I spend a fair amount of time studying fashions…not by looking at Women’s Wear Daily or Vogue or watching Project Runway, but by looking in vintage catalogs and magazines, watching old movies, and studying old pictures. I have a notebook filled with all kinds of sketches on various sized pieces of paper. They might be drawings of something that I’ve copied from pictures seen on Ebay, or maybe a post card from “the olden days.” My drawings are usually done quickly, like when I see something flash across the TV screen. Sometimes my hubby will call me into the living room, “Honey, you’ll like these dresses…” so I grab some paper and start drawing as quickly as I can to remember the details. Sometimes if I see dresses on TV that I like, I’ve even been known to grab my camera and take pictures of the images on the screen. Whenever I go to yard sales, you can bet if there are old patterns or magazines, I’ll be looking through them. I wanted to share some of the sketches (if you can call them that…) with you. They are rough and the average person who sees them will think, “That’s a dress?” but I can see them in my mind and I’ll try to find a few pictures of dresses that I’ve done from these drawings…
So, without any order to them…let me present my fashion scribbles…
If you click on any picture, it will enlarge.
See if you can find the dress sketch below for this one that Molly is wearing…
See if you can find this red and blue dress in the sketch below…
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
I can’t believe you saved so many things through the years!! You certainly have quite a collection there! I remember drawing like that too, although I never actually sewed the things I drew. Yes, I did find the dresses you made for Molly and Kit!
What I did, was draw paper dolls and clothes for them. I remember pouring through the old Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs to copy the models, then try to change up the styles of dresses, draw tabs on them and cut them out. Oh, how I loved paper dolls!
I actually see a few dresses in your drawings that had as a little girl in the 40’s!
Morning Linda, (or should I say “Afternoon” to you?)
I used to do the same thing with cutting out clothes from catalogs and putting them on dolls. I LOVED paper dolls too! My sister and I cut out everything from the catalogs and taped them to our closet door and then used them as backdrops for our Barbie and Betsy McCall dolls. It was so much fun… I still remember doing it. I wish I had some pictures of it…
Blessings, Jeanne
I have a question about the construction of the scallops on the red and blue dress, Jeanne. Is there a seam and then topstitching or is the red simply topstitched to the blue fabric? And, if it is done that way, what a good idea!
Morning Jevne,
The red yoke piece is a separately made piece with a facing and then top-stitched on. It’s much easier than trying to fit those curves in a dress. Thanks for noticing and asking about it.
Blessings, Jeanne
I really enjoyed looking at your drawings ! So much better than anything I have ever tried to do. My girlhood best friend always had a Sears or Penneys catalog in her house. We spent hours looking at it and “claiming” certain outfits. Soooo much fun!!!
Hi Jeannie,
Thanks for thinking they were okay… My aunt had the Montgomery Ward catalog and that was my favorite… I wish I had some pictures of those earlier outfits I made for myself.. I can still remember several of them that I copied.
Blessings, Jeanne
That is impressive that you can turn your cute little sketches into actual dresses. I can feel your creativity and the wheels spinning about when I look at your quick sketches. It is easy to find the drawings that your dresses started out as too.
Thanks for sharing with us a peek inside your sketchbook, Jeanne.
Hi Cindy,
Thanks for thinking they are okay… If I can get a quick drawing done, my mind remembers what it looked like, so I just need a refresher to bring it to life…most of the time…
Blessings, Jeanne
Those are good drawings. I really like the Nellie/Samantha ones.
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks so much for liking my scribbles. The Edwardian Era was a “pretty” one!
Blessings, Jeanne