Love Eileen Fisher - What Patterns Would be Similar?

I love how stylish Eileen Fisher's clothes are and would love to project that image. Most of her tops skim the body but aren't huge. The skirts and pants have a slim silhouette - at least for this year. She chooses luscious fabrics in neutral colors. A simple wardrobe would be easy to put together and would be a good SWAP 2013 for Stitchers Guild!

Can I find patterns that would be similar? I'm not sure but I'm going to try.

Look at the first top on this page. It has a boat neck and simply skims the body. Not too much ease in this but just enough in my estimation. It's  difficult to tell if it has raglan sleeves but I'm interested in copying the basic shape - it doesn't matter to me if it's exactly alike. Would you think Loes Hinse boat neck top would fit the bill? What about M6571 from McCall's? I'm looking at the neckline. The ER shirt looks to be a boxy tee so the side seams on the M6571 would have to be straightened.

Eileen Fisher's Fold Over Maxi Skirt in Viscose Jersey could be made following the instructions at Morning by Morning Productions. The skirt is a very good approximation.

Her bat wing top can be copied with Cation Designs free download of her dolman sleeve pattern. I might use V8688 also. Did you notice there are three bat wing tops on Fisher's site? They look different but all have those sleeves. Even the cardigan at the bottom of the page has bat wing sleeves. Speaking of which....

Eileen Fisher's Washable Wool Crepe Oval Long Cardigan is beautiful. It has the sides cut quite high and close fitting sleeves. Most patterns have enormous sleeves so you might want to plan on cutting those down for a better fit. The back is nicely rounded at the bottom to give good cover to a ...well, a bottom! Simplicity 1945 offers a cardigan with dolman sleeves and it also has a good rep on Pattern Review. Though not like the Oval Long Cardigan, it is similar and could work as an overlayer. You might want to lay the pattern over the bat wing top above to make sure it will layer before you cut into your nice fabric.

Edited to add: I'm not satisfied with the Simplicity cardigan for this capsule. I have quite a few waterfall cardigans already - one more would just muddy the waters!

Have you seen her poncho? I love it and would love to copy it to use as my bridging garment between the two capsules. I'm going to try it - will let you now how that turns out!

Her 25" Knee Length Pencil Skirt - how about Pamela's Magic Pencil Skirt for that one? Sounds like a plan to me! Eileen's is made out of Viscose stretch ponte ie. rayon/lycra.

Her pants this season are slim fitting. What about Style Arc's Elle Pant?

Burda style 7793 is a loose fitting top with cut on short sleeves. A tank pattern is also included and would be good for a summer quasi Fisher top. Burda style 6869 view A is another top that could be used.

Fabrics

Fabrics are stretch silk, viscose (rayon), merino wool, organic cotton and linen mesh. I'm medium to large sized and the outfits would probably look more like their plus sized models. They look like regular sized women to me but I digress.

Colors would be black, grey and white. Now I just need to find a few of those striped scarves or make them myself out of the t-shirt fabric. Add belts and shoes as seen on the site and I'm good to go! (Found at a bargain price, I assure you!)

This page will be updated as I find more patterns.

Enjoy!

...and a little shopping I have done!

Style Arc has their new free pattern out for August. It's called the Ann T-top and I love it:

I ordered the Marita Jersey Dress to get this free pattern. They are a bit expensive but I'm planning on making them into TNT patterns. By the time you consider how many times you can make this up, it's cost per use is affordable.

There are still quite a few that I want from their website but I am on a budget and will have to order one or two per month.

I also recently ordered the Magic Pencil Skirt from Pamela's Patterns along with her tee. Can't have too many tee patterns, right? One of them is bound to be my TNT pattern.

I also ordered some fabrics from Fabric Mart during their sale. I have pics of some but not all:

I had nothing resembling an animal print in my little bit of stash. I also ordered black, brown and blue solid colors for bottoms. I didn't get a pic of the blue knit for another top or outer layer.

I ordered grey serger cones from an eBay source. I plan to use sewing thread for the seam stitches. One last purchase was Fray Block and I think I should be pretty well set except for interfacing and elastic.

I'll probably be eating beans and rice this month but it will be worth it!

Grey, Charcoal and Purple Comfy Career

Grey, Charcoal and Purple Comfy Career by snippetsandbits featuring a grey cashmere cardigan

Just trying purple and grey

Just trying purple and grey by snippetsandbits featuring ballet shoes

Fall 2012 Wardrobe Capsule

Fall 2012 Wardrobe Capsule by snippetsandbits featuring stiletto heels

What about charcoal, grey and purple? I would love these colors but finding the correct shades might be a problem. It would be better than black and tan, don't you think?

A color change - from black and beige to navy and rust

I've worn black and beige for so long that it's become my mantra! Now I understand why I liked the contrast after reading, "What's my value contrast" on Imogen's Inside Out Style blog. My hair had a lot of red in it when I was younger but I always colored it to have blonde highlights or even totally blonde. People think it's natural! Ha! My eyes are a brown and olive mix. Now that I'm totally grey - a silvery grey - I color it to a very light blonde every few months. Needless to say, it's a very difficult color combination to put into a color season.

After months of looking at color, I've decided to trade my usual black for navy. I like browns but only to a certain degree - and prefer the orangey browns like rust, golden brown or bronze. I thought the two would make a good base for my wardrobe.

I find that black is too harsh now although I still prefer it. I think it looks classy and makes me feel that way as well. A few years ago my family started telling me I needed more color and it took me a few years to understand what they were talking about. Now I understand! My skin color has changed also through the years and I look almost sallow in black now.

The trick is going to be to change those blacks for navy. I have just purged my closet and pared down my clothes to a select few but black pieces remain as I can't totally buy a new wardrobe. I thought for the fall and winter season, I would start by buying or sewing a few choice pieces and slowly change my wardrobe.

I have black pants, a black cardigan sweater with bronze embellishment around the neck, a rust colored suede jacket, a black sweater with silver lacing going up the front and a dark wash pair of jeans that are left to start my fall wardrobe. I also have cream, grey and black turtlenecks made out of a tissue weight knit. I've also recently bought a variety of scarves. My jeans are comfortable but don't fit as well as I'd like.

I'm going to pair the black pants with the rust jacket, buy or sew a pair of bronze pants to go with the black embellished sweater and am going to start by sewing a navy blue skirt with navy tights and shoes.More on that to come!