer, although sometimes you do have to be patient for something specific to turn up.

I have found that having a capsule wardrobe helps me to make purchases that fit my wardrobe, I can tell instantly if I have something to wear with anything that catches my eye. The capsule means that I'm looking at what I have in my wardrobe every season and I'm more aware of all the clothes I have, this means I make fewer purchase that turn out to be a mistake.

Life has been busy so I have to admit that I've been reaching for a uniform of jeans and a jumper recently. So far I've only worn 13 items from this capsule during the first 22 days. The same outfits have been worn time and again.

As life returns to a more normal pace, I'll be experimenting with some new outfit combinations, wondering which item in my wardrobe will be the next to earns it's #30Wears Badge of Honour.

For my summer capsule wardrobe I decided to have a monthly edit, instead of keeping it the same for the entire season. It's been really nice to swap it around a little.

I put this together during the last week of August and even though I've worn shorts this month already it does seem a little daft to have three pairs in this capsule. As I sit here and type the world outside is grey and chilly!
This month I removed nine items and added four new ones. I need to mend my green skirt as the zip now only goes 2/3rds of the way up, and the red floral skirt needs the hem repaired. It's frayed quite badly. It seems that 90% of the mending I do is to repair frayed seams, it's maddening. (Since starting to write this the hem on my green dress has frayed too!!).

I've still got plenty of summer clothes in this capsule, we did have a few lovely sunny days at the beginning of the month, but it has turned cooler. If the sunny weather is over (although I hold out hope for a few more sunny days), I know that I have plenty of cooler weather options should I need them (see below). The great thing about midi and maxi skirts and dresses is that you can add tights if it's really cold, but if it's just a little on the chilly side they offer enough coverage for warmth.


I've already started looking at my autumn capsule, I know that I need another pair of jeans and another jumper so I'm on the look out. I'll be spoilt for choice on the jumper front but I'm not looking forward to the hunt for jeans!

Andy gave me this dress for my birthday and I wore it the next day to lunch with friends. I love it, it's comfy and so nice to wear. Did you notice the pom pom necklace?

August did have it's share of dull days, but when the sun did shine I relished pulling on a pair of shorts or slipping into a dress from my August capsule. I was able to mix new (to me) purchases with things that have been in my wardrobe for a good few years, I always love finding new outfits combinations. And as you can see my recently purchased yellow bag got it's fair share of usage.


I'm already looking forward to the return of summer next year...

For my summer capsule wardrobe I decided to have a monthly edit, instead of keeping it the same for three months. Doing so means I can swap things around each month and wear more of my summer clothes.

My July Capsule was lovely, full of lots of colour, and things I don't get the opportunity to wear very often. For August I removed a few things that need mending, a few things I didn't wear and added some new (to me) items and some things I purchased last year that have yet to be worn.

With the glorious weather we've been enjoying it's been lovely to wear my summeriest of summer dresses and skirts. I'm hoping this month will be more of the same, we've had some rain and a few grey days, can we have the sun back for the rest of the month now please?

I realised in July that I probably didn't need 36 items for 31 days, but I couldn't bring myself to eliminate anything more from this month's total of 34. I have too much that I love and want to wear. Which isn't a bad position to be in really.

This is the first week in my August Capsule.

I couldn't wait to wear my new (to me) cropped jeans and wore them two days in a row - some might say that you shouldn't be seen in the same thing twice, but I couldn't care less, they're so comfy!

The lace top in the first outfit is one I purchased in May last year. When I realised this it immediately went into the capsule. It works well with the high waist of the cropped jeans.

The next day I wore them with a pre-loved top that's been around a while. I wore this for two days in a row too, again firmly sticking two fingers up at anyone who tries to tell me 'you can't be seen wearing the same thing twice'. Absolute piffle. Why can't we all just agree that everyone wears their clothes more than once and it's insanity to pretend otherwise.

I also wore my sequin top and denim shorts for the first time, and used my newest purchase - a mustard coloured shoulder bag - because I couldn't wait to give it an outing.


As the week drew to an end I wore a long floral maxi. I've not worn this before. I bought this imagining I'd wear it on a faraway beach at sunset (this beautifully illustrates the dream world I inhabit most of the time). The last time I was walking on foreign sand was in the Sahara, and this would've been most impractical. Before that I was in Zanizbar for my best friend's wedding 9 years ago. My point being that I rarely find myself on distant shores, so pottering about in it at home and nipping to the shop will have to suffice, and let's face it, in this heat I could be some where abroad.

What's your favourite item in your summer wardrobe?

July was glorious wasn't it? I'm glad I decided to split my seasonal capsule wardrobe into three, I've loved wearing lots of items I don't usually get to wear but there's a lot more in my wardrobe that deserves to see the light of day.

I don't know if it's the slight tan I've managed to achieve, my new attitude of 'life's too short', or if it's just the sun shining so consistently but I've been feeling good. Really good. Body confident and happy in my own skin.

I can't explain it as I still have the same 'flaws' as I had last year, in fact I've gathered a few more, they just seem to matter less. One thing I do know is that putting on an outfit each day that I love has, in some small part, added to my current frame of mind.

Long may it continue.

These are a handful of the outfits I put together from my July Capsule. I read somewhere recently that capsules are full of style classics, and therefore can be rather dull and uninspiring, lacking in any amount of fun. Pah! What nonsense! I've had great fun with this capsule.


I'm looking forward to the coming months with added enthusiasm, the sun is shining and life is good.

My spring outfits were dominated by three things. My red floral skirt, a pair of pink brogues found in a charity shop in April, and a navy bowling bag I discovered in the Pile of Things to be Listed on Ebay (it's safe to say that it won't be returning to the pile).

Looking at these outfits I'm reminded of how gloriously warm spring turned out to be, before summer came along with it's tarmac melting heat. I'm not complaining, I'm not, I'm just a bit hot.

I'm loving my July Capsule. It's probably the best one so far. I love being able to wear all of my favourite summer clothes as much I am, most summers aren't warm enough for this (see not complaining). (But it is a little hot).

For the summer season I'm going to try something a little different for my capsule wardrobe.

I've decided to do it monthly.

When looking at all my summer clothes and trying to decide what to put into my summer capsule, I realised that I've a lot of summer items I want to wear, but far too many for just one capsule.

Here's the July edit, featuring some old favourites and some new purchases, and also some items that have been ignored for far too long.


To put this together I went through all my clothes picking out anything that I looked at and thought 'I want to wear that', and then I filled in the gaps. There are a lot of skirts and dresses, with a few options for cooler weather, because this is the UK after all. That said I do hope that the glorious weather we've been having stays around for a while yet.

I'd like to add a pair of cropped jeans to my wardrobe, and I have a hankering for a sequin top, so I'll be keeping my eyes open for them in the coming weeks. Until then I'll be enjoying this new capsule.

Hope you're enjoying the summer so far.

I usually post a load of outfit photos for these capsule round-up posts, but I didn't take a single photo over winter. I just wasn't in the mood. Winter is probably the least exciting season in terms of outfits as I tend to hibernate in jeans, jumpers, and lots and lots of layers. And the idea of standing outside in the cold taking photos really didn't float my boat.

What I did do over winter was keep a tally of how often I wore everything in the capsule for the three months it lasted. I was intrigued by the idea after promising myself I'd follow the #30Wears rule when buying clothes i.e. if I don't think I'll wear something 30 times or more, I won't buy it.

But that does beg the question, how long does it take to wear an item 30 times? Do I ever wear items 30 times? Do I wear my 'favourite' items as often as I think I do? I decided to find out.

The only item I wore 30 times or more were my wide leg jeans, found in a charity shop in August last year, photographed here in October. I wore these 31 times during the first three months of the year.

It came as no surprise to me that jeans were worn most often. If they're a good fit, my jeans are worn until they fall apart. Of all of the clothes I own jeans are the only things I can say, without a doubt, that I wear more than 30 times.


Next up was long cardy that often served as an extra layer in the evenings, this was worn 27 times.

My long sleeved striped t-shirt was worn 18 times, and shows my penchant for layering in the winter months.

My skinny jeans only got 16 wears, possibly because I've fallen out of love with them. The stretch has gone, so they'll be going off to the rag recycling, but I do know that in the time I've had them (three years) they would've been worn far more than 30 times. I practically lived in these when they were new.

One of my wardrobe staples is this navy jumper, which had 15 wears.

My newly re-discovered leather jacket came out 14 times.

And my bootcut jeans (which have possibly been in my life longer than Andy, and repaired many, many times), and my wax jacket each racked up 13 wears.

My black long sleeved t-shirt had 12 wears, the pink jumper, purchased in December, had 11 wears (and is not faring too well, truth be told).

A March purchase, a pair of pre-loved Gap cords, were worn 11 times (and 5 times already from my spring capsule!).

My beige jumper, another navy jumper, and stripe jumper each got 8 wears. My khaki skirt 7 wears.

An old cowl neck jumper 6, my green jumper 5, and 4 wears for my cocoon cardy, Joules top, pink check shirt, heart print shirt, and red floral skirt.

My floral shirt, grey jumper, green skirt, and black jumper had 3 wears each.

Two wears for my grey coat, twist top, khaki trousers and newest grey cardy.

The only things that didn't get worn are my black mini skirt, my black skinny jeans, and my beige maxi. The later I think wasn't worn due to it being an odd length after I had to take the hem up to repair it. I think it needs to go from maxi to midi in order for me to wear it again... back to the mend pile it goes.

Of course some of these items have been worn before, as this only shows what I wore over three months, from a 33 piece capsule, but it does show how some items can take a while to be worn 30 times.

The idea behind the #30Wears rule is to wear the clothes we have more, and for longer. You can find out more about the idea behind #30Wears here, and I'll leave you with this one statistic, if clothes stayed in active use for nine months longer (extending their average life to around three years), this would reduce their carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30% (source).

The first quarter of the year went by so fast that putting this together was a bit last minute (as in started and finished on April 1st!) Looking at it now I've realised that I've only included one coat, and that's a denim jacket so this might not be my most successful capsule to date.

I have two spaces 'free' because I'm going on a charity shop rummage with Sophie soon and we always come home with armfuls of pre-loved items.

I have some old favourites here - my yellow maxi, my khaki trousers, my khaki mini skirt and some new purchases - a red floral skirt, a floral skater dress, and ditsy print shirt. It's a real mixture of old and new, new and pre-loved. And hopefully a good mix (if we ignore the lack of a proper jacket) to see me through the cooler days of early spring and the (hopefully) warmer days of late spring.

This time around I quickly put together a chart of possible outfits - the things you do on a wet Sunday afternoon! I'll be ticking them off to see how many I wear. I hope it'll be warm enough for me to wear the 23 different outfits with shorts here - we can but hope, right?

How are you ringing the changes for spring?

Once again my capsule started out looking very different to how it ended. I swapped a number of maternity items for normal clothes, and swapped a few other items, adding some new colourful purchases made in November and early December.

My green skirt got a lot of wear in the autumn. Mild weather in early October allowed me to stick with bare legs for a few weeks, before layers and boots took over.
And I love how it worked with layers. It's by far my favourite purchase of 2017, and worth every penny of it's rather reasonable £25.60 price tag.


The addition of colour really cheered me up. I've hardly stopped wearing the new items since they arrived - a sign of a good purchase I think.



The original capsule had 36 items.


The final edit had just 30, but it was more than enough to see me through.

The green skirt remains in my winter capsule, along with a lot of the items purchased recently, and a leather jacket I found hanging in the cupboard under the stairs that I'd completely forgotten about. I love how discovering an old favourite, and a few new items can rejuvenate your wardrobe. I feel like I've got so many new outfit combinations, I particularly love my new pink jumper worn with my old khaki mini skirt.

I've found wearing colour to be a fabulous antidote to the January blues. I hope 2018 is treating you well so far.
x

I wanted lots of colour to see me through the cold months of the year, however this didn't stop me from adding two navy jumpers, and a couple of beige items to this capsule. A girl's gotta have some staples, right?

This time around I've got fewer items than I normally have. Having looked back over all my other capsules I realised I always had a number of items that either didn't get worn or were only worn a few times. My very first capsule had 37 times, I'm now down to 30 and I'm confident that this is plenty.

This year I'm going to keep a tally of how often I wear everything in my capsule. I've become interested in this since finding out about the #30Wears campaign. The idea is we can save a lot from landfill, and reduce the demand for new items of clothing if we just wear our clothes for a little longer.

I have no idea how often I wear things, do I ever wear items more than 30 times? And if so, which items? How long does it take to wear something 30 times? I think it'll be interesting to find out.

I decided to build my capsule wardrobe in a slightly different way this season. Instead of sitting down and picking out all 36 items in one sitting, I allowed it to develop naturally. At the start of October I simply looked in my wardrobe each morning and picked out an outfit that I wanted to wear. By the end of the week I'd got the basics of the capsule sorted - jeans, green skirt (obviously), jumpers, denim jacket, long sleeved stripey t-shirt, lace motif t-shirt, and gingham dress.

I knew I'd need coats, so I added my grey coat, my wax jacket, and a long grey cardy that acts as a coat (not a coatigan, that's not a real word!!).

I met up with Sophie for our annual autumn charity shop rummage and found a gingham shirt, which of course was added to the capsule. When I buy something new, or new to me, I have an irresistible urge to wear it as soon as humanly possible. I also felt the need to add recent purchases of a vaguely Christmassy jumper and heart print shirt.

Since then I've added some colour in the form of a red dress, pink t-shirt, and burgundy heart print shirt. My newly dyed yellow maxi added a bit of an autumnal hue. It's become a wardrobe staple, it's been in very capsule since last summer.

The rest fell into place over the next week.

I have to admit I've been mostly been living in jeans, it happens every autumn when the sun goes in, my jeans come out and I feel like I've gone into hibernation. I've only worn my green skirt a few times since the summer ended. Last time I wore it, I tripped whilst taking it off (I have no idea how I managed that), and tore the fabric around the zip. I think I can mend it, I just need to buy some thread in the right colour.

Are you enjoying autumn so far?

My summer capsule wardrobe changed somewhat over the course of the season. Some items I decided I wouldn't wear, others became worn out, some pieces I didn't wear because the weather just wasn't up to scratch. So at the end of the three months my capsule looked very different from how it did at the start.




My green skirt was worn frequently, it's definitely my favourite purchase so far this year, but it meant that my other skirts weren't worn as much as last year. And I hardly wore a dress at all.

I added a grey lace motif t-shirt and a gingham dress to the capsule, both of which I was given for my birthday, because I wanted to wear them immediately. I added a blue California motif t-shirt when my favourite grey one twisted a little more each time it was washed, until I had to admit it had become unwearable. I hate saying goodbye to a favourite piece of clothing, don't you?


Thanks to the weather I wore my jumpers more than I'd wanted to, and swapped my ankle grazing skinny jeans for my trusty bootcut jeans, and then added a pair of wide leg jeans having I found them for a bargain £2.00 in a charity shop.

So this capsule was swapped and changed more than any other, and in the end I wore fewer items than the original 36 picked out. But I loved all the outfits it combined to make and really enjoyed the capsule, despite that fact that all my colourful over-the-knee options where rendered unwearable by the weather.

Last year I found putting my autumn capsule together a bit tricky as the weather was still so nice in October, but this year it's going to be much easier, it'll be warm clothes all the way. Bring on the jumpers!