Enter the Great Gertie Giveaway!

Fabric Traditions is hosting a fantastic giveaway right now. You could win your favorite of my two new patterns (B6284 or B6285) and enough fabric to make the pattern, plus a copy of Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook!

To enter, comment on this Facebook post (NOT here) and say which pattern you would like to make. If you also share the post on Facebook, you will be entered twice. While I always love your comments, don't comment here to be entered! Go to this post. UPDATE: Seriously, don't enter here! It won't count! 

A big thank you to Fabric Traditions for hosting a fabulous giveaway!

Giveaway Winners for Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook

The winners are birdmommy, Rosie, and Sue Couldwell! Congrats, ladies. I hope you use the books to make lovely body-positive sketches that inspire you!

Thank you to all who entered and to Abrams for providing the books.

Giveaway for Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook!

Great news, readers! I have three copies of Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook: Indispensable Figure Templates for Body-Positive Design to give away. As I've written about, this is a collection of croquis (figure templates) that are of realistic height proportions and allow you to easily draw in differently proportioned body types.

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here. Make sure that there is some way for me to get in touch with you (either leave your email address or use a login that links to your contact info). All countries eligible. I'll pick three winners at the end of the day on Tuesday the 6th.

A big thank you to Abrams for providing the books!

Sketching in Color

Since Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook came out, I've been thrilled to have proportional croquis to work with. It's so refreshing to use fashion figures that are of a realistic height and body type! And it's really made me want to step up my sketching game. So I decided to start experimenting with using color in my sketches. I bought some Prismacolor art markers, the kind with the brush tip on one end and and a fine tip on the other.

I haven't been to an art class in decades and I honestly have no idea what I'm doing here, so I decided to just have fun with it. I started by sketching in my design in pencil the way I wrote about last week. (This is the dirndl I'm planning on making.)

I know I plan on using this royal blue and black jacquard (from my new fall fabric collection, more to come on that!) so I had an idea what colors to use. I'm planning on finding a magenta silk for the apron and trim. I started by coloring in the apron and large parts of the dress, using the brush end of the marker. I drew black swirls on the dress to represent the jacquard pattern.

I drew in details and outlines with the fine point of a black marker. Then I experimented with making the blouse black and the lips red. 

I didn't like the black blouse as much, but unfortunately there's no way to go back! (Though that's what sketching is for: now I know to buy white fabric for the blouse rather than black.) And I wasn't sure how to represent details like gathers on a black garment. (Ideas?) Ah well. Also important to note: the markers kind of seep through the paper, so you can only use one side.

Anyway, it's been a fun experiment. I'd love to hear your sketching tips! Do you work in color? What are your favorite techniques? 

Using Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook

 It's here! The sketchbook I mentioned in May, Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook: Indispensible Figures for Body-Positive Design has been released. If you pre-ordered it, you should already have it in your little hands! The sketchbook provides croquis, or figure templates, that you can sketch your design ideas on top of. But what separates it from other books out there is that the figures have realistic height proportions (go feminism and body positivity!), and the light shaded figures are easy to customize according to your own body type. 

First of all, the book is so pretty. When you take off the band, you'll see the metallic figures on the cover and a little spot where you can write in your name.

There's also text about sketching, how to represent your body type, and fashion through the decades. As always, brilliant illustrations by Sun Young Park!

When you'll get to the croquis, you might notice that they look really light. This is on purpose, as it helps you customize the figure more easily, and it also ensures that your sketching will stand out in the end, not the croquis. Make sure you have plenty of light. Use a regular or mechanical pencil, and begin to draw in the lines of your design. I decided on a dirndl, given my current obsession!

Continue the lines of the design, following the outer shaded areas of the croquis for larger proportions--and vice versa. 

Draw in hair, if desired! I like to add a wavy bob (go figure). Lightly sketch in the lines of the arms, face, legs, etc. I don't really bother with facial features, I just sketch the lips and eyebrows usually. 

Add trims (like rick rack at the neckline), and sketch in the print of your fabric if desired. (The prints here are from my fabric line. Wouldn't this rose sateen be cute for a dirndl?)

If you like your design, you can sketch the back too!

Here's a better example of customizing the figure. I drew a fitted dress, giving the model a high waistline and curvy hips. She also needed some Veronica Lake hair. (I started drawing in the cherries and got bored really quickly!)

So there's a bit about using the sketchbook to draw your dream designs. I hope you'll share some of your sketches with me!

Coming Soon! Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook: Indispensable Figure Templates for Body-Positive Design

Readers! Between book projects, I've been working on a  . . . wait for it . . . book project! But this is a sketchbook project and one with a super exciting concept at that. Let me explain.

Have you ever bought one of those fashion sketchpads filled with croquis (body figure templates) all excited to hash out your ideas? And then once you realize the figures are a little bizarre-looking, your excitement fades a bit? (By "bizarre," I mean that the figures are strangely elongated and spindly, and twisted into strange poses like the "broken doll" or the "sad alien.") That's because fashion people work with a concept called "nine heads," where the figure is nine head-lengths tall. To put this in perspective, actual people are only seven to eight heads tall. Here's an interesting image that breaks it down:

Source

One of my missions over years has been to write about sewing and fashion in a body-positive, feminist way. So these nine-head ladies were bringing me down. And so the idea for this sketchbook was born and brilliant illustrator Sun Young Park brought it to life. Here's how it works:

For Gertie’s New Fashion Sketchbook, Gretchen Hirsch teamed up with illustrator Sun Young Park to reinvent traditional figure templates—known as croquis—for the 21st century. Instead of the unnaturally skinny, tall, and frequently off-balance croquis the fashion industry has been sketching on for decades, this game-changing alternative presents hundreds of realistically sized and proportioned female forms in balanced, lifelike poses. In addition, Park has rendered the croquis with multiple tracing lines, allowing the sketcher to follow the lines that most accurately reflect the body shape desired. Also included are an overview of the design and sketching process and a visual history of garment component styles, all to make it easier to create fashion sketches for women of all shapes and sizes.

The figures are presented in a "nested" configuration (almost like a sewing pattern!), so that you can follow the lines (bigger or smaller) to represent different figures. You can make the figures smaller on top or bottom to replicate a woman's actual curves and proportions. I tested the whole thing out with some wonderful sewing friends, and it really works! I can't wait to show you more once the actual books arrive.

But for now, just know that the sketchbook is available for pre-order!