Thoughtful Plans

I’m working my way through The Colette Sewing Handbook to help me learn some new sewing techniques, particularly the ones involved in making clothes. I’m amazed at how well written this book is.  Not only am I leaning how to do some cool new things, I’ve also found new and interesting ways to look at the process of sewing and finding inspiration.

The goals of this chapter are to find inspiration, edit style, and develop a strategy.

Finding My Inspiration

Sarai recommends finding inspiration in your closet, from vintage garments, museum and art, film, fabrics and trims, and your travels.  I have been using Pinterest to collect images of things I love for quite a while now.  I’ve managed to collect a large number of inspirational boards for clothes, ranging from demure to provocative and everything in between.

Fun & Funky

Workwear

Dress Up

Outerwear

Underpinnings

Costume

Editing My Style

After going through all of these and seeing how different they are – I needed to figure out what draws me to all of these clothes, as different as they are.  And I think I have figured that out.  It’s the details.  Whether it’s interesting hardware, intricate buttons, or spectacular fabric, for me what really makes a piece of clothing work for me are the details.

My Closet

My closet has 2 main looks.  I have clothes in simple designs with bright colors, and neutrals with lots of details.  I like to wear them separately or pair them together to get more looks.

Developing a Strategy

Part of the goal of sewing my own clothes is to have pieces that I love.  But it won’t do me any good to sew those clothes if I won’t be wearing them often.  So, the sewing I do for myself should always be something I love that works with my lifestyle.

As the webmaster (and adjunct instructor or web development) at a university, the majority of my clothes need to be business professional.  I can’t wait to see what I can do to kick those basic items up a notch.

Make a Coquis

A coquis is a sketch template for designing all the amazing clothes that I want to make.  Thanks to some basic DIY steps in The Colette Sewing Handbook, I have my own custom template based on my body.

So what’s next?  Taking all of the stuff I learned and moving forward in the process of making amazing clothes.

Linking up at: 
Skip to My Lou - Made by You Mondays
Keeping it Simple - Motivate Me Monday
The Girl Creative - Just Something I Whipped Up