In The Sketchbook- September 2018- Sketching a travel Wardrobe

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.

Sketching has really helped me in designing and sewing a small capsule wardrobe for work. I was get

As I have been contemplating and preparing for my trip to Hong Kong in late November my mind immediately went to what am I going to wear and what do I need to sew for my trip!

I started with picking a color palette and then to selecting fabrics and now I am in the midst of sketching and sewing. It is quite a fun and dynamic process and I am trying to keep it fun and dynamic and not stress myself out over it!

Color palette is black/grey/white with a pop of yellow. 

Many of the fabrics are right from my own collection and I purchased only a couple lengths of black for different pants and the faux leather for a jacket.

I started by thinking of how I wanted to pack for this trip and I am going to attempt to pack for 10 days in a carry-on. With the thought that I will purchase another bag in Hong Kong to bring back fabric in!! Eeeek!! I am so excited!
As of know the plan is for:
5 tops, 3 bottoms and 2 dresses. But... like I said this is a dynamic plan!

Here is what I have come up with so far!

This sketch is very similar to a dress that I already have in my closet.
 So, I am saving this for last!

A little fancier dress for evenings out at nice restaurants.

Polka dot skirt with a knit top.

Stretch silk blouse with black pants

Knit top with black/grey camouflage ponte pants

Knit top with polka dot skirt

Knit top with ponte jeans

Here is what I have come up with so far!
SO far the regular sketching has really helped me in both defining and refining my design ideas. However, I seem to be going backwards when it comes to sketching my arms and legs. The body parts that stick out of the clothes seem to defy my attempts! Good thing i'm only interested in the clothes!!

What fun things have you been sketching?

Make sure to stop by Wendy Grossman of Couture Counsellor to see what lovely sketches and ideas she is working on. Please feel free to share your sketches and ideas with us.


Happy Sketching!!

In The Sketchbook- February 2018

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.



This month, I am playing with sleeve designs.

I drew some of my inspiration from photos that I have taken and have in an 'Inspiration' folder on my computer. Sleeves are a great place to add in detail. I have spent much time in perfecting the fit of my basic sleeve and now that I have fit down, I feel like it is time to really play with design.

Each of my sketches are done in half. Meaning I sketched one design on the right and another on the left. 

These first two are of different set in sleeve types.
On the left we have a gathered sleeve head with a button vent at the wrist and on the right we have a very traditional smooth inset 2 piece sleeve with a split vent at the wrist. 
I did not draw these from any photos, just from my head as they are 2 variations on a simple design.

these are sleeves from the bodice of different contemporary dresses.
On the left is a raglan sleeve with trim at the short sleeve hem. The photo is with a geometric lace, I just drew it as a solid.  On the right is an off the shoulder sleeve that comes from bands across the bodice. A strange looking top, I cant tell if it is purposely asymmetric or if the left side is just falling off the models shoulder... Maybe a little of both!

Both of these sleeves were taken from paintings in museums. Both of them incorporate a large amount of lace.
On the left you have a double tiered lace flounce with the upper sleeve and bodice overlay in a sheer material, the band on the off the shoulder neckline matches the band attaching the lace flounce to the sleeve.
On the right you have a more modest design with a very structured bodice and large lace flounces around the neckline and forming the bottom half of the sleeve.

These were photos taken at the V&A in London.
On the left is a type of Juliet or Leg-of-Mutton sleeve and the right is a sort of Bishop sleeve with a lot of fabric manipulation going on.

These are both taken from more contemporary designs as you can see in the photo below.
The left photo is an updated and clean looking version of a bishop, especially when compared to the bishop sleeve in the previous sketch/photo above. The Sleeve on the right looks well enough while the arm is straight and hanging softly by the body. I'm not sure how good it would look say while in a business meeting and taking notes on an iPad. It is interesting enough to maybe make a mock up of.

More photos from the V&A.
The left is a sort of  layered Kimono which is very, very pretty! Although I'm certain that unless you had on some super corset you could not attain that shape! On the right is a very cool play with stripes using a mild puff sleeve.

These were photos taken at the V&A as part of the Balenciaga exhibit. (they are NOT Balenciaga)
Both of these are what I would call extreme sleeves. Very cool, very runway and not practical at all!
However, they were fun to adapt to my shape using my croquis!

More from the V&A!
The design on the left really had me itching to get into the case and see what was really going on with that sleeve! From my view and the photo it looks like it is an organza that has been gathered and only attached at the sleeve head. It looks cool but I cant quite figure out what is happening in the lower part....
The sketch and photo on the right are of a cut on sleeve. I really like the look of this. I keep thinking it would be fun to develop one for myself. However, it would need to be impeccable like this one and i'm just not sure how that would look in motion. Fine as it is standing perfectly motionless on a mannequin where a curator finessed the drape and folds to be perfect! in real life would it just look like a baggy mess???

The sleeve on the left is really just made up of bodice with a cut on sleeve and then wide bands of fabric joining the front and back together. An interesting concept.
The short sleeve on the right is a trickier one. Hard to tell from the photo if it is clever pattern work with origami like folds to create the look or if it is separate pieces. Would love to get my hands on this to give it a good look over!

These last 2 are mens clothing from the l700's.
I mostly decided to sketch these because I am fascinated with where the heck the shoulder are! This silhouette is so different from what is current. the sleeve is very narrow and shaped to the arm, the sleeve is set in very far out with the cut of the upper chest being very wide. I am very curious to know if they stuffed or wore some special shoulder pads to make the shoulders so sloped. These sleeves are 2 or piece sleeves and the under sleeves are cut on the bias.the one on the left has a separate cuff sewn on that was cut on the cross grain. the on eon the Right has no discernible separate cuff. Just a vent.

My idea in using photo's to sketch from was that I would play with ideas that I would not normally gravitate to and this would help increase my sketching and rendering skills. It has and it has been fun, I've been diligently checking out sleeve designs every where I look! It has also seemed to let some of these alternative shapes seep into my imagination and have shown in up in other designs that I have been working on. 

Make sure to stop by Wendy Grossman of Couture Counsellor to see what lovely sketches and ideas she is working on. Please feel free to share your sketches and ideas with us.

Happy Sketching!

In The Sketchbook- January 2018

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.



I was so busy last week that it wasn’t until Monday that realized that the past Friday was indeed the last Friday of the month! A crazy start to the new year!

This year I have decided to try a different method of presenting my monthly sketches. I am going to take one base sketch and pick an element and play with just that element. In doing this, I am hoping to increase my skills at sketching the details. 

This month, I am playing with necklines on a princess line sheath dress.
I started with a previous sketch that I really like and then changed up the neckline quite a few times. In this iteration I have a total of 10 necklines to choose from.

This is my original sketch. Below you can see nine alternative necklines. I kept all that I sketched and did not try to make them perfect at this point. I used the tracing paper method. Just drew the neckline, head and torso portions that I could then overlay on the base sketch and play with. For all you digital people out there, this is basically a hand layering function.

Asymmetric large collar, High ruffled neckline, Modified V neckline

Deep U with mandarin collar, Giant collar, boat neck with cut in shoulders

Draped off the shoulder neckline, square neckline (unintentionally off!), Diamond cutout neckline.

Make sure to stop by Wendy Grossman of Couture Counsellor to see what lovely sketches and ideas she is working on. Please feel free to share your sketches and ideas with us.

Happy Sketching!

Sewing for Happiness- Self drafted Skirt and Top!

Sewing for happiness!

I hosted a party the first weekend of August,  a housewarming party for myself. My divorce is final and I am all moved into my own apartment in the city. Radio silence is over and I am coming to terms with my new life!

All smiles in my new outfit and in my new home!

Prior to this I had done a little bit of sewing here and there but nothing very inspired, it felt like something that I was doing because it felt safe and comforting and I needed that. I ended up spending a lot of time setting up my sewing space and feeling out my new space. You know what it's like! A new place and everything just has to find its right home. I never imagined how sweet it would feel to have my own place and to decorate how I wanted and not have to think about anyone else! It may sound a bit bit selfish... I needed some selfish time, I needed to find me and it felt liberating, freeing and just down right good!

Anyhow... as the the craziness, of any major life change causes, started to wind down I wanted to host a party and invite my friends to come and share in my happiness and to be a part of my new beginning. As I started to plan my party, I was suddenly very inspired to sew myself a new outfit. This outfit is one from my 2nd half of 2017 sewing plans! Woohoo!! I am so very good at putting together sewing plans but not always the best at following through with those plans!

This was a sketch that was included in the 'In the Sketchbook' series.
The original intent was to use the green as the under skirt.
 However, as I was constructing the skirt I changed my mind.
I am much happier with the light pink fabric as the second fabric.

Pink is a happy color for me and I really wanted to make a pink outfit that picks up the pink accents in my new place AND i wanted to just share my happiness through my clothes!

This is the same skirt pattern that I used for the yellow and black print skirt in 2016.
A great master pattern that I developed with guidance from Sarah Veblen.

The skirt is my own self drafted flippy A-line skirt. This is my third iteration of this skirt and I really like how this fits. This time I made it as a double layer skirt with the over layer being 2 inches shorter than the under layer. The light pink shirting under layer is a shirting remnant from Fabrics and Fabrics in NYC. The dark pink overlay is a beautiful linen remnant from my fabric collection. I used a lapped zipper application from Janet Pray method and it came out beautifully. I made one big oops on this skirt... I have 2 copies of the pattern, one for stretch wovens and one for non-stretch wovens and I accidentally used the wrong one which resulted in it being too small! UGH... I had to pick out the seams on both skirts and re sew them with a smaller seam allowance. I'm worried that this may have affected the integrity if the linen and am concerned I may have weakened the fabric at the seams. I guess only time will tel!  

Top left, right and bottom right: Lapped zipper application
Bottom left hand stitched hems on both layers. 

The top is a self drafted top with a back invisible zipper. The fabric was a remnant left from my Corner dress that I made last year. I like it that I was able to get an entire new outfit from remnants!

I drafted this from my master princess line button up bodice. I went with a wide U neckline and a partial collar. Some books call this a portrait neckline, although that may be a full collar and I have a split collar.  For the bodice hem I made a shaped hem, longer in the back, higher on the sides and then back down in the front. Back is lower than the front.

The sleeves have a detail that I have had on my mind for quite a while. I wanted to use a turn back wing detail with a facing in the dark pink linen. To get this detail to show as I wanted I used a trick from Sarah Veblen and first played with this in paper! I realized that when I kept the seam straight and just folded back the corners the fold back part, or the wing, was too small. I wanted something slightly more pronounced. I started by drawing on the pattern the size of the wing that I wanted. I then taped some paper onto the edge of the pattern and folded this back over the drawing and then traced it, unfolded the paper and cut along those lines. Once I got the wing size and shape to where I wanted it I then added seam allowances. With the facing made and the wing turned back I then went to my button collection and found light pink fabric buttons, in the perfect shade!, to sew to the seam line between the wings. This carried over the 2 shades of pink to the sleeve detail.

Left: Sleeve detail, top Right: double collar
Bottom Right: serge finished seam allowances.

Once the bodice and sleeves were done I put the garment on my Dottie and went to work drafting a collar.  The collar was drafted from muslin and basted onto the bodice to determine the size and shape. I first drafted the bottom collar. Once I had that I went on to the top collar. I actually cut a single layer for each out of scraps of the fashion fabric to get a good look. I left this overnight, made some final tweaks, developed patterns for both sets of collars and voila!!

Everything went together like a dream except for the back collar at the top of the invisible zipper. Just too many layers! 6 layers of fabric, 3 layers of interfacing and the zipper. Long story short... I ended up flattening it with a hammer 😳. Still a bit bulky but of course always more noticeable to the maker than anyone else!

I really like the hem shape of the top! it is very pleasing to my eye!

I think the final outfit was quite close to the original design except for the change of the under layer of the skirt fabric. 

Happy Sewing!!

So very happy to have the support of my girls!!

Sewcial retreat 2017

In february I attended the Sewcial Retreat  put on by American Sewing Expo. It was a 2.5 day retreat filled with sewing, socializing, a field trip, prizes and just an all around great long weekend away with girlfriends.

Three of us, myself, Wendy G from The Couture Counsellor and Liz H, made the road trip together and we sure did have fun! The retreat started off on Friday midday and ended sunday evening. Since we had a 300mile trip we decided to drive in on thursday and home on monday, this way we could take our time and enjoy ourselves. We sure did lots of enjoying!

L-R, Myself, Wendy G and Liz H

The retreat was held at the Suburban Collection Showplace conference center and we stayed onsite at the Hyatt Place Detroit/Novi. It was great to be able to stay onsite. The hotel staff were very nice, the rooms were quite comfortable and spacious enough for 2 people to share.

We started off the retreat with a trip to Haberman Fabrics store. You can read about that experience in my last blog post, Fabric Shopping in Michigan.

After our trip to Haberman Fabrics we had a couple hours of downtime before we needed to check-in for the retreat, get our name tags and goody bags and then we had a cocktail hour meet and greet with most of the attendees, staff and the 2 weekend teachers, Janet Pray and Linda Lee. We had a fun evening hearing about the details of the weekend ahead. We also had a little gift exchange! several weeks prior to the Sewcial everyone was sent a package with a piece of fabric and we were asked to make something out of it for the gift exchange.On preview was the table of items that would be given away on sunday during lunch.

The package we received several weeks before Sewcial.

I made an embroidered bag with the fabric sent on the back.

The 50 or so attendees were broken into 2 groups, A and B. The three of us were in the B group which meant that Saturday we spent 8 hours sewing with Linda Lee and Sunday we spent 8 hours sewing with Janet Pray. Both classes were project based and the object of both was to learn new techniques and leave with either finished garments or almost finished garments.

On the left is all of the gift exchange items that people made! On the right is the giveaway raffle items.

The Linda Lee class used one of her The Sewing Workshop patterns called the Tremont Jacket. Honestly I was not expecting to like this jacket, was not expecting it to fit me at all. Most of the clothes that I really like are quite a bit more fitted.
Not only did I finish the Jacket in the class but I really like it! I made sure to pick my size based off of finished measurements and NOT the sizes listed on the pattern envelope.

Top, the attendees that completed the Tremont Jacket in Linda Lee's Saturday class. Bottom pics are of LInda demonstrating how to sew acute mitered angles and on the right is an example of how important proper pressing is in successfully executed mitered corners. 

The fabric I used was a free piece of fabric that I picked up at a Chicago ASG event. It is quite a nice heavy and drapey rayon. At least that's what I think from when I washed/dried it and from my burn test. I actually think I may make some more of these!

During this class Linda showed us her techniques for making acute mitered corners with differing seam allowances. Several of us in the group finished the garment and wore them to the Saturday evening dinner.

Saturday evening was a dinner with everyone followed by charity sewing, massages, sewing bingo and just general socializing. It was a lot of fun and very low stress!

Serging for charity, lunchtime guest speaker from Babylock, sewing bingo and fun gift exchange. These and many other moments made for a wonderful weekend!

Sunday our group had Janet Pray's class. For this we had quite a bit more homework in preparation. Not only did we need our pattern cut out we also had to have the interfacing fused on and the initial pressing for the front plackets completed. For this class I used The Islander Sewing Womens Shirtmaker Express pattern. I ordered the pattern and the recommended interfacing from the Islander website ahead of time and made a quick muslin before hand. The primary reason for taking this class was for the actual techniques that Janet teaches not necessarily for a finished shirt. However, I did make a muslin just in case we did finish the shirt, I wanted to be able to wear it.

Janet is a very energetic and patient teacher. She really makes everyone feel that they can be successful which is quite a feat in a hands on class of 25!

I made sure to take some time to catch pictures of my partner in crime who was very intent on getting her stitching done perfectly! I loved her wonderful smiles during this quite long 8 hour class! We were feeling quite exhausted at the end of it!

You are probably wondering if I finished that shirt in class...nope! and neither did anyone else! I am perfectly ok with that and I don't plan on finishing it either. I enjoyed this class immensely and it reinforced some good techniques that I could take back with me and apply to my own shirtmaking repertoire. The fabric I used was a black cotton windowpane that has been marinating in my collection for some time. I know I got it on a good sale and I have plenty leftover to make another shirt or maybe even a shirtdress if I wanted! I will keep what I did in class as a reference for future projects.

And on the other side of me sat Liz H who just powered through her project and wowed us all with her chevron striped yoke and collar! She was also the perfect size for one of Janet's sample garments, a lace moto jacket, how fun!!

On Sunday evening the three of us decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out. We were  quite happy to just sit back and relax and enjoy each other's company!

Monday morning... Oh my! Where in the heck were we going to fit the suitcases... Every possible inch of space was taken up in the car. We left with a new sewing machine, a new serger, tank iron, lucite sewing table, project bags, yards and yards and yards of fabric. You don't even want to know how many yards!! And 3 suitcases and of course 3 people!
What a FUN weekend we had!!

Sewcial retreat 2017 was a hit in my book! A great way to get back to sewing and being creative right in the middle of the winter doldrums. Looking forward to next year!

Happy Sewing!

In The Sketchbook- November 2016

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.

This month my sketches were directed at the preparation for a draping workshop that I took with Sarah Veblen. In the preparation directions she asked us to bring both pictures of garments that interest us as well as sketches that we have done of garment designs.

I was inspired by this to move into sketches of garments that I think would benefit from either being fully or partially draped on my dressform.
Some of these were  directly inspired by garment pictures and some were inspired by my fabric collection and dreamt up in my head!

I have been wanting to make a shawl collar light coat/jacket for a while. Something that will show off both sides of the fabric, the collar and the cuffs can show odd the reverse side. I really like this shape with the fitting darts at the bottom to draw the fabric in and waist fitting darts so it doesn't look too big all over. I really like the silhouette, especially how the big collar balances out the fullness at the hips.

This is a very simple summer top that I imagined constructed on the bias. This is a silhouette that I have never worn because the ready to wear types have never fit me correctly. I'm hoping that I can overcome those issues if  I custom design this for me! I will need to try this out in a muslin first and then decide.

I have a wedding to attend next year and was playing with different ideas. These 2 sketches are different fabric and different construction techniques for the same basic shape. The one on the left is all done out of a sheer fabric with lots of gathering and ruching and would require an understructure. The one on the right is the same shape but the main part of the dress would be pieced and from a more structured woven. The skirt part would then be sheer and of several layers. Many possibilities with this idea!

This outfit was inspired from the jacket in the center top photo. I believe it is a Chanel garment. Initially I was intrigued about how it was constructed and this led me to try sketching it out. You can see my front and back sketches on either side of the photo. I liked the idea of using curved lines in the upper yoke (where I believe the overlap is attached and then left to hang free) I then used these same curved lines in the back yoke of the jacket. I also played around with an interestingly seamed sheath dress. 

This final set of sketches pairs a pencil skirt with a curved yoke and princess seams with the above jacket. I love playing with ideas and seeing how I can change things up and play with mini-wardrobe or collection ideas.

Don't forget to hop on over to see what amazing designs Wendy Grossman of Couture Counsellor has come up with this month! We would love to see what you are working on, leave a comment with a link to your designs.