Sketching

Whether you are a fashion design student or just someone who enjoys twisting your patterns around to create a special look, sketching is a great tool to have. Trust me, I well understand the panic that many feel when they think about having to sketch a figure. When I started fashion design school, we of course had a fashion sketching class. Panic of all panics!!! Our professor started the class by asking us to draw a figure just so she could see where we were. She also said that regardless of our ability, she would be able to have us sketching by the end of the semester. What did I do? Well, I drew a stick figure and wrote on the bottom of my page, "Good Luck!" When this book was published,

she pulled out my stick figure and proudly said, "I told you so!!" The sketch is quite dated now. It was done in 1986. I won an award for the hat that you see in the drawing and the author of the book was just about ready to publish and asked if I would do the cover. I did not do the interior sketches. As old as the book is, it's still a great resource for anyone who would like to design hats. You can find it HERE on Amazon.
As you know, I have been working on the Master Sewing and Design Certificate Program. One of the modules is sketching. If you want to be able to design clothing for others, it is imperative that you are able to express your ideas.
I found this tutorial at CollegeFashion.net that is very helpful in learning how to draw a fashion figure.

 I found this on Pinterest without a link to the original author. The figures make a wonderful croqui.

Iconic Patterns has a downloadable croqui sheet that is fabulous. It's free, which is really nice. You could download a number of the sheets and create your own sketch book. With the Master Sewing and Design Sketching Module, you do not have to create an original fashion figure, you just need to be able to convey your design ideas, so this croqui page is a wonderful tool.

If the long fashion figure isn't exactly what you want, I found this great tutorial by Melissa Esplin. She does a great job of walking you through the sketching process and teaches you how to create a more realistic looking figure. You might want to check out her blog as she has a lot of fun sewing related posts too. You can find her HERE.

Like with anything, being able to draw well just takes practice. So when you have a little time, try working through either Melissa's tutorial or CollegeFashion.net tutorial. I think you'll find that by just doing, you'll become more proficient than you ever thought. Besides, sketching is fun and that's coming from someone who drew a stick figure and thought that was all she could do :)