Real life wardrobe combos from sudoku grids
Now that you have an idea of how to create your own wardrobe sudoku grid and use it, here’s a couple real life examples. There’s a simple 2×2 all the way up to a bigger commitment 4×4.
2X2 example
2×3 example
3×3 example
4×4 example
Of the 256 unique possible combinations of 4 items, I came up with nearly 60 different possibilities on paper. My husband created a spreadsheet in Excel to show me that there indeed are 256 combos! This was originally for one of Patternreview’s wardrobe contests. Here are just 30 of the different combinations from the grid.
Across combinations:
Down combinations:
Diagonals and corners:
Quad combinations:
Split quad combinations:
Monkey business combinations
Because at some point the combos start getting bananas.
Items in this 4×4
Tops:
- Burdastyle 2-2013-109 striped asymmetric top
- Hummingbird tee (Burdastyle 2-2011-106)
- Ottobre 5-2007-15 cotton lawn tunic with pleated trim
- Lace bodysuit from Jalie’s Bella
Bottoms:
- Nanette Lepore Giraffe Sateen Ottobre 5-2014-19 skinny jeans
- Burdastyle 1-2008-111 denim skirt
- Burdastyle 8-2017-105 asymmetric skirt
- Pale blue Designer Stitch Alyse pants
Extras:
- Burdastyle 12-2009-111 blue twill motorcycle jacket
- Itch to Stitch Lisbon Cardigan with fringe trim
- Reverse Applique Jalie Drop Pocket Cardigan
- Burda 7018 sea glass denim jacket
Footwear:
- Bleached Canvas Dritz Espadrilles
- Bare Traps Adalia boots in cognac
- Toffee wedges
- Nine west cream flats
See how much fun wardrobe sudoku can be? I love this exercise for being able to identify what goes with what in my closet. It’s too easy to get frustrated and feel like you have nothing to wear. This little planner will help smash that feeling and give you some great ideas for how to use your handmade wardrobe in real life.
P.S. Did you grab the sudoku planner sheets yet? They’re a little mini planner for you to help you plan your own capsule wardrobe sudoku style! You can sign up below, and I hope they help you!
Elizabeth Farr is the writer behind the Elizabeth Made This blog where she shares helpful sewing tips, step by step sewing tutorials and videos to help you explore your creativity through sewing. She has written sewing Eguides and patterns, been a featured teacher at Rebecca Page’s Sewing Summit and Jennifer Maker’s Holiday Maker Fest and her work has appeared in Seamwork and Altered Couture magazines. She also created a line of refashioned garments for SEWN Denver. When her sewing machine isn’t humming, she’s playing and teaching violin, and hanging around a good strategic board game with her husband and 4 kids.
Wow, this is such a fantastic wardrobe with really great colors that suit you perfectly. I particularly love those yellow pants. I hope you don’t end up wearing the 4-shoe combination too often. 😉
Thank you Helene! I’ve really loved those warm tan pants–they’re starting to be a bit lived in, and I will sorely miss them! 4 shoes would be a bit of a crazy wardrobe choice for the day! 😀 Actually, with my husband’s formula, it doesn’t seem possible. He did it algebraically, (top 1 is A1, bottom 1 is B1, foot 1 is C1, extra is D1 etc.), so every combination has to have an A, B, C, and D. I was really surprised to see that 256 combinations had generated with those constraints, but yet they did. I’ll have to find the time to make sure there’s no repeats in that. The math here is definitely interesting!
True! I belive there are 16 choose 4 = 1820 total combinations. If you instead constrain yourself to 4 possibilities for the first choice, 4 for the second, etc, you get 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 = 256. But it doesn’t specify which 4 are acceptable for each choice! Ok, I’ll stop now, haha. Math is fun!
That makes sense. I was trying to figure out how you could get 256 combos with all the non-working combinations (like 2 bottoms, shoes, with no top and an extra). This branch of math is very fascinating for sure!
You definitely nailed the color unity! I didn’t see a single combination that didn’t work. Such a great way of maximizing your wardrobe! I’m very tempted to try something like this, if the stars ever align enough for me to have busted enough stash to justify multiple fabric purchases and get my weight stabilized. (Can you tell I’ve been spending the end of my pregnancy longingly drooling over my fashion Pinterest boards?)
Thanks Becky. Someday! I remember feeling like that for many years and hoping for the day to finally be done with the pregnancy body changes. Ultimately, it’s good to be able to sew and cope with whatever state we find ourselves in. Lord knows once 40+ and menopause comes there’s probably a whole other set of issues to deal with! 🙂
What a wonderful wardrobe!!!
Thank you Faye! It came together better than I was hoping, which was a nice surprise!
What a lovely colour palette you chose. It looks so serene. My favourite pieces are your jeans and the trim cardigan. Such a great mix and match wardrobe.
Thanks Katherine! I really like your wardrobe too. I love how you used selvedges in your jeans–I love doing that with my belt loops too. I’ll have to try that with the back pockets–it looks sharp on yours!
Fantastic job! Standing ovation for this capsule wardrobe! I really love the colors you picked- they really compliment you well! The patterns you picked are fantastic too. I really love the bodysuit shirt especially and I think someday I will have to make one too! This is so inspiring! I will hopefully have some capsule wardrobe items sewn by May so perhaps I could join in any Me Made May challenge you might have going on!
Thanks Sarah! The bodysuit was a nice surprise–I had no idea how useful of a style it could be. I’d love to see your capsule pieces–your color palette looks like it’s going to be a great choice for your coloring!
What a HUGE amount of work–I can’t imagine making 10 garments (including a jean jacket) in the 2 month period–AND photographing–AND writing 11 reviews–that seems like more than a full time job honestly. My favorite piece is your jean jacket. I’m going to make those giraffe pants out of the Jale Eleonores sometime this year!!
Thanks Kyle. I think the jean jacket’s my favorite too. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. On the sewing end, it felt just a little more than usual, but the writing/photography end was definitely a lot! I’ll be waiting for your Eleonores!
Thank you