Croquis

You know those cool fashion drawings you can draw clothes straight on to? Well, I made one!!

My croquis, front and back

The blogging world seems to be flooded with them now, thanks to Colette's Sewing Handbook, which recommends you make one to try possible patterns on, to see what suits you. I first heard about it on a Sew Weekly forum (I haven't bought the book yet myself, though I intend to!!). Doing a quick Google search, I found dozens of pages of them, and it really inspired me! I especially like what Michaela from Polka Dot Overload has done with hers, there's a neat video tutorial too!!

I made mine by printing off a photo of myself, tracing it, then scanning and cleaning up my traced version. I intend to use it to see what clothing styles would suit my body, so I made it as true to life as possible. However, knowing it could be quite unflattering, I put myself in high heels to make it a bit more flattering :) Will have to remember to take this into account when considering designs though!!

I printed one off, intending to use it to put pieces of paper on top of to trace clothes onto. Then I remembered this tutorial, and went on to lighten the image until almost invisible, and printed off several more copies. Now I can see the croquis lines, but I should be able to colour over them when I draw the clothes on top!

See the feint croquis prints on the left?

Additionally, I printed another one off and drew balance lines on it at my waist, hips, etc. On the back of this, I set out my various measurements (you can see the part of me they refer to thanks to the croquis just being visible through the paper on the other side!)

Front and back of my "additional details" croquis

I can't wait to start playing around! It reminds me of playing with paper dolls, or the fashion design class I took in year 9! I'm off to but a pack of coloured pencils tomorrow :D

Have you jumped on the croquis bandwagon?