Reducing my "Footprint" with the 5oo4 Easy Tee Dress in Wool

I don't know if any of you have had this experience, but I have had a bunch of wool dresses in my facebook feed lately. There is a particular company that will give you $100 if you wear their dress for 100 days straight. I know that may sound a little "gimmicky," but it is based around the idea that wool is super-breathable (and so appropriate in both winter and summer), and it doesn't pick up odors the way that synthetic fibers do. So theoretically, you could wear it for multiple days without washing it. Anyway, on this particular company's website, they show you various ways to wear their dresses: with a t-shirt over them, with a t-shirt under them, with a scarf, with leggings, etc. This photoshoot was my attempt to emulate that idea, showing that 5oo4's Easy Tee Dress can be worn in quite a few different ways.

The pieces that I used for this capsule were the 5oo4 Easy Tee Dress in a jersey-knit wool with binding instead of bands, a RTW wool long-sleeve t-shirt, the 5oo4 Candy Leggings, and a 5oo4 Eleanor Cardigan. I absolutely love this dress! The fabric came from Levana Fabrics in New Zealand a couple years ago. I believe the color was called "raisin." But it goes with everything! Besides the garments here, I can wear it with almost all the things in my closet. And it's perfect for cooler weather as worn above. Or it's perfect for warmer weather without all the layers!

Here are the pattern links again:

5oo4 Easy Tee, Tunic, and Dress

5oo4 Candy Yoga Pants and Leggings

5oo4 Eleanor Cardigan

I may not wear this one for 100 days straight, but it will certainly be in my rotation one or two times a week for the next while :)

This post contains various affiliate links. Purchasing patterns using these links does not cost my readers more, but the designer does provide me with a small commission from any sales. The commission helps to fund my fabric costs, and is very appreciated.

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Disclosure: I am an affiliate and promoter for these two designers, and I will make a small amount of money if you make a purchase after clicking on my link. The cost to you will not change. These are designers whose patterns I love, and that I would sew up for myself whether I was an affiliate or not.

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Why "Sewing and the Trivium"

The Story

Classical educators like to divide education into developmental stages called the Trivium. These are called "Grammar," "Logic," and "Rhetoric." Grammar refers to the first steps of learning anything: learning the vocabulary of the subject being studied and memorizing facts about that vocabulary. Classically speaking, this corresponds to the elementary years of learning - years when students never seem to grow tired of astounding the adults around them with fact after fact about things they are interested in. Have you experienced talking to a six year old who is really into dinosaurs? enough said...

Adults also begin learning with the grammar of a subject. Each subject has its own unique terminology and facts that need to be mastered before one can explore the more complicated applications of that subject. Sewing is no different. What is a french seam? What kinds of knit fabrics are better for different applications? What is a dolman sleeve or a raglan top? These are grammar queries.

In classical education, logic refers to the action of logically processing the grammar facts students have learned, or are learning. The student who is particularly suited to this type of thought is the middle-school scholar - the student who wants to argue his or her way through the world and "be right" about all the things. This pattern of thought includes bringing different ideas together, comparing and contrasting them, analyzing what an authority figure says about an argument, and deciding whether different arguments are consistent with each other. In the sewing world, logical questions include things like, "How is knit fabric different than woven fabric?" and "Why does this pattern ask for a particular fabric type?" as well as tasks such as mashing two patterns together or changing the sleeve/length/placket from how the pattern was designed.

The final part of the classical trivium, rhetoric, is when a student makes an argument of his or her own by developing a "thesis" or main point and then laying it out for someone else in writing or speech. Typically, students are ready for formal rhetoric in their high school years - years that they are very concerned about what they look like to other people and gain an interest in learning to craft a message in a way that will be most effective for their purposes. Examples of rhetoric in sewing would be fully-formed tutorials or sew-alongs - or even the writing of a blog post itself. Anything that is explaining previously thought-out/tried-out projects can count as rhetoric.

My goal on this blog is to lay out my sews and thoughts using this framework. And that is why I chose this title.

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Reducing my "Footprint" with the 5oo4 Easy Tee Dress in Wool

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Why "Sewing and the Trivium"