A croquis and decisions

Posted by Kristin on Monday, June 24, 2013.

A croquis, in fashion terms, is a figure drawing with the clothing loosely drawn in to show how it could hang on a real person.  A croquis based off of your own body can give you an idea of how a particular garment would look.  Or, your own croquis will scare the daylights out of you because you are drawing your actual size and proportions, not your perceived size.  I, for one, imagine a much smaller size than I really am.  I made a croquis based off of my own body by dressing in tight clothing, taking a photo, printing it and then tracing the outline.  You don't get to see any of those steps.  It wasn't pretty.  Trust me, you don't need to see me in skin tight clothes...

On to why I humiliated myself in the privacy of my own home by taking self-portraits in short shorts and tank tops.  I'm trying to decide what style dress to create using my Alfred Shaheen fabric.  I have about 2.5 yards of a gorgeous floral print with shades of aqua and purple.

The colors are actually a bit muted in this picture.  The background is a very light blue, not white.  I wasn't able to find this particular fabric anywhere online, but I did find some similar and I'm guessing this fabric is from the 1970's (but I could totally be wrong...blame Google).

 Here are my inspiration dresses:

Picture from C. Madeleine's
Picture from Posh Girl Vintage
The top one is a Shaheen wrap dress from the 1970's.  I got the idea of a black top and patterned bottom from this one.  The next one is a faux sarong style Shaheen dress from the 1950's (again, if I am lying, blame Google).  I decided to take a bit from both dresses and create my own.

I started with Butterick 5850.  This is a dress with a wrap style bodice and a tremendous bridesmaid's bow with a straight skirt.

 
Butterick 5850
See how skinny this croquis is?  My own drawings (just wait, you will get to see them) are not quite that small.  At all.

My next idea was to use Butterick 5814.  This dress is a retro styled dress with a wide neck and flouncy ruffley thing on the skirt.

Butterick 5814 by Gertie
I wasn't a fan of the bodice, I envisioned myself constantly pulling the shoulders up.  Plus the wide neck makes it a little more dressy than what I need.

So I've created my own dresses by taking the parts that I liked and combining them to create a new dress.  I also used a croquis of my own outline so I could get a better idea as to what sized elephant I would look in each.


My skirts look a little bit more like fireworks than flowers, but my hands hurt tonight.  Therefore by the time I got to the flowers, squiggles were all I could do.  The first drawing is Butterick 5850 without any alterations.  The second drawing is the bodice from Butterick 5850 and the skirt is from Butterick 5814.  The last drawing is again the bodice from B5850 but I removed the bow and added what would be a self-drafted sarong style. 

Guess what???  I can't decide!  Shocker, I know...since I can't decide on anything without getting opinions from the internet.  

So please, let me know your thoughts! 

3 Responses to A croquis and decisions

  1. Danielle

    I wouldn't go for any off them to be honest ...
    I would go for simplicity 2217 as the top and a wide skirt .
    You should be able to get it out of the 2.5 yards with a little bit of luck , and maybe a seam in the back part.
    Oh and you still need to lenghten the top , dont know why they forgot about that detail but hey....

    That fabric deserves it , its awsome



  2. Kristin

    Thank you! I looked up Simplicity 2217 and it does have a really nice shape. The decisions are overwhelming but you have me ready to abandon my current Frankenstein muslin and picking this pattern up! And the idea of a "curvy" fit is very appealing....

  3. Danielle

    That is the problem with really nice fabric wich you can't get more off : You can cut it only once ;)

    Really make a mock up off the top ....
    The pattern does have a really nice curvy fit but the lenght of the top doesn't fit a bigger chest , it's too short .



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