A Nasty Hickup In My Path Of Becoming A Fashion Designer

Okay, first word to anybody trying to become a fashion designer without going to school to do so. My dears, my poor poor dears please listen to me very carefully, this is not Chanel's era, we all need to do things differently now, you must learn everything you need to know as a fashion designer before you attempt to wing it on partial knowledge, okay? This is what just happened to me, I contacted a clothing company and they were interested in my designs and wanted to acquire the specs for my garment designs, I don't yet have pattern making skill though and had actually forgotten about the technical aspects of fashion illustrations (the flat 'technical' line drawings used by the pattern makers) and so, there is no practical way to for the company to do business with me in the way that this business is run now. And that's okay, because although I've been dis-illusioned and dis-appointed I was aiming to learn all I had to know as a fashion designer any way. So I haven't of course been knocked off my path. I haven't and you shouldn't be either. Just keep going and focus on the next step in front of you and not how long the journey is.

Anyway though, I've joined the fashion industry network and I've been making a few friends along the way. There are also some products that I know are going to help me out in my path and here's a list of which wonderful things they are: The Lutterloh Pattern Making System, Islander Sewing's Industrial sewing training DVDs and 'Il Figurino Di Moda' Fashion Design Techniques Book and the Portfolio Presentation for Fashion Design book (I've just ordered this last one) So I'm digging in my heals like usual and continuing to find my way.

I wish you all a wonderful day,

Ayisha (Emma)

Working With A Dress Form And Plotting A Course

Well, I had another rewarding educational experience,  my dress form wasn't marked with the usual princess seams and neckline,  waist,  bust and hip lines so I had to draw those in.   Took me all evening to get it right,  but I just had to get it done (the same evening I brought the dress form home)so it would be ready to use.    First I drew in the 'rough' lines with a pencil,  using Connie Amaden Crawford's dress form illustrations in her 'pattern making made easy' book as a reference to how they're supposed to look.   Then,  when I was satisfied with my line work,  I darkened the lines with a blue sharpy and here are the results:

So that wasn't too bad,  than the next morning,  I just had to drape the basic front and back bodice blocks,  I loved it and unfortunately got so carried away I forgot to take pictures of it with my cell phone :(,   I did take a shot of the fabric blocks afterward though and here they are:

 I haven't trued them up or anything,  they clearly need it.   I've already traced them on paper and I'm going to true them up this morning.   I then want to make a seam allowance copy,  sew it up and test it on the dressform.   If it fits like it's supposed to then,  Voila!  I've got my perfect set of basic blocks then I'll be able to get to work on the rest of the master blocks that are built from these two.   I'll just draft all of them on paper first then transfer them to poster board to make my durable working copies.

As for my sewing and fashion illustration skill development,  I've come up with a practical plan.   Just like how I tried to practice my pattern making whenever there's been a dry spell in my article work (and on weekends),   whenever there's no pattern making to do,  I'll practice my sewing or illustration skills.  Just build on one thing at a time like Will Smith's "brick wall" principal.  For all of you who aren't familar with this reference,  check out "Will's Wisdom" on Youtube,  he's a very inspirational/motivational speaker.  (Thanks again for that one Philippe).

I'll keep you guys posted.

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:
Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:
The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

My First Sewn Pattern Block

Okay,  I managed to draft the basic bodice,  make a copy to add seams and sew it up to see if it fit okay on the dress form.   I trued up the pattern blocks really nice and then I sewed them up,  just wish I would have remembered to align the shoulder darts in the front and back.   Other than that it was perfect :)   Oh yeah,  and I used old flannel diapers from my kids to sew it up,  lol,  how's that for eco-friendly?   Okay,  well of course I wouldn't wear something made from old diapers,  but it's okay for a pattern test.   When I'm ready to do my designs,  I'll get some organic muslin from Fabric.com or one of those other online stores listed on my eco-friendly fashion designer's resource page (don't worry I put the link below).

My machine wasn't working well either. I t was my bad though,  the thread tension was out of wack,  I adjusted it after and tried again and it worked fine.   Actually the shoulder seam didn't come out exactly the way I wanted because it was 1/8 inch narrower than I wanted (my sewing is rusty from not having sewn in a few years and my son was trying to take over the machine,  not good)  That's okay though it worked out great otherwise and I'll be starting work on developing the rest of the master blocks from this bodice's flat pattern.   So cool.   

Now however,  the real world dictates that I need to work on my freelance writing,  got another 12 article project from one of my old clients,  that will be some of next week's groceries.   And I also have to start working on my friend's new book,  I'm doing the illustrations for.   The second installment of a children's salat book (I illustrated the first one too actually)   I'm just hoping that my kids will let me actually get the work done for the rough story board.   I think I'll be able to find a way.   I also have to write the text for it,  shouldn't be too,  too hard though.   

Got to keep those patternblocks coming so I can start working on getting my patternmaking business started.  Slowly but surely.   I want to be up and running before the year is out.   I'm hoping to get my hands on a button hole ruler and a flexi curve ruler though,  that'll help me out lot once I get started.  I'll be getting those from Gold Star sewing supplies online.  They're cheaper than a lot of other stores.

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:
The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

Only 6 More Pattern Blocks To Go

Well,  here's what my patternmaking progress has been the past several days,  I read the stretch knit pattern block chapter,  I've got the dressform alright,  but I really needed to have some stretch knit fabric to drape onto the form directly in order to make a proper set of blocks,  I don't have any stretch fabric to speak of.   However,  as always I couldn't just let it go at that so I adapted some of the directions for completing the pattern blocks after draping them,  here's what I did:

1.  traced the basic bodice and removed all ease

2.  removed the shoulder dart,  redrew the shoulder seam and lifted the shoulder/armscye corner to the height it would be if the dart is sewn then re-drew the armscye curves

3.  calculated the width of the waistline without the dart

4.  removed a 1/4" from the armscye/side seam corner and tapered to nothing at the side seam

5.  drew a line from the hipline measurement up to the waistline/side seam crossmark

6.   then smoothed the ugly waistline corner with a curve

And here's the result:

According the Connie's book though,  the pattern blocks for a knit garment pretty much have to be remade before for each different pattern due to fit variations and differences in the degree of stretch between one knit fabric and the next.   So technically speaking,  my little (perhaps,  sorry excuse) pattern blocks up there I would only try for a fabric with minimum stretch capacity,  because these blocks are made to measure,  there was no stretching involved in their construction as there would be with a correctly produced pair of pattern blocks that a gently stretched and smoothed over the dressform.

Needless to say,  soon as I get my hands on a bit of knit fabric those blocks are going to get made.

Aside from that little set back,  I went on (the same day) to construct all three skirt slopers for the double dart skirt,  single dart skirt and the flared skirt and they turned out perfectly.

My next patternmaking exercise was to draft a pair of pants blocks.    Unlike the skirt patterns I messed up the first attempt at drafting my pants blocks due to some bad measurement decisions and actually forgetting to use the three different length measurements for centre front back,  front and side seams.   It was a discouraging disaster.  But that evening I looked back and decided to re-work the math in my head and plan what I would do the next day.  

Like I thought,  re-drafting the pants was a breeze thanks to the planning the night before.   However,  when I was done evaluating my pants blocks,  checking if the inseams,  side seams and grain lines are parallel in both shape and distance from each other,  observation revealed that although these new pants blocks were very well done, they still needed some work because the back pants block flare slightly at the hip and waist areas.  The instructions for fixing this kind of issue aren't complete in the book so I decided to email Connie about it from her fashionpatterns.com website and she wrote me back with a set of instructions I'll be implementing over the next few days.   I'll post the results in my next blog entry :)

Hopefully I won't make anymore errors though because I down to my last little bit of paper on my roll and I don't want to get my brother to pick me up another roll till I've got my first client.   I've only got about 5 or 6 master patterns to go so I'll cross my fingers.

If you'd like to read more about fashion, information on the industry and online schools check out my site at:
Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

If you're a designer or home sewer and you'd like to find some cool eco-friendly fabrics and more check out my resource page at:
The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

Patternmaking Progress Benefits Of Going Both Manual And Digital

If you're a manual patternmaker,  meaning you draft your patterns entirely on paper,  that's great,  keep doing it,  but you may also want to consider adding digital patternmaking to your capabilities as you'll enter a whole new world of perfection and precision.   Sound good?   It is.   There are a few different ways of handling digital patternmaking if you aren't using patternmaking software and are simply using a vector program.  

Why vector?   Because it's easier to edit and move your lines,  alter sizes and access seperate layers of your work without a hassle and your work taking a serious degradation hit as it will get if you use a bitmap editing program (Adobe Photoshop,  PaintShopPro,  etc)  so I use CorelDraw9.

Another way cool thing about Using CorelDraw is changing the colors of your objects/layers is as simple as a click of a button.   As for actual hands on measurements though,  (I think this is probably the plus size that one may  find with patternmaking software) CorelDraw doesn't allow you to measure curves,  which is a nuisance,  however,  I just make a jpeg export file of my selected curve or pattern section, open it up in Adobe Photoshop and print it off to take the measurements.   Then I'll make the necessary adjustments and repeat the proces till those curves are what they got to be.

I love manual pattern drafting,  but it takes up the kitchen table all day and all night and that's a problem.   Also,  if you make an error, the whole pattern has to be done again rather than just a few lines having to be made or a copy of the original file needing to be tweeked.  A lot easier to handle there,  even if the experience isn't quite as much fun as traditional pattern drafting,  you're still getting the job done especially if you're working from a drape you scanned into the computer because that's what I've been doing.

Just wish I had a model or a professional dressform with an arm attachment so I could do drapes of different sizes and properly check my sleeve draft. 

My New York client wants to have a few samples produced before I begin the rest of the collection so I might have a day or two to work on my own portfolio pieces till I start back again.   Once I get going on my portfolio pieces it'll also be some of the best patternmaking practice I've done because I'll get hands on,  full,  all around effort and results from draft to finished garment.   This is something I can't do so well with my clients work because I'll never get to see the first sewn samples so I can't experience the purpose behind the adjustments that may need to be made. 

With my own patterns though,  I'll be able to tweek my pattern drafts to perfection and learn a lot of patternmaking secrets in the process.

I had a great idea last night though,  I'm going to see if I can rent different size dressforms,  or go somewhere to get access to them so I can drape different size bodice slopers.  That would be so,  so awesome if I could do that.   That way I'd have a sloper size for every client's needs.   Welll a lot of clients needs anyway,  without having to guess whether or not I'm doing it right.   If I can do that,  I'll also look into getting some knit fabric so I can finally make my knit slopers.   You see if I can do that,  I won't actually have to invest a whole bunch of money into multiple dressforms or an adjustable one because I'll have those foundation slopers to make everything from.   Unless of course I get into some serious draping.   Then I'll still have a problem.   I'm going to look into that today.   There's a sewing shop nearby so I'm going to give them a call later. 

As for working with clients,  I stumbled upon a great resource a while back that was meant for the designer or company wanting to learn how to hire a patternmaker.  I feel this 8 page e-book is very important for a patternmaker to read as well,  just so he or she will also learn how they need to professionalize and perfect themselves (or rather,  their work,  I know,  you're probably feeling "but I am my work :)  ,  hehehe)  and what to expect from your employer/client.   This is so helpful.   It may be a little scary,  daunting to live up too,  but knowing what's expected of you and taking the guess work out of what you need to know is great for getting a real handle of control over your efforts and focus.   In the end,  when you put in the time to perfect everything,  it's empowering and well worth the extra effort.   So if you have enough courage and faith in yourself to go the route,  here's the link:
http://designer-entrepreneurs.com/hire.htm

If you'd like to check out my fashion or eco friendly fashion resources lenses here are their links, feel free to drop me a note if you like what you see/read, I'll be happy to hear from you:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

Scary Sloper Issues And Patternmaking Problems (Solved)

Last week I got a client who wanted me to start work as soon as possible.   I started checking out my size six sloper so I could grade it down to a size 4 only to discover that the front and back blocks were not drafted correctly.   They just sit well at all on the dress form,  complete with gaping around the armscye, centre bust  and lop-sided waitstline.   After having followed all the instructions I actually emailled Connie Amaden Crawford to see if she could help me figure out what went wrong.   This wasn't the first time either,  she's a wonderful help when I ask her for patternmaking advice.   She got back to me the same day and it was a Sunday!

First of all my dressform is a home sewer's dress form,  it's an okay tool,  but according to Connie because of it's imperfections ( such as having caps at the armscye position instead of being flat) it can cause problems.   Which brings me back to something I said before,  it's a good idea to try and invest in professional tools.   However this didn't bring me to the point of giving up.  the dress form is shaped like a human being,  so it's got to be some use even if there aren't any of the special aids to help me get the drape right and so on.  

Connie assured me that beginners always stretch their drape,  so this second time around,  I very carefully handled my fabric  with the gentlest touch possible,  following the steps one by one, not skipping anything and not doing a later step before it's time.  For example, in the book "Pattern Making Made Easy"  Connie states that you need to pinch the darts from the apex (the bust point) I didn't do this with my first drape.   This creates the problem of a twisted and incorrect dart where as a dart pinched from the apex will lie smoothly and be easily pivoted in the right position later on (in your paper draft) if you want to move it.

So I fixed up the drape,  traced it on 3 sheets of paper,  back block on top of the front block so that side seams would automatically match :),  nice little trick there I tell you.  Then after a bit of  tweeking and experimenting I adjusted the armscye,  got rid of the gaping,  eliminated unwanted ease and my beautiful sloper pictured above was the result:

This didn't come easy though,  this is making a terribly long story of trial and error short.   I did several failed pin fittings with paper re-visions of my slopers,  I was disheartened and tired too.  Making matters worse,  my later experimental adjustments to the sloper in CorelDraw9 were worse than the first few attempts.  I was clearly going in the wrong direction (you can do this when you're tired) so it finally dawned on me that maybe the real problem was that I was checking the paper fit and not a fabric one.  You can see those below,  they're stiff but they're still kind of neat.   Lol,  when  I sewed up my sloper in a nice hand of fabric (pictured above) it fit like a glove,  a thing of beauty.

If you'd like to check out my fashion or eco friendly fashion resources lenses here are their links, feel free to drop me a note if you like what you see/read, I'll be happy to hear from you:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

The Benefit Of Printing Out Your Digital Patternmaking Trial

Previously,  I used an old piece of flannel to drape a bodice sloper onto my dressform,  hehehe,  nice try,  it was,  I liked it because it turned out pretty well,  or so I thought.  So I've drafted up all my basic slopers,  all of them.  Then,  more recently because my patternmaking study and hands on practice went so well in developing my understanding that I decided to take the plunge and try my hand at digital pattern drafting in CorelDraw 9 and then use Adobe Photoshop CS2 to create printable files from my CorelDraw pattern.

Well,  I had a bit of a pause in my progress from then because I've had to work on a writing assignment but last night I hurried up (at 11pm) and put together my print out jpeg files (that is divided my digital patternmaking exercise into printable size documents,  printed them and then taped them together) and put the front and back bodice patterns together.   Trued them up,  perfect of course except some adjustment to the armscye curves,  but I was expecting to have to do as much.   Any way though,  when I compared them to my manual,  original,  non-digitally drafted patterns I realized there was a problem.

Okay,  so I took my print quality paper (this white stuff is not as soft as the packaging paper) and sized it up against the dressform and discovered something very valuable... the benefit of 'fitting' a paper pattern to the dress form lies in the paper's inability to stretch.  

This was an 'ah ha' moment for me. 

Originally I was a bit frustrated with how the armscye on my original bodice sloper that I'd sewn from the first paper pattern draft,  seemed to not hang comfortabley on the dressform and the reason I think,  is that the height level of the front and back shoulders on the pattern draft ended up being just a bit shorter then they were supposed to be and at a slightly wrong angle as well.  

The reason this happened was because the fabric that I used to drape on my dress form must have stretched a bit while I was draping it.  So now I realize that a draped pattern must be tried,  sewn,  fitted than compared to a "fitted" non-stretchy digital paper pattern and not just given the "Okay" when the first fabric sloper seems to sit well.

What a relief to find that out.  So I'm going to hurry up and fix that later on today hopefully,  before my client sends some work my way.  I want my work to be perfect,  totally perfect.   So what I'm going to do,  is make the adjustments to the digital pattern,  make a set of print outs, put it together,  cut it out of some fabric,  sew it together and check it again.  I can't wait to see if the armscye issue will be corrected,  I'm thinking it will be and I'll be happier with the fit.  I think I'm going to find a better piece of fabric to work with though,  one with a tighter weave this time around.   And next time I want to post some pictures too.   My brother gave me his iPhone and the camera on it is better than the one on my cell phone (yeahhhh).

If you'd like to check out my fashion or eco friendly fashion resources lenses here are their links, feel free to drop me a note if you like what you see/read, I'll be happy to hear from you:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources
The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page

I'm Back From The Dead Ya'll

Oh, the problems that hit you when you're trying to make it in life. My computer broke down, did I tell you that? (I have to use my brother's now, a total bummer) Then I've been unable to log into my blogs here, not been getting too much money made and been up to my ears in anemia and too much house work and errands and not enough sleep. Well, I'm taking a breather right now, sort of.

Here's a little change in plans, thanks to a friend of mine, I'm going to be working on writing and working on a cool fashion related web site, unlike anything else on the web right now. You guys (all my fellow fashion enthusiasts out there) are going to love it. I'm not giving away any secrets yet though, you'll have to wait at least a month or so I'm thinking but, I'm working on it. Anyway, I've got to go for now.

Have a good one

Finally Working On My Collection Again

Whoa, I'm finally working on my collection here again. Got 3 color ways I'm playing around with, I just love them. Can't wait to get started on the samples, but I've got to focus on finishing the presentation for this collection first and putting food on the table. My boss hasn't gotten around to giving me more written assignments, let's just say I'm scared. More bills too, well my philosophy is this, when you have to wait, don't wait, do something else that needs to get done, no matter how scared you are, be productive while you're waiting, work on something you've been working on and be careful not to start anything new. This painful delay gives me a chance to work on my collection so I should be grateful, just grateful with an ulcer starting but never the less grateful.

Also I've got to concentrate on what I need to do to get the collection illustration ready into a complete presentation/portfolio, 1. color everything in the different color ways 2. do some from behind 3. create the front and back 'flat' views (this is to show the basic pattern shapes, shows you know what you're doing, helps out the pattern makers) 4. arrange everything on your final 'support' whether it be digital or not 5. decorate the support to complete the 'look' or 'mood' After that you're done and ready to show the world your work or get busy putting together your samples or rather both at the same time.

A Few More Set Backs But Keep On Kicking

Hey now, my computer just broke down a few days ago and business is going to be seriously slowed down for a while. I've got to redo all the the Photoshop line touch-up stuff on my collection pieces and I've got my bills to pay. Well this is a littel goods news/bad news kind of thing. The credit place gave me another chance with the situation I keep telling them (my brother skipped out on me and racked up his cell phone bill with premium calls, I've got a 900 dollar mistake on my hands) and I'm not working a regular job, yes it's no exageration it's extremely hard to keep the food on the table (I wasn't able to afford toillete paper and toothpaste okay, it's no joke) Any way though, my boss has apparently got more writting work coming my way, I hope I've got a bit of a raise coming, cross my fingers, so I'll be able to swing with, God willing. Lord knows I'm willing to work for it. One of my brothers is here helping me pay the bills so together we should be able to pull through.

Also, the folks at Lutterloh pattern making system got back to me and said that yes I can put together different patterns to come up with my own patterns! So yeah, I'm going to get that package as soon as I can and then, then, I'll be able to create my own samples! I'm so excited by the thought of this, all I have to do is get through this financial crunch and I'll get another chance.

Also, I haven't been able to get any volunteer models in so that I can do my makeup artist course, well, I had another idea I'm going to advertise it like this:

Free Elf Cosmetic High Quality Product try out/Marylin Makeover

Somebody should be interested in that, I'll see how it flies...

Any way I got to get to work here, keep you posted

Collection in Progress

Well, last night I managed to get quite a lot of work done, not only did I get my mood board done finally but I prepped all my designs for coloring on the computer. This involved opening up all the files in Adobe Photoshop 7 and...

1. Converting them to grey scale, this allows you to more efficiently 'clean up' your image later on. Basically what your doing is extracting your line work and throwing the rest away.

2. Go to brightness and contrast and increase both values to 50 and hit okay.

3. Take the magic wand and make sure it's value is at 50

4. You need to get rid of the grey background of your work so you can complete your images, with the magic wand choose a grey area that's a bit lighter than the middle tone of entire background quality and click.

5. The selection is not always perfect but you can do a light clean up after ward with a 'soft' eraser, it's better than getting rid of some of your line work, you don't want to waste time doing that.

6. Get your image back to RGB (or CMYK if you're planning to print them out after, wise choice although not my favorite because blues and greens in cmyk are a lot duller in hue and tend to be more of a challenge to use)

7. When you're ready to color them up create a layer on your image and make sure it's in 'Overlay' mode so you don't have to re-do line work as it will just show through your colors. You're done for now!

I'll keep you posted on my progress hope the info helps you all out :)

My First Digital Mood Board

Hi everybody, here is my first ever mood board period. I usually just keep the ideas all in my head, but professionally you can't do that any way so I've got to change my practices. Be sure to let me know what you think. Thanks

Ahh Life, Another day Another delay

It's alright, I've been dealing with this for years, any way a little secret I've learnt that if you perpetually think about what you're going to do to achieve your goal before you actually go through with it, it'll go smoother and faster than if you just sat down and did. Well that only goes so far. Had to catch up with some funds, my home job employer has given me some lower pay pieces of work to do so it's consumed my time and I've been feeling really worn out with my little daughter having a growing spurt while she's on the breast full time, ahhhh! Bare with me.

I've recently found out about a pattern making system (lutterloh)I want to get my hands on, for $125 I can get it and I've got my mind set on it after I email them and ask can I use the system to create my own patterns from it, give or take a few changes/modifications, and the creative such, design lines will always be a custom job, that's what it's all about, but you want your basic pattern to be somewhat conventional unless you're izzy miyaki or balenciaga, I don't even like their stuff although it is a break and a sometimes eye opening lead into creative thinking.

I prefer Alexander McQueen and John Galliano myself, LLOOVVEE THEM!

Well as for my mood board for my collection, I've managed to get all the pictures off the internet for it, and now all I have to do is put it all together in adobe and decide on some color way variations, (I apologize if I said this already in an earlier post) Also for my collection designs themselves, I've got to start working on those, first repairing the line work, you do that by first putting the photos to grey scale in adobe, then enhancing the lines. Then you convert the images back to rgb and you're set to go with your color work.

When I got my mood board finished I'll post it here.

Bye for now everybody, got to make the weekend mean something for my husband :)

Mood Board Delay

Well now, yesterday I wanted to put together a digital mood board with three color ways and everything that led to my new collection. However my brothers popped on by for a surprise visit. And my day went to hell, then I got busy with my virtual assistant job, then my house work then more VA...you get the picture. Hopefully, today will be different, only thing is, today I'm worried about one of my cats again, one took of two weeks ago and never came back, now another one has taken off last night and hasn't returned yet. I'm going to get ulcers I assure all of you. this kitty is fat too although she's obsessed with running around outside and I'm afraid she might be so fat and slow that she got hit by a car. Then again maybe she's just hiding from the rain. I really hope so. If I'm losing my cats out here though I'm going to start getting suspicious of my neighbors. Mood board, mood board, I have to think about my mood board. You know those are supposed to be put together before your collection, I know that. It's just that it was so well ingrained in my mind that I never needed to put it together for my own use and inspiration, I'm just now putting it together for the sake of my portfolio. :) I'm not showing off, I'm just talented.

Back to the Grid But With Plans

Always have your plans, gotta make some money today though, get back to my fashion collection when I've got a gap of time available. trying to develop some plans with a friend from US of Africa and take care of my kids and my sick cats. One of the kittens have swollen front paws and diarrhea and I don't even have grocery money let alone vet fees to spend on him. I'm trying some ground black seed though, it's apparently a powerful anti-microbial and immune support. And mustard seed powder, you may not know this but it contains the now coveted selenium, anti-cancer agent as well as other things. I'll start a new blog for my cats and herbal log there.

Yeahh! Got My Sketch Work Done For My Collection!

Okay, now we're talking, I've got all the sketch work done for my new collection, I've taken pictures of all of them, I have to load them up to my computer now from my camera so I can do the color work on them and other stuff, flats and so on.

The other day I went on apparel search.com and tried to find out where my collection would be well received, Europe is almost a sure shot. Well I was talking to my husband about it when he called and he was asking me afterwards "how do you know you can have a job like that? wonder if you can't keep having those wonderful ideas?" His seeming lack of faith in my imagination and ability really kicked me but I told him something really valuable I've learned over the years thanks to reading Julian Seamans books, there are no original ideas, and no such thing as artists block. When you need ideas for a new collection, you don't necessarily look for inspiration to come from your own head, ideas, concepts, nothing. What you need to do is be yourself, cultivate a love and appreciation for everything visual, art, architecture, history, all cultures, museums, landscape, past fashion, so called futuristic fashion, movies and so on, even cultivate the ability to appreciate the visual elements of things you don't like or rather be able to spot whatever there is about them that is worth something of note.

You love everything, so what next? Okay, what you've got to do now and this is where being yourself comes in, anything that speaks to you, think about it, look for what ever things you've seen you'd like to combine in different ways to produce some interesting, functional, wearable and beautiful ideas for garments, that's simply what I do. It's true you don't do this very well if you don't culture a love for visual elements everywhere from pretty much everything, but that is something you can learn. Don't forget to learn about different design elements, garment cuts for example so that you've got a variety of them as well that can be combined with your visual chemistry's.

While your putting things together like that you've also got to keep current fashion trends in mind, see if some of them can be thrown tastfully into you collection's design and also be aware of color trends to for what ever forward season you're designing for that way you're collection will be up to date. Have fun!

Every Step Brings You Closer

I watched 'Signe Chanel' again on youtube, I love french documentaries especially about fashion, got to find some more. I've got a little more than half my sketches left to do on my collection before I can get them on my computer for finishing. When I'm done I want to do three things

1. put together my fashion design/art resume
2. post my new collection on all the free portfolio/fashion portfolio sites
3. send my links over to all the Turkish and Kuwait and whatever other clothing manufacturing companies that I think may be interested in my work.

Sounds like a plan, I want to see if someone will hire me to design even without me knowing patternmaking. Also I've got to remember that I should draw up the flat images of the garments to accompany the illustrations. Those are for the patternmakers there to understand the garment better so they can make a pattern that will re-create the depiction of the illustration. See? My mind is thoroughly on my dreams.

Any way though, I've got to get back to my writing work, just had to drop in and let everyone know that I am still in the fashion design hopeful sling. I'm just stuck like the pig in the mud of life. Wait Till The Summer! Oh God, I plan to be done with my new collection way before that, and I think I'll make it the trend cast colors for this coming fall and winter navy blue and brown. Well that's a wrap, back to the grind folks.