If you’ve been reading this since the beginning, you know I don’t sketch. I can give you a crude mock up“ like this…
… but don’t expect to see your garment on a croquis. Drawing has never been my strong point. Even when I was a potter I couldn’t make it happen. So, how do I design? Mostly with chalk on the garment then scissors. I will take photos of the garment and edit them on the computer to get a rough idea of what I want to do. If I am building from scratch I will assemble a look book (right now I am using Pinterest to save my ideas)
Recently I was given a challenge to turn this frumpy, yet interesting dress, into something awesome.
The sleeves have to go, it needs to be shorter, then something needs to highlight the crazy Egyptian pattern. Rather than dive right in with the scissors I decided to edit the photo to decide if I should take the plunge.
It’s crude, but it did the job. The final dress was pretty close to my edited image. I finished off the armholes with a narrow zig-zag stitch and made a deep hem in the bottom.
It’s for sale at Frock On Vintage.