My Croquis and First Design Sketches

My pattern making class is coming to an end (sadly!), and we are frantically preparing for our final exhibition and fashion show. It's all tremendously exciting! Before we got to all the sewing, we sat down to make a croquis and sketch out our initial ideas.

Croquis

Croquis comes from the French "to sketch" and is basically an outline of your figure. It's a way for you to try out a design without actually going through the process of sewing it up. Here's mine, complete with my hair flip:

Then you draw your designs on top of the croquis. It's like playing real life paper dolls! I could barely sleep the first night we started sketching it was all so exciting. For now, I've drawn 3 garments that I hope to make for the fashion show, which is December 14. 

Designs

Since I'm a born and raised Texas gal, I've decided to name each one of my first designs after Texas towns. You'll see each image below also paired with the fabric I intend to use. 

The Bedford Cigarette Pant

I'm absolutely determined to make a perfectly-fitting pair of cigarette pants. I could use some more casual vintage-style items in my wardrobe. I named them Bedford, after a town situated in the middle of DFW (Dallas, Fort Worth). These are city gal pants!

Here, I showed them paired with a red cardigan and my favorite "L" brooch. I purchased wool gabardine in black for the fabric, although I confess to already buying fabric for two more versions!

The Marfa Dress

This dress has six darts radiating from the neckline, cap sleeves, and an A-line skirt. Marfa, Texas is known for its "Marfa Lights", and the darts reminded me of beams of light. I found a lovely textured rayon in emerald for The Marfa Dress. 

The Hallettsville Dress 

This one has so many possibilities! The drawing I have here shows it with a plain neckline and piping on the button placket and sleeves, but I'd also like to try it with a peter pan collar and rolled collar. I named this dress Hallettsville, which is where I'll be spending Thanksgiving with family. The fabric is a reproduction feedsack cotton, and it's perfect for November! 

I am hemming this today, so I am hoping to post it up soon with some pictures taken in Hallettsville! I ended up making a few modifications from my drawing, including a fuller skirt and shortening the button placket to only the bodice. It's divine and fits like a glove. 

Here's hoping I get all these beauties sewn in time! If you follow me on Twitter, you saw a breaking headline yesterday. Daniel Esquivel from Project Runway will be attending my fashion show!! I feel like I'm living in a dream!