from Scratch Archives - Page 3 of 14

February 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

February 6, 2026

Let's see what our heroine with her eye on the corporate ladder is doing!

First, her inspirational painting:

Our heroine made a big decision this month - upon looking more closely at her painting, she's accepted that she can include lighter shades of her four accent colors in her wardrobe. While the idea of nothing but strong, bright accents appealed to her, she realized that it was going to be a LOT easier to find clothes if she gave herself wider choices...

It's sort of difficult to see on her color wheel, but when she started shopping for clothes, she realized the difference immediately!

And this is something we all can learn - our wardrobe plans and choices don't have to be carved in stone!

For ... View the Post

February 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

February 4, 2026

For just a moment, let's enjoy this calm, restful painting, full of depths if you look behind the trees and into the distance...

Our heroine, lover of all wild plants, has chosen this painting to inspire her wardrobe. She's a lover of the "nuts and bolts" of nature - the roots, the cold bare stems of winter, the starkness of the branches silhouetted against the frozen sky...

At the end of January, our heroine had assembled the most gentle and subtle of capsule wardrobes:

Our heroine had no definite plans for when she would add bright flower yellow to her wardrobe, so when she saw this cashmere sweater, she had NO reason to hesitate. And then she finds the darkest brown cardigan too! While the fox ... View the Post

February 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

February 2, 2026

Time flies, doesn't it? Although January did sometimes seem to be a decade-long winter challenge...

But let's think of art! I particularly love this painting, and I can't put my finger on why. I think that's just fine - do you have to be able to explain your passions and dislikes?

The balance of color here could be different, but I think we're going to have a good time with these three strong neutrals and two unexpected accent colors:

At the end of January, our heroine had maybe the world's most organized and versatile core wardrobe. You could toss literally any accent color into this eight-piece capsule wardrobe and have a lot of options. It's not always fascinating to start with these neutral pieces, ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

January 14, 2026

Ten years ago, her friends invited her for the weekend. A bit of bird-watching, sitting on the veranda... Just a relaxing time in a warm climate with people she loves...

After spending so much time admiring these birds, she decided to take her wardrobe very much in this direction - with the addition of the snappy red accent!

Well, her relationship with birds has taken on a whole new meaning! First thing - when she left her morally bankrupt corporate job, she almost immediately found a position helping coordinate worldwide bird censuses.

It requires both a knowledge of data base administration, and bird species! Who ever knew that SQL and birds could co-exist?

She does get to travel from time to ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

January 12, 2026

She's a professional listener...

She doesn't want to be invisible - that would be creepy! But she does want to appear warm, unobtrusive and comfortable. Her clients will speak more freely if she doesn't look as if she's going to rip off their head...

So she chose this most calm and reflective of paintings, and an assortment of colors from brown to bone, with accents of rust and a pretty greenish-blue that matches her eyes:

She started building her new work wardrobe with the most classic of ivory and brown, but in soft textures of cabled cashmere and corduroy:

She knows that finding her favorite green is going to be difficult, so she has to jump on anything she finds that suits. And although the ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

January 9, 2026

She doesn't have to wear a uniform anymore! She didn't really mind - it's a good job - but it does get tiring to wear Oxford grey, pale pink and pale yellow ALL THE TIME.

Not to mention that everyone on the street knows where she works...

But she's been promoted to back-office support and auditing, and she can wear pretty much whatever she wants! And this is where she's going to focus:

She really wants to have navy as her wardrobe core; she's noticed that ALL of the top executives wear navy a lot. Since she's pretty ambitious, she figures that she may as well accustom herself to owning and loving classic navy.

But she's going to give herself the choice of four accent colors! One for each season - more or ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

January 7, 2026

A surprise painting that I snuck in on everyone - almost including myself!

But I always want to include the wardrobe visions of those among us who have a desire for their wardrobe to remain in the background - subtle, nuanced, and quiet...

Her color palette might change in proportion - she's feeling like she may want more grey, and ease back on the gold/yellow. These things are a work in progress, NOT a rule!

She's know what career she wanted ever since she was a small child, and watched people digging up her favorite flowers from her front yard - what's wrong with dandelions?

And she's been fully focused on her desire to redeem the reputation of native plants for pretty much her entire life; her ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

January 5 2026

Our second heroine also has a black base to her wardrobe, along with denim blue and bone (thanks to whomever pointed out that I'd complete SKIPPED the beautiful bluish grey...):

Our heroine is a graphic artist; her specialty is working with designs that incorporate multiple typefaces. She's the absolute master (mistress?) of mixing serif and sans-serif fonts! And it's not as easy as one might think; persuading clients that she's right about things can be difficult. Therefore, she tends to dress in a pretty timeless and neutral fashion, so that clients will concentrate on what she shows to them, and not on her.

But she does plan to include both turquoise and bright Kelly green in her wardrobe, in moderate ... View the Post

Let’s Evaluate the Last 4 2025 Wardrobes

December 31, 2025

This seems a fitting way to finish up our year here together, doesn't it?

I love this painting; I always fear that I'm going to be absolutely sick of the six paintings by the end of the year, but it's never happened. Yet. Good art has legs...

One thing I noticed as I was sorting out the contents of these four wardrobes: If you start with a plan, and proceed in a pretty orderly manner (like we did this year, when we added four garments and three accessories each month, and each group of 4 garments included a "bottom"), you're probably going to end up with a great wardrobe.

There were very few glaring omissions in these - did you miss something that you thought should be included?

One of the real ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1: The Swan No. 24 by Hilma Af Klint

November 3, 2025

I'm always so excited to start these posts each month! Here's today very thought-provoking, but beautiful, inspiration painting:

So I seem to remember that most of us felt like the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe template wasn't really serving a useful purpose at this point, so I've discarded them! Instead, this month especially I'm going to concentrate on getting all of our heroines dressed for the upcoming bundle of holidays.

Today's heroine is getting a couple of velvet pieces, which can be worn with other fabrics to instantly bring a festive feeling to any day. And I'm also giving this lovely lady a couple of cashmere sweaters - another instant upgrade for anything you wear. Yes, they're expensive. If cared for ... View the Post

The Fifth of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 7, 2025

I think of this wardrobe as that of someone who once wore black, white, and red, and has now softened and gentled her colors into grey, white and shades of burgundy...

You know, one could easily make a case that some of the background colors look like navy... I'm not going to do that unless I find that I hit a wall building this wardrobe, but it could be done!

As blessed February dawned, our heroine had this very simple eight-piece wardrobe. Nothing amazing, but extremely versatile:

This seems a good time to fill in more basics for this heroine, so I grabbed her my favorite white shirt, and a pair of black jeans. She already has grey jeans...

The sweater vest is one of my favorite garments, and ... View the Post

The Third of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 5, 2025

I often ponder what I would do with my wardrobe if I had to start from scratch. I mean ABSOLUTELY from scratch - I got out of my apartment in my moose-print pajamas and nothing else!

Well, THAT'S a nightmare, but I have to admit that I would be very tempted to go this direction:

These colors are timeless, and so appealing. And I think it's one of Delaunay's very best paintings...

As we very happily left January, our heroine had this eight-piece capsule wardrobe. It's small, but you could get dressed for quite a bit of the cold weather with just these:

Our heroine could certainly use a brown cardigan, but I didn't see one that really suited. But at least we've put her in a really good position for ... View the Post