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.