7 x 7 fashion remix challenge

Linking up with Audrey @ PuttingMeTogether.com

I did a first 7x7 fashion remix hosted by Audrey at PuttingMeTogether.com and Ma Nouvelle Mode. The premise is to choose 7 items of clothing (1 has to be shoes) and make 7 outfits. I've never done anything like this before.

After a lot of careful, and thoughtful consideration, along with thinking about things Audrey has mentioned in her Build A Remixable Wardrobe Series, I came up with my 7 items. Here are the items I chose:

7x7 pieces by mindy-gee

1. White skinny jeans. These are a newer purchase, within the past couple months at Kohls to replace some capris I had. that I outgrew, literally. I like the fit and opaqueness of these.

2. Striped pencil skirt. (exact sold out, but these are similar) Got this from Old Navy last year, in their Tall size, so it wouldn't ride up too high when I sit.  I knew in the 7 days of this challenge that I had at least 2 days where I had church functions,  where I had to be dressed up. I thought a skirt might be more versatile instead of a dress, since I had to make 7 different outfits.

3. Blue printed blouse. This was a recent find at Kohl's on clearance. They are now sold out of the long sleeved and short sleeved version. I have a hard time finding prints I like, but I liked the color and the small diamond print.

4. Polka dot chambray shirt. Similar I got this from Old Navy last year, and it is a workhorse for me. The weather has been typical "June gloom" where it's chilly in the morning, warms up late afternoon, and cooled down again by dinner. I knew I had to have at least 1 layering piece. I wanted to do 2 long sleeve layering pieces, but then the weather decided to warm up a bit.

5. Mint v-neck tee. Got on sale at Old Navy. Thought I'd try out the mint green trend that's going on.

6. Bird graphic tee. This was from Old Navy. It sold out online faster than you could blink. There must have been a couple returns, so when this came back on the website, I snatched it up fast. It's 1 size big for me, so it's been washed in the washer(against directions, since I know what happens to rayon in the wash) to shrink it down that size.

7. Cognac t-strap wedges. (also comes in other colors) These are from Target. I figured wedges would be the way to go, as I had casual and dressier outfits to accommodate. I will disclose though, that I bought Dr. Scholl's for Her High Heel inserts (also at Target, I found mine at the grocery store) to take pressure off the balls of my feet and have arch support.

Here are the outfits I came up with.  I apologize for no real photos. I've started potty-training the almost 3 year old and he messed with the computer (his reward for going potty in the toilet was a 3 minute computer game), and I've seen a lot of blue screens and computer restarts. More than I care to number.  So, I decided to bust out the Polyvore. Click on the images to see all 7 pieces I chose, as well as all 7 outfits. I could've gotten more than the 7 outfits, if I had used the skirt more but I only had 2 outfits that required skirts this past week.

7x7 Remix Challenge by mindy-gee on polyvore.com

1. White skinny jeans + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 2. White skinny jeans + blue printed blouse + wedges 3. White skinny jeans + mint v-neck tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 4. Striped pencil skirt + bird graphic tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 5. Striped pencil skirt + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 6. White skinny jeans + bird graphic tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 7. White skinny jeans + mint v-neck tee + wedges

Conquer Clothing Clutter Part 2--Final pics

For those visiting from IHeartOrganizing.com's link party, here is the 1st post: http://thegeekids.blogspot.com/2012/06/conquer-clothing-clutter-part-1.html

Day 3: Finally finished! It sounds bad, but I used to dread going to the boys' room. The whole, "the kids have too many clothes, and yet we try to get them to clean it up anyway" syndrome. I think it's going to be much more manageable for them, since the quantity of clothes has been significantly been reduced and also with being able to reach what they use the most.

Collin had  two 13 gallon trash bags filled of too small & excess, plus  another bag full of pants with holes.

The final outcome:

*Note: I ended up finding pant/skirt hangers we already had to hang the pants & shorts as it was less bulky*

I also had to do a Target run this afternoon. While going thru Collin's pants it was discovered that he had only 2 pairs of pants that 1)were the correct size and 2)didn't have huge holes in the knees. I got a couple pairs of inexpensive jeans  for him. Our Target had really slim pickings for pants his size, so I may have to either try another Target or try Children's Orchard later next week.

So nice, visually to see. I literally took so many pictures & took in quite a few breaths to admire the change.


Before:

After:

Conquer Clothing Clutter part 1

Over at IHeartOrganizing.com this week, I was challenged to tackle clothing closet(s). I am taking on the boys' shared closet. This'll give me the head start I need before school starts this fall. Luckily, for a small fee, the PTA will take care of school supplies for us, so my main job this summer is to go thru clothes & keep the kids super busy. Here is our before shot of the boys' closet.



Definitely not working out so well for us. Plus Drew's got a bigger dresser than Collin, who could sure use the extra space.

First order of business: take out the hanging shelf I had in Drew's side. I also took out the toy box, as we have tons of space in the living room in a 1x5 Expedit that we got from the "as-is" at Ikea in April. Next, I re-installed the bottom closet bar. I took it out a couple years ago, when I caught the boys trying to swing on it. Hopefully, history won't repeat itself. I'm going to keep the bulk of Drew's clothes(pants, shorts & tee's since it's summer) on the bottom bar, so he can get them himself. I may swap dressers between the boys, I'm not sure yet.



Then, I had to figure out the daunting task of how many of each type of clothing is appropriate for Drew's lifestyle. He starts up kindergarten this fall, but is unfortunately still at a stage where he is having a lot of accidents. I decided to keep 7 pants, including dressier pants for church, 5 shorts, and 10 t-shirts. Still have to go through other things(including excessive amounts of pj's), but will likely keep 5 long sleeve shirts, 3 short sleeve dressy(for church) shirts, 3 long sleeve church shirts, and 3-4 pairs of pj's.

Finished up day 1, and Drew's side of the closet is mostly together. Can you believe this little guy had this full of a bag that were either too small or just in excess?



This is the dresser that once upon a time both boys shared, but the past at least year--maybe longer--has been holding only Drew's things. I have moved all his clothes to one side(3 drawers-one for undies, one for socks, and 1 for pj's) so Collin can have more space too. I'm going to be making some picture and word labels, since both boys can only read a little. The pictures will show what goes in the drawers, and the word will either say Drew or Collin so they know which drawers are theirs.



Day 2: Started with Collin's side by emptying his hanging shelf, and putting back in the bottom bar in his closet.

The pile on the bottom bar of the closet is just Collin's t-shirts. I'd say there were well over 25.

I'm also making sure all the hangers match--it doesn't cost a lot, and our budget on this organizing project is little to none. I only spent about $4-5 on 4 packs of hangers.

This morning, before school, I managed to go thru all the t-shirts. Quite a feat. I had Collin try on a handful and do the arm test(hands over head to see if the bottom of the shirt exposed his tummy), and chose 1 that fit and 1 that didn't to measure the rest against. It is very difficult to get him to stay there and go thru all the shirts like that. I imagine most boys are like that, autistic or not. So the break was a good idea. I had a small pile left that I couldn't figure out and had him try those on and he got reinforced with a couple spots on his token board(he gets x many tokens for good behavior and earns something that highly motivates him). Then it was time for school.

In any case, this is about as far as I got with Collin's side.

This is what's still left to go through.

I'm not even halfway done with Collin's clothes, and he's already filled a 13 gallon size trash bag of too small clothes and ones that were in excess. As often as we do laundry, 10 t-shirts should be more than plenty. There is also a second bag now filled, just of pants with holes in the knees.

Here is our before shot:



And here is the current progress(obviously, not finished yet. The small dresser will likely be moving out of the closet by one of the walls):

So cool!

One of my sisters found this online. It shows 13 pieces of clothing(2 are shoes) and how to mix up the pieces for a whole month! I'm going to have to go through my warddrobe & pare down. This is great for the warddrobe challenged like me. Here's the link:

http://bananarepublic.gap.com/browse/category.do?cid=72560


Here are a few screenshots I saved.

The calendar: