The Next Wardrobe Adventure: Project 333

I'm embarking on yet another wardrobe adventure! I really enjoyed putting together my 1940s capsule wardrobe and I shared last week about my experiences with one so far but now we're kicking it up a notch. I stumbled upon Project 333 and it's blog earlier this year and I instantly fell in love.

Project 333 (pronounced three thirty-three) is a minimalist fashion challenge that has a basic premise. You pick 33 items and that becomes your wardrobe for 3 months. At the end of the 3 month period, you can go back to your full wardrobe or try another round with a new set of 33 items. The goal is to help you see that you can live a smaller wardrobe and that it has benefits for your life. It's not about rigidly following rules or suffering through something that's not for your. It's totally cool if you find you need 37 items or want to do it just for two months.

I've been wanting to do this but it was never the right time and my wardrobe was never just so. Finally, I decided that I'm just going to do it. It will never be the perfect time. So I picked my 33 items and packed up the rest of my closet on Wednesday and we'll see how this goes.

My Project 333 will run from July 7 through October 6 which, from what I've heard from Floridians, is all summer here in Florida so I can pretty much expect the same type of weather that we're having now except hotter with more rain. That helped out a lot because living in a new place with new weather can make this project difficult. I also  decided to stick with mostly 40s pieces since that's what I've been really loving this year. So let's do a run down of my 33 items.

Items 1-7: Blouses- Wearing History Norma Jean and Ruthie blouses, white button up blouse (left) blue 50s blouse, white sweater, black 50s sleeveless blouse, white Mexican peasant blouse (right)

I'm noticing a lot of blue and white here. This may be an issue but I do love all of them.

Items 8-11: Skirts-green 40s, red 40s (left), blue 40s sailor, green anchor (right)

Again, the two green skirts are sort of duplicates. That's something for me to keep in mind while sewing during this quarter. I also want to replace
 the blue skirt (since it's getting a bit old) which I may do during the project.

Items 12-17: Dresses-red roses 50s dress, orange floral 50s dress (left) green 40s dress, Melody print 40s dress (blog post coming soon!) (center) black and white maxi dress, pink 40s dress (right)

I included two light weight 50s dresses for those days when I'm in a 50s mood. I don't have a ton of 40s dresses so I included them all (including a new make that I'll be blogging about soon). I also included a modern maxi dress for events where I need to dress modern. Its crazy comfortable and easy to dress up or down.

Items 18-22: Other- red 40s suit jacket, white bolero (left) 1930s beach pjs (center) Freddies jean capris, red 50s capris (right)

And a couple other completer pieces.

Items 23-29: Shoes and Purses- I've got 5 pairs of shoes including flats and heals. I'm including my current summer purse (not pictured) and one vintage purse (not pictured) which I haven't decided on yet.

Items 30-33: UFOs- Being a seamstress, I knew that I was going to have to bend the rules of this challenge to make it work for me. I'm including 4 not finished pieces in my wardrobe. First up is a peplum blouse and skirt in yellow eyelet. Next, I have a red sleeveless blouse and hawaiian print skirt.

Once I finish these projects, I'm going to focus on fall/winter sewing instead. Having lived through a Florida winter, I know that it does still get chilly but a lot of my Ohio winter wardrobe is just too much. I've got a couple of things that I want to add for winter that I'll work on if I can keep in focus. If I want to add anything else, I'll have to retire something from my capsule wardrobe.

My other modification of the Project 333 rules was not to include any accessories other than shoes and purses. Maybe next go around I will but it was too much for me to think about this time. I did, however, make an effort to pair down the accessories that I do have out to give myself fewer choices and even put a few pieces in the donate pile.