In The Sketchbook- October 2017

Welcome to In the Sketchbook, a monthly look at fashion design sketches that we are working on for ourselves. Sketching garments on a personal croquis is a great way for the individual couture enthusiast to move beyond the use of commercial patterns and into a world of personalized design! It can be intimidating at first, but with a little bit of practice it becomes something you look forward to. Join us for a look of what we have going on In the Sketchbook! Brought to you by Wendy Grossman of Couture Counsellor and Steph King from Siouxzeegirl Designs.


Fall has officially arrived to Chicago-land! We had a crazy warm spell the first half of October and now the chill from northerly winds has set in.

It seems my co-host, Wendy, and I are taking turns this fall with having some time off from blogging. I was gone for a little over 2 weeks at the end of September and beginning of October and now it is her turn to have a crazy travel schedule. Sometimes life just gets in the way of the things we want to do.

I have been using my sketching to help with my designing and creation of outfits.
It really has been helping me to ground myself and settle on designs I want to make and explore further. Rather than having a zillion ideas floating in my head at once it allows me to focus better. This could also be a side effect of the daily meditation and mindfulness practice that I have incorporated into my life. More on that another time.

With the fall weather, I always seem to gravitate towards warmer and softer colors than what I sew with the rest of the year. My eyes starts being drawn to the yellows, golds, mustards, soft grays and muted colors.

First up is an outfit that I sketched through several iterations and along with that is the final creation. This idea was born out of my ASG Neighborhood challenge for the annual Chicago Chapter fashion show. Our challenge was to create a garment using bias. The wool plaid skirt is on the bias as well as bias welt pockets on the skirt and vest and some other details on the blouse. Using Tracing paper for the overlay of the vest onto the skirt and blouse I was able to play with length, proportion and style.

Next up is mostly a works in progress. I made a shorter gray knit skirt with a pocket made from a fold in the fabric and then my brain started going and I pulled these fabrics that are pinned to my dress form and just started sketching.
Again, the use of tracing paper allows for me to draw different elements and play with what I want to further develop.

Lastly, I have been doing some quick sketches. These are done is mini-notebook that I can pull out whenever inspiration strikes! Admittedly, I seemed to have been fresh out of inspiration for awhile! But, now it is returning! WHEW!! Things can get pretty boring with no inspiration.

These sketches are often not pretty, but the do let me capture an idea so that I can come back to it later. These were done on an airplane while taxiing on the tarmac.

Thank you for stopping by! 


Happy Sketching!