Fun LT Fact: Back in high school, before I fell hard in love with sewing, I was a wannabe artist. Painting, sketching, doodling – I loved it all. I was moderately good at it (not enough to, like, make a career out of it or anything, ha!), and I churned out dozens of sketches and paintings (mostly oil and acrylic). Once I switched over to sewing, my love affair with art started to die down. This is why I love fashion sketching so much – it really appeals to the other artistic side of me, the one that likes to use paintbrushes and fancy drawing pencils.
One caveat to my art: I’m a fantastic copier, but I cannot draw or paint from memory. Can’t do it! So all my paintings were direct copies of whatever I was looking at (be it a photo from a magazine, or a real painting in my art book, or whatever).
So, this Fashionary Sketchbook really appeals to me, as it allows me to draw and doodle clothing to my little heart’s desire, without actually having to come up with drawings on my own accord (aka, copy that shit, dude!).
This little unassuming red book was sent to me by the folks at Fashionary to review. I’ve been carrying it around for about a month, and I gotta say – it’s pretty freaking cool! The small size (I’m using the red sketcbook, fyi) is small enough to carry around in my purse, but it’s big enough so I’m not drawing little 2″ figures. I love that there’s elastic to keep the book closed when you’re not using it, and a bookmark is attached to the binding so you can quickly find your place.
Oh, and the first 20% of the book is full of line drawing for various clothing and accessories! Remember what I said about being a copier? YEP, this shit is RIGHT up my alley!
There are so many little details in this book, I don’t even know where to begin. Lots of line drawings to copy for your figure sketches – and even the outline of pattern pieces at the top of the clothing pages.
Tables of measurements for anything you might need while designing.
Fabric patterns!
Care labeling instructions decoded, because why the fuck not?
(Note: I should probably learn these. I just wash everything on cold, is that terrible?)
Different poses, if you dare!
The last 80% of the book is for sketching. A first glance, it appears to be blank pages-
But if you look closely, you can see a faint outline of the figure, 3 per page. This is my favorite part of the book; the outline is visible enough so you can use it if you have problems with drawing proportions (well, we are talking ~fashion~ proportions here), but it’s faint enough to where you could ignore the template and doodle whatever the hell you want right over it.
Guys, I have fallen in LOVE with this book. I’m so sorry if this is like the gushiest review ever – yes, I got a free book out of it, but I’d buy this shit regardless. It’s so handy and well thought out, and it appeals to me on so many levels.
Want to see what I’ve been doodling? Don’t judge my mediocre drawing skills, now!
My only complaint is that I wish the paper was a little thicker so I could outline my pencil with ink – I started to, with my first drawing, but it bled through the back. Ugh. I reckon if the paper was any thicker, the book might have to have less pages, so I’m sure that’s why it is what it is. Alternately, I could probably try using an ink pen that didn’t bleed through so much, like a ballpoint. I was using a Sharpie in this case, ha.
As a side note, this book has inspired me to start painting again, so I signed up for a Watercolor Painting class this past month! It’s been really fun – I love learning new things as an adult – and hopefully I’ll have some cool ~fashun~ watercolors to show y’all in the future 🙂 Lord knows I spent enough on the paints 😛 I better get my money’s worth out of them!
In my package, I also received this bonus little Fashion Tape Measure! While this is not something I will personally use for it’s intended, er, use (I don’t draft patterns, and I probably won’t ever start. Sorrrrrryyyyy!), I can’t hate on a good tape measure. Those things always come in handy 🙂
What makes this tape measure unique is that it is marked at key measurements for two standard sizes (men and women’s). The women’s standard US size 6 is marked on the white side in centimeters.
The men’s US 38 is marked on the black side, in inches.
I can absolutely see how someone who designs and drafts patterns could find this useful! It’s pretty cool. Personally, though, I’ll just be using it for plain tape measure purposes. I love sewing gadgets haha 🙂
GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
Hey, ok, so now let’s have a giveaway! The folks at Fashionary were generous enough to offer up a free Red Fashionary Sketchbook for one lucky reader to win (and you can match me, yay!). To enter, just leave a comment on this post and tell me if you have any artistic talents beyond sewing. I’m curious! 🙂 This giveaway is open WORLDWIDE and I will close the entries one week from today, WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 2014 8AM CST.
GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
Good luck!
LLADYBIRD 