Spring Sweater Outfits + DIY Paper Beads and Jewelry

I have fallen behind on sharing my outfits from my fall/winter capsule wardrobe since the seasonal change from winter to spring, but today I have two spring outfits with lightweight pullover sweaters and straight leg/trouser style pants from my capsule that would be suitable for our current temperature (high of around 50F and raining). I am actually wearing a variant on this outfit formula - cotton pullover sweater + straight leg pants - as I write this post.

Fall/Winter Wardrobe Capsule Color Palette

My first outfit features a new combination for me: layering my azure blue open weave pullover sweater on top of my colorful striped button-up shirt. I almost always wear the sweater over the same-colored blouse that I bought from the same store at the same time (the sweater can't be worn without a top underneath it) because it's an easy and obvious Pleasing Pairing. But to add some variety to my capsule wardrobe outfits, I decided to test layering a contrasting shirt underneath instead, and I like the result!

Capsule OOTD #37: 3/9/24

The tiger scarf in coordinating warm blue tones adds some print mixing to the look. I tied it using my tried-and-true single overhand knot with the other end pulled through (method #1 in this scarf-tying tutorial). I like that the scarf has a men's tie vibe to it without being knotted that way (this method is easier to do and produces a neater knot on a scarf).

With the current popularity of various not-skinny jeans, my thrifted trouser jeans have a new lease on life. I enjoy pairing them with pointy-toed shoes more than with rounded-toe ones; I just like how the shoe extends out from beneath the wider leg opening more with pointy-toed shoes/boots. It creates a better balance with the full length and drama of these jeans.

I have a new DIY paper bead bracelet set to show you today, which I made in a blue, red, and gold color scheme to coordinate with the striped shirt I'm wearing. To fill out my stack, I added a few other recent makes: faceted blue glass bead bracelet, red paper bead bracelet (more about it below), and 8mm lapis lazuli bead bracelet. {bicone paper bead tutorial} {stretch bracelet tutorial}

My first paper bead bracelet in this set (second in the stack) started as this full-color image from an alumni magazine (which I like using because it has thicker paper than other magazines/catalogs). I liked the red, white, and blue color scheme with accents of gold and black as a fit for my desired color palette. I covered the white paper core with gold permanent marker before rolling the beads. The beads have a nice colorblock/striped appearance with quite a bit of contrast.

My second paper bead bracelet (second from the bottom of the stack) was also created from an alumni magazine image, this time a surreal drawing accompanying an article about the contributors to Wikipedia. This page has some colors that are extraneous to my color palette (such as the bits of green, orange, and yellow) but with the dominant colors being blue and red, I gave it a try. It's interesting...in the original paper, I basically didn't notice that the blue background as a lot of visual texture, but that texture is quite obvious when looking at the beads. It gives the beads a marbled effect that is quite attractive.

The red paper bead bracelet in the middle of my stack is not actually part of my bracelet set but does coordinate very well with it! For this one, I used the cover of an issue of The Economist with a gold dragon on a dark red background (representing China). I used a red marker to cover the white text on the strips and a gold metallic marker to cover the white paper core. When the beads were rolled, the gold paper color looked too yellow, so I used the gold metallic marker to cover those areas, applying it in a purposefully messy/slapdash way so the beads wouldn't look too neatly striped in gold. Because I only had 6 1" beads instead of my usual 7, I added some red and gold beads to create a focal on the bracelet. The center faceted gold bead was pulled from my singleton bead soup; picking out a singleton bead as a focal in a bracelet is a great way to use them up.

My earrings are a DIY stack pair that I made using my bead soup. I sought out warm blue beads to match/go with the azure blue of this sweater, and I paired them with gold spacers and findings to enhance the warm tones of the beads. The middle beads in the stack are clear round glass beads with blue and gold painted sprayed on them, which was perfect for these earrings.

I lost track of my outfits from this capsule wardrobe, so I initially thought that this second outfit was #37 for the capsule; in reality, it's #38. In any event, this outfit was my first one to include the lavender cotton sweater at the lower left of the image, which I erroneously labeled in yellow as #37. Lavender is a color that really doesn't feature in my fall or winter outfits, but I love it in the spring and summer. So I'm glad that I've extended the time period for this capsule to capture some of the items/colors that I wear more often in the warmer seasons. And remember, I live in Minnesota, where "spring" covers at least two types of weather: a continuation of cold, snowy winter-like conditions, followed by a period of increasing warmth. The very warm spring weather we had living in the southern US is pretty much the summer season here.

This is one of my favorite spring color combinations: lavender and olive green. Dressing in this colorblocked manner, rather than using a print as a bridge piece combining the two colors, is not unusual for me exactly, but it's definitely less common. I could have selected a print scarf for this outfit, but I really wanted to try the lavender-on-lavender look.

Capsule OOTD #38: 3/14/24

Because we've had an atypically warm spring this year, I was able to wear a layered necklace earlier than usual. This one has a few sentimental pieces (the crystal heart pendant and the crystal chain necklace are both from my mom; the purple amethyst bead necklace was made by my friend RB about 30 years ago) as well as a made-by-me multi-strand seed bead necklace in various purple shades and my go-to gold tassel necklace with 88 wears and a cost per wear (CPW) of $0.23.

This is the kind of outfit color combo where people sometimes struggle to choose shoes. Of course you could match the pants or top color, but not everyone has shoes in every single imaginable color. This is where a pair of animal print shoes can be a very useful thing to have in your wardrobe because they really can be worn with any colors, and they add some interest to the look. Extra points if your animal print relates to your hair color for a bookending effect. In this case, my blonde hair, gold necklace, and tan-based cheetah print shoes create nice cohesion in the outfit.

My all-DIY bracelet stack was built around a paper bead bracelet set with a navy, olive, lavender, pink, and silver color scheme that I made last summer (page to bead post here). I really focused on the green colors in the bracelet in choosing the bracelets to fill out the stack. I also added a mixed metal bead spacer bead bracelet to pull the gold and silver tones together.

My DIY earrings are another simple 3-beads-on-a-stick style made from my bead soup: purple glass, lavender glass, and purple wood beads with gold bead caps, spacers, and findings.

My accessories capsule continues to grow in an organic way as I select pieces to finish my outfits. To the neutral capsule I added three necklaces from the second outfit.

Accessory capsule to date: Neutral colors

My accent color accessory capsule has become large enough that I decided to split it into two parts. Not surprisingly, the blue and purple modules grew quite a bit with these outfits built around blue and lavender sweaters. The purple, especially, is looking much less pitiful now. You'll notice that my blue module now has a pair of navy loafers with blue tassels, which might seem odd to some people given that my capsule color palette has black but not navy in its neutrals. But I think that a color palette should serve as a guide and support, not a grid-iron rule that you can never deviate from. It's perfectly OK to add some navy with your blue items; navy is just a dark form of blue after all.

Accessory capsule to date: Blue & Purple

My large red and multi-color-with-red accessory set was more modestly added to this time with the new bracelet set and stand-alone red paper bead bracelet from the first outfit.

Accessory capsule to date: Red & Multi

To wrap things up, here is a pretty purple flower demonstrating how great this color looks with various shades of green.

Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Do you have any favorite color combinations for spring outfits?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.