Yes, A SketchBOOK is a Necessity

One can design on any scrap of paper.  I knew a guy who would go into bars, tell women he was a bra designer, make sketches on a napkin and get all their measurements.  No doubt, the charming Norwegian accent helped.  Goal accomplished, napkin discarded. So, why a sketchbook?  Maybe you know lots of great designers who are Born Organized, but I don't.  The more creative people are, the more disorganized they seem to be.  The point of a sketchbook is that when you want to act on a design, you can find the darned thing.

You don't have to be as AR about this as I am.  The size, quality, number or color of the pages, nor whether it has lines or not just doesn't matter.  In September, in the stationary department of stores, they have lined, spiral bound notebooks for pennies.  I use an artists quality notebook because I get distracted by lines.  It is also reasonably large which makes it easy to find.  I keep a mechanical pencil and a click eraser inside it so I can jot things down any time.  Also, I separate the dates and mark them.  This is completely unnecessary, but I like to see what I was working on, say Valentines Day of 2003.  Maybe I am OCD on top of being ADHD.  What works is more important than doing something 'right' (Right according to whom, anyway?).

So, this is a photo of my current sketchbook showing what I am working on.  This little dress (actually there are two, a little girl's size 3 and size 5) is more than halfway done, but this is where I am and there are still useful things to learn.  As you can see, I am not a great illustrator.  I make and sell dresses, so all that matters is that I understand my drawings.  Getting the drawings down on paper allows us to rethink and refine our designs, because though some emerge fully formed, most of them have areas that aren't as clearly mapped out.  In this case the dress and back ribbons were crystal clear in my head, but I realized the bodice back was boring, so I thought on paper until a more pleasing plan came about.

These buttons threw me.  I knew I wanted thread embellished buttons--they are design elements so they can be fancier than a button one would actually use.  I knew exactly what I wanted.....and it was terrible once it was made up.

On the lower left are the two failed designs.  Above them is the plain black button I wrapped the embroidered fabric around.  At the top, right is both the back and the front of the finished buttons.  This was a way to pull the hot pink from the trim into the body of the printed fabric, as well as to echo the geometric shape on the ribbon.  There is actually a 'seam' allowance in there, and,  using quilting thread, I pleated up the edge and eased it around the button.  Then I went diagonally across the open part, securing all the little pleats.  It really didn't take that long.  It's not gorgeous on the back, but no one will ever see it =D 

Repeating elements are the biggest thing that pull a design together.  If something seems thrown together, it's usually the lack of repetition that is at fault.  Pick something out and echo it on a different part of the outfit and it will be immediately improved.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!