Okay, I did what I thought I would not do: I made a capsule, and not for a trip.
I followed the guidelines in Angie's recent post: http://youlookfab.com/2013/08/.....r-for-fall
Here's a recap of my experience.

I had trouble right from the start: what colors to include? I started with warm gray/taupe, black, and olive, with some white and blue thrown in. I felt like my colors were pretty much all neutrals, rather than having any accent colors. But I forged ahead.
One goal was to include some recent acquisitions, to work them into outfits: boyfriend jeans, gray leather jacket, olive print silk blouse, gray silk blouse, black oxfords.

Photo 1 is the layout. These are the items:
3 bottoms:
- full-length boyfriend jeans (Fidelity)
- coated jeans/leggings in dark gray (AG)
- black slouchy skinnies with zippered pockets and bling on front pocket flaps (MosMosh)

6 tops:
- blurry print gray-white-blue cross-over neck tee (made by me)
- gray and white scroll print cowl-neck cotton pullover blouse (made by me)
- starry-sky (or abstract flowers?) print rayon tee, black with grays (made by me)
- gray silk chiffon pullover blouse (Vince)
- marbled greens and blues print sheer knit peasant tunic (made by me)
- olive and black print silk pullover blouse (Nexx)

2 toppers:
- collarless leather jacket with quilting detail in "nickel" (Hinge)
- long open-front 3/4 sleeve linen knit cardigan (Nic & Zoe)

2 pairs of shoes:
- shiny cross-hatch black suede oxfords (Naya)
- graphite nubuck heeled booties (Paul Green)

1 belt:
- black with studs, rhinestones, and ornate pewter buckle (Bed Stu)

1 bag (not photographed in outfit photos):
- shoulder bag with flap in dark ash ("Marzipan Pig" by Aunts & Unicles)

Photos 2 through 22 are the outfits I made with these items.
I don't see myself wearing some of these outfits out of the house, particularly some of the outfits made with the boyfriend jeans and the coated denim leggings.
I found the boyfriend jeans hard to style with the tops and toppers in the capsule. I think the capsule would have worked better with skinny jeans. So maybe I can just look at some of these outfits and substitute my skinny jeans for the boyfriends.
I also found the coated leggings hard to style. They probably need to be the basis of their own capsule, or a capsule based on skinny pants and leggings.

Nevertheless, I came away with several outfits I can wear in the fall, with some of my new purchases. Yay!

I'm still a bit confounded by capsules, but I've made a start.

What do you think? Does my capsule help anyone with thoughts about their own possibilities? Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.