Sunday, November 23, 2008

Creative Christmas Gift

It's been a while since last post, and apologies to all who read my blog. I've been tired and not my usual self. But the good news is that both our shows are doing well in spite of the bad economy, so I have no right to complain.

Youngest daughter is an aspiring designer (among other things- she's six!), and keeps drawing outfits for her future store. She's even taking orders :)) So... I came up with this nifty (I hope) idea of a Christmas present:

I present The Design Portfolio

I bought the folder at a drugstore, created the front picture in Photoshop, printed it on silk fabric, and attached it using Steam-A-Seam.

Inside are photocopies of illustrations from the book below, with additional smaller outlines of same poses so she can design to her hearts content :)) And if she's really productive, mom will print her favorite poses in any size she wants.


She's a hard worker with a keen eye for detail so I'm hopeful this will continue to inspire her. I also bought some wonderful art supply from Blick on line- they have fantastic prices btw.

The bias dress is coming along. I need to cut the sleeves, buy a button and hem it. It gives me curves I never had  :)) Carr's instructions were superb and I loved handling this dress. The hem is even- can you believe it! That's what you get when you do it exactly her way.


6 comments:

  1. Hi Birgitte, I should have read Carr's book before Sofie's skirt. I went about it all wrong, but in my defense, I was in a hurry ;) Your dress is looking great.

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  2. Love your Christmas present idea for DD. I'm sure she'll love it.

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  3. very cute idea! my 8 yr old is an inspiring designer too. she would love this idea! thanks.

    your bias dress is beautiful!

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  4. This dress is looking really good. I was just wondering how you were doing with it the other day. Can't wait to see what it looks like on you.

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  5. On the topic of encouraging budding designers (I have dgd's 7 and 10)- Have you used any of the Project Runway patterns? Inside of those, they have instructions for a croquis kit and the figures and garment parts for all the views in the pattern you have purchased. Each child's pattern uses the same figure in the same pose so you can use the garment elements from any design on any other pattern. I had the figures and garment components printed and laminated on a heavier paper, and gave them lots and lots of tracing paper so they just trace the figure first, and then overlay the figure on the various garment elements and trace those until they come up with their complete design. To be totally honest, that's the only reason I bought all the children's patterns in the Project Runway line. I bought clipboards the right size to hold the tracing paper still while they put the tracing elements underneath and a vinyl folder with handles that they can put all the parts in. I also bought a looseleaf binder with a package of page protectors so they can put their completed designs in there, and add fabric swatches from my stash. I also found Project runway "paper dolls" that are similar. You have stencil shapes that you can trace onto various printed papers and fabric swatches and then you cut them out and stick them onto the doll with double stick tape. The papers they included are the thin scrapbooking type papers so I suppose you could buy the that paper instead of the expensive refills. They were less interesting for the dgd's than the croquis kids. After Christmas I will photograph them to do a croquis of their bodies in bodysuits so they can design on their own figure. Hopefully they'll continue to enjoy their haute couture experiences!! LOL

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