Month: October 2023

I love the fall. It is, without a doubt, my favourite season, although after mentioning the crisp weather and the fall colours, I’m hard-pressed to tell you anything else I love about it. It is the harbinger of winter—which, in this neck of the woods, can be pretty unpredictable and nastily cold. The fall colours last only for a month or two (then there’s late November). And the most annoying thing of all: I never know what to wear!

This fashion issue is problematic here in Toronto because the fall mornings can be cool to cold, while the afternoons are often sunny and warmish. And then there’s the question of when the urban changeover arrives. Last year, my husband and I spent most of September in Spain and Portugal (an absolutely perfect trip, BTW), and the morning after we returned home, we went for a walk. The great seasonal changeover had occurred. Almost to a person, everyone had gone from wearing light colours to black—unrelenting black. Now, I am a fan of black, but this was so abrupt, and it happens every season. Black is the colour for downtown wear. So, where does that leave me and my sewing at this point? Working on it.

I decided to do a bit of research to figure out what’s on trend for this fall. I do love the trend thing, then I go and wear what I want. But still.

I found articles telling me the nine best trends for fall 2023, the 18 best things, the 20 most wonderful trends, the 14 things you need, blah-blah-blah. Was there anything worth taking away from this excess verbiage in support of buying more than you need? Maybe.

I noticed a few common threads. First and foremost, I noticed the colour of the season seems to be red. This trend makes me happy since I look great in red. Too bad none of my planned sewing projects include red! (These are examples of fall 2023 runway looks. I like the red, but really? Would you wear these? Where would you wear these?)

Then there’s sheer stuff (nope), metallics (maybe a bit of Christmas sparkle?), and then all that oversized stuff that looks like the models are swimming in clothes they bought by mistake because it wasn’t available in their size. Oh, my!

 I do like the black coat trend, though. I guess I’m on trend there because I own about five such coats for varying temperatures (not to mention the already noted Toronto issue). Then there were white shirts—I have the one covered. Winter florals? Not going to happen here. And soft touch fabrics? That one I can get on board with. So, I’m making some soft-fabric things!

First up was another iteration of the Jalie Charlotte sweater I made last year for spring in a grey geometric pattern. I made my recent fall version in a double-knit sweatshirt fabric resembling tweed. I love the short length, and I added some buttons from my favourite artist-button maker on Etsy (Buttons D’anjou) to jazz it up a bit.

Next up was a cozy sweatshirt elevated by its cross-over shawl collar and another of the beautiful art pieces in the form of a leftover button.

The fabric is a soft, brushed-back sweatshirt fabric, and it was a bit challenging to sew in this pattern—McCall’s 8343, view C.

I did this piece for the Fabricville blog, and that post has more details on the actual sewing of this garment. Here’s a link to that piece.

The next project is a top I’ve been planning since I bought the Joseph Ribkoff fabric last year.