Fall capsule wardrobe for kids

Today I am planning what to sew for my children’s fall capsule wardrobe outfits, and you can learn how to plan a fall wardrobe too!

Fall is my favorite time of year. The cooling temperatures, crisp air, and beautiful leaves are such a relief after the heat of summer. More than anything else, I love fall clothing. The layering offers so many possibilities and combinations.

My goal is not to buy anything new for this project. I’ll be using stash fabric, upcycling, and reusing items from last year. These same principles can be used to plan a wardrobe for any age or season.

What is a Capsule Wardrobe?

A capsule wardrobe is a curated collection of clothing that all goes together. This allows for lots of outfit combinations with a minimal number of pieces of clothing.

How to plan a fall capsule wardrobe?

Create a central theme/color pallet
Gather inspiration
Start with what you have
List of what you need
Get sewing or shopping

Finding a theme

A theme gives you direction as you look for pieces to add to your capsule. This could be a color scheme, an event, or a design atheistic. For my older children, I’ll be using orange and green for my color palette with leaves and pumpkins as the central idea. I’ve done previous fall wardrobes with these colors, so it’ll be easy to reuse pieces. For my baby, I want to have a nautical theme, with blues and reds. Both will have brown and purple to tie them together.

Start with what you have

You don’t have to start from scratch to have a great wardrobe. Using some pieces that are currently in your closet will save you time, money, and is much more sustainable. My older children have several sweaters from previous years that will fit in with the theme and color scheme. They also have some jackets that I made bigger to be worn multiple years. Their pants from previous years are worn out, so I’ll be cutting some into shorts and making new ones. This is my baby’s first fall, so I’ll be starting her wardrobe from scratch.

Gather Inspiration

Once you have decided your theme, and evaluated what you have, it’s time to gather inspiration for the rest of your pieces. Pinterest is a great way to collect ideas. Since I’ll be sewing my kids fall capsule wardrobe, I’ll look through pattern websites for inspiration. My favorite pattern sources for kid’s clothes are Lowland Kids and Little Lizard King. Lowland kids is where I go looking for comfy and stylish basics. Little Lizard king has lots of little girl patterns, wovens and knits, and some little boy patterns. I also use both of their Facebook groups to search for inspiration. I’ve also used peek-a-boo patterns

for past years outfits.

List what you need to complete your fall capsule wardrobe

Base pieces

Since we live somewhere warm, I want to make layering options that can be worn in the cold and in the warm. For the base pieces I’ll do sweaters and button ups for my older children and rompers and dresses for the baby.

I’m using the dark blue and white striped fabric to make an LLK Bristol romper. I’ll do the 3/4 sleeves with ties for a transitional feel.

The burgundy double gauze I will use to make an LLK Bonn dress.

The light blue will be made into a LLK Mori romper. I’m going to draft a sailor collar and use white ribbon for accents.

The blue with hearts will be an LLK Roanoke Romper.

I have a muslin blanket with anchors on it that I want to upcycle into something, but I’m not sure what yet.

In a previous year, I made two varsity cowls from peek-a-boo patterns, a free ringer tee from Brindle and Twig, a rainbow dolman from Lowland, and an oxford button up from peek-a-boo.

I want to make them some pants too. LLK Anderson pants are a great basic pants pattern. Peek-a-boo has their rough n tumble pattern, I like the elastic cuffs at the ankles.

Accent Pieces

I’ll be making pinafores for layering. They can be worn on their own on warmer days.

The red with stars I’ll use to make a LLK Bellevue.

The anchor fabric will be used to make a LLK Charleston pinafore and bloomers.

The with red hearts and the blue polka dots will be used to make a reversible LLK Canmore.

I’ll also use some blue denim to make overalls for all of the kids.

I want to make them some hats for accent pieces too. I’m thinking I’ll make Beccar hats from LLK or maybe the new 5 panel hat from lowland.

Coats and Jackets

For the older kids, the have lowland hoodies and Downton duffle coats. The baby will need a coat or jacket. I’ve struggled to find a coat pattern I like for babies under 12 months. I might use the Downton duffle coat pattern for simplicity or draft my own coat pattern to get the look I am hoping for.

Another possibility I’m considering is making her a hoodie from the free Salla pattern from LLK and then make the babywearing coat panel from Twig and Tale. That would require buying the pattern and some supplies though, and I don’t want to break my rule of not buying anything for this project. This might be the one thing I need to spend money on, since keeping the baby warm is more important that self-imposed rules.

Get Sewing Your Fall Capsule Wardrobe

Now that the pieces for our fall capsule wardrobe are planned out, it’s time to get to work. I’ll be spending that next couple months sewing everything I have planned and getting ready for fall.