5 Helpful Tips for Planning Your Fall Sewing

Today on the podcast, we're talking about planning your fall sewing season. We'll cover five of our favorite strategies for creating a cohesive plan that gets you excited to sew and helps you make clothes you'll actually want to wear.

5 Strategies for Planning Your Fall Sewing Season

Instead of just diving in and making whatever catches your eye at the moment, seasonal planning helps you create clothes that work together and actually get worn. When you take time at the beginning of each season to really think through what you want to make and how it all fits together, you end up with clothes you're genuinely excited to wear.

1. 
   Review your past plans. Going through the same planning process season after season gives you valuable insights into what you're truly excited to make over the long term. Return to projects you didn't get around to in past seasons and see if they still resonate with you. Look through your past Pinterest boards and pull from those, while also noticing what's changed about your style. Sometimes a project idea that felt perfect two years ago is still calling to you today.
2. 
   Shop your stash. Before you even begin planning new projects, go through your fabric stash to see what you already own. This primes you with lots of new ideas and gets you thinking about how to use what you already have. When it comes time to build your color palette for the season, you'll know what you own and want to use. You can often build a whole palette around one or two fabrics you already have, which prevents that feeling of buying more fabric when you have a stash full of beautiful things waiting to be sewn.
3. 
   Document what you really wear. Keep track of what you're actually wearing each day to learn about the clothes you get the most use out of each season. It's easy to get caught up in making the pretty, Instagram-worthy pieces, but then realize you're reaching for your jeans and sweaters every single day. Try to balance the fun, special occasion pieces with the workhorses of your wardrobe. Pay attention to which tools you actually use in your sewing room and invest in the things that get regular use.
4. 
   Make a list of patterns you're excited to sew. Most of us have way more patterns than we could possibly sew in a season, so it helps to jot down a quick list of your top five to ten favorites. Use the Design Your Wardrobe process to narrow down your ideas from there. Think of it like making a wish list - you're not committing to everything, but you're getting clear on what's calling to you right now. Sometimes patterns that felt exciting six months ago don't feel as relevant anymore, and that's totally okay.
5. 
   Build a palette. This is one of the most valuable parts of the Design Your Wardrobe process - building a fabric palette for the season makes everything you're planning to sew feel more cohesive. Grab some paint chips from the hardware store to see how colors work together. Having a palette takes so much guesswork out of fabric shopping and helps you see gaps in your wardrobe more clearly. The palette becomes like a roadmap for the whole season.

What all of these tips have in common is that they help you get really intentional about your sewing. Instead of just making things randomly, you're creating a system that works for your actual life. Planning doesn't have to feel restrictive - it actually gives you more freedom because you really dig into what you want to create and think more deeply about each project.

What patterns are you most excited about right now? Do you have any fabrics in your stash that have been waiting for the right project? Comment and share your fall sewing plans!