In The Sketchbook-April 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 brings us the double breasted garments. This specific style always has me thinking of the 1980's with a double breasted jacket and super wide shoulders and big hair ladies or of pea coats worn by the US Navy. Not really the look I am going for!

Double breasted details have always interested me and eluded me, so I took some time while at the Design II workshop to sketch out several different ideas.

The first one is a bit rough, I have a double sided wool of hot pink and bright yellow and I was just playing with the idea of using a double sided fabric. I started with the top or in this case a jacket. It was intended to have sleeves I just never got around to sketching them in since this was just playing to see what would happen.

I decided quite quickly that the look of a traditional double breasted was not doing it for me and I tried to make it more interesting with adding a skirt (or it could just be the detail at the bottom of a long coat) that echoed the idea of the double breast and showing the reverse color.

Then after some discussion the points of the turn back portion were elongated and slightly softened to keep it from looking harsh and not quite so 80's punk looking.

I also tried a pair of pants and this look is just funny!

The next idea was an idea that I could use for work wear. A softened double breasted jacket that has an asymmetric collar with a pencil skirt. I like this, I think the shape and proportions would look good on me.

I also sketched out a back side of this garment and I decided to echo the double breasted detail with a double back vent and button detail for the walking vent on the skirt. Since I can go crazy with color on work clothes, I am finding that adding in extra details is a nice way to express myself.

The last in the group this month  was to take that same idea and make the entire look more asymmetric. I know that for the high side of an asymmetric skirt I can not go any higher than sketched. Or else I begin to look indecent for work purposes! In order to keep the proportions correct on my body I had to make the jacket a bit shorter than the original one drawn up above. The asymmetry of the jacket and the skirt now echo each other and the proportions on my body look much nicer. With the jacket at the original length I was cut right in half.

If all else fails I can always revert back to the original inspiration!

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!!