The cat is out of the bag

A couple of weeks ago I gave my notice at work because (drumroll) I'm going to design school in the fall at Parsons. Yay! Since I can finally discuss my future plans freely I thought I'd share some of my sketch work from the past year. Now, I know that drawing is not my strong point and that's definitely something I have been working on and will be working on in the future. I do feel like I'm improving bit by bit the more I work on it.

The following four sketches were part of a design test I had to do for one of the schools I applied to. The assignment was to create 4 articles of clothing that could be interchangeable for a weekend trip. I choose a weekend trip to London in the fall and was inspired by some prints of blouses from the 40s.








The rest are all from the fashion illustration course I took last summer. You can really tell what the assignment was when looking at each.

Darts


Ruffles


Darts and Pleats


Fringe


Draping


Gathers (Hard to see, but the gathers are at the neckline) I want to point out that I was inspired to make this dress after seeing the Arnolfini Marriage Portrait by Jan Van Eyck.

Field Trip: Lorraine Fabrics

I took a trip on Sunday with some friends from my sewing class to Lorraine Fabrics in Pawtucket, Rhodes Island. It is hands down my all time favorite fabric store. Not only does it have the best selection of fabrics that I've ever found, but the second floor is all $1.99 a yard. They also have a great selection of stretch fabrics, which can be really hard to find.

We arrive!


Brianna and Tara look over some striped cotton fabric.


All this is just $1.99 a yard!



See! I'm not lying.


My haul. I ended up spending around $50 including some notions which are not pictured. The red splotches on the blue fabric are actually cowboys on horses.


Oh yeah and all patterns are 50% off. This particular one was on sale for 99 cents. Get there fast though, Lorraine's is discontinuing patterns soon.

Inspiration: Chicago

While home I made a quick side trip to Chicago. Chicago is a great city for artistic inspiration. Not only are there several art museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and Museum of Contemporary Art, but there are many public works of art located around the city. Below are a couple of shots of some of the public art works in Millennium Park






Chicago currently has a public exhibition on Michigan avenue of dresses made out of recycled materials. My favorite is below, the bodice is made out of vintage broaches and the skirt is an umbrella.


I also love how the creator of this one used aluminum cans. The skirt almost looks like cogs in machine in motion. Love it!


The Art Institute is a great place to go, especially because they allow photos taken with the flash off.






I especially love looking at Renaissance Flemish art for all of the detail that is included on clothing in portraits. You can really get a sense of the texture of the fabric in the portraits below.
















I always keep an eye out for cool patterns.

Fashion Notes from the Midwest

One of my favorite things about going home to the Midwest is the opprotunity to go vintage shopping. There is no better place to go shopping for vintage clothes than Midwest. Clothing and accessories are always inexpensive and (usually) in better condition. While I did not get to go shopping as much as I would have liked there are couple of new places on the scene in Madison, WI that residents should take not of.

These pictures are from Epoch Vintage located on State Street. I was impressed by the low prices of shoes and accessories here and the condition of the items on sale. This is a new store since I've lived in Madison, but I think it is a good addition to the scene. It should be noted that the owner was very obliging when it came to taking pictures of me and my sister-in-law Jennifer.






I also managed to make a trip to the Madison Antique Mall. While there was a very small selection of clothing I did find the gorgeous tooled leather bag pictured below for only $23. Many of the stalls will give you discounts if you pay in cash.


And I just wanted to point out my sister's adorable outfit for the 4th of July. The theme for her outfit is 4th of July 1976. You can't really tell from the picture, but her scarf says "Spirit of '76" on it. Awesome. I'm a fan of theme outfits in case you were wondering.


This doesn't really have anything to do with fashion, but I just have to show off how cute my niece is.

In Hiding

Sorry I haven't posted lately kids! I was hiding out in the Midwest, but have plenty of stuff that I'm dying to get on here. In the meantime check me out on Beyond Boston Chic!