I have been sketching fashion all my life, in my career, as preparation for my staff to complete garments made from my ideas. I have designed everything from childrenswear, men’s sportswear to casino attire. I am now retired from the garment industry but still love to create art with fashion as an influence.  I  have done some sketches with a tangled look, which is very popular lately. Many friends have suggested that I come out with a coloring book of my original sketches of  fashion. NOW THEY ARE HERE IN MY ETSY SITE. The designs are in  black and white so you can fill in colors and ideas as you like. Some are complicated  some are  simple , for the budding designer or just the lover of fashion. in you. The single pages are now  available for only $1.00. You can buy as many pages as ypu like. Soon my book will be published with now  through my Etsy site that you can get to from this web page. Hope you can enjoy creating your own.

 

I went to a Little Black Dress show at the History Museum in St Louis MO.  It was very well done. They showed turn of the century ( 1904 on) original black dresses that were worn as mourning dresses. They were worn for a year or more. After that they shifted to grey dresses

Now our new  little back dresses are worn anywhere, even weddings.  They are go dresses for any event.  I suggest you pay attention to what part of the body you wan to emphasize, which is one of the 5 standards of Fit. A Little Black Dress needs a little help to show it off.

 

So you wonder why Couture designers show fantasy clothing at their runway shows, which are designs for the future ?   They often make similar dresses for their (ready to wear lines). This is how they make money, by continue trying to be in the news all over the world. Also  An average person can go to their local stores and find simpler versions of the hi style garments.  those items fall into what I call the Little Black Dress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have been designing small messenger bags of deerskin, with original edges for a year now. I am adding painted designs with an assortment of inks. I never use acrylics because they will not sink in to leather and can peal off with use of bags. Some of the inks I use are real colored ink, markers of color and fabric type inks. Then i seal the colors in with a sealer made for painted leather. See here some of my deerskin projects.  They are sold locally at the Green Door Gallery on Gore avenue in Webster Groves. I also am selling my hand blocked Ecuadorian straw large brimmed hats. I block them from woven straw cones made in Ecuador. I block them over my antique wood blocks, trim them and stitch in an adjustable headband, made of petersham  grosgrain curvable , to shape to your head.

St Louis interest groups want to help start up manufacturing here where I live. Washington avenue in downtown ST Louis was the district that created the “junior market”, like sizes 5,7,9,11. These sizes were featured for the young woman, not ready for adult MRS sizes, and had more youthful styling. We were the first city to make tight pants, not jeans, that appealed to adult girls. I actually designed at a factory in ST Louis County, that made those slacks, and other junior wear. World War 11 was over and the 50,s were coming in. Comfortable knits began to be worn also.In World War 11 soldiers wore short sleeve tee shirts for underwear, not the sleeveless kind like their fathers. Marlon Brando wore one in the movie “Street Car Named Desire” that added to the look of the times.

Lets help St Louis to make it happen again, NOW.

I am continuing this conversation talking about the manufacturing garment industry today. I realize there are people who want to enter this industry,I have loved forever. It is not an easy process. A designer can not only have some good ideas she would like to see made, she must have them produced and sold. This is what complicates things. I taught and ran a Fashion Program in West Palm Beach Florida in the community college of Palm Beach for 11 years. I taught students (wanna be designers) the skills they needed to enter this business. Find out more about my tenure there by checking about me section and my Etsy site. I worked in the garment industry as a designer for over 40 years. Now that I am retired I feel the need to teach some of the skills I used in this industry. Check all my posts and keep up with my blogging for what is to come next in my long career. One of my artist friends says the same thing that she wants to pass on some her skills she has learned and taught over the years now.

Understanding Buttons and Buttonholes Booklet

Here is a finish you need to know about if you want to be a fashion designer. Most garments need an opening so you can put it on a person. Woven fabric need seams and closures. You do need to know how to construct the garments you design, even if you never intent to sew them up yourself. Learning about buttons and buttonholes is imperative. When a patternmaker picks the size of button for a garment it includes information as to how big the button is going to be.

The garment will overlap the correct amount based on the size also. Once the pattern is made you should never change the placement of the buttons and the extension. Many sewing beginners try to change this dimension, especially if the model has a large bust. This cannot be done. Many home seamstresses do not read the button size suggested on the purchased pattern and overlap a garment too much, therefore drastically change the fit of the garment. S much to learn before you can be serious about designing. Check out my booklet for learning about Buttons and Buttonholes and how to use them in your designs. There is also patternmaking information in this booklet. This booklet may be purchased on my etsy shop johannafashionworld…all things fashion. Remember that sewing knowledge is a necessity to becoming a fashion designer. You need to understand how fabrics drape on a body and then how to engineer it so it can be mass produced. See some of other booklets like Making a knit skirt with no pattern and understanding knits, also on my web site.

I want to share some information with you today about working with knit fabrics. I have created a booklet called Knit Skirt no Pattern. selling on my Etsy.com/Shop/JohannaFashionWorld , including all the step by step details to buy

fabric and put together this skirt with no pattern at all , just your measurements.

I want to share some tips with you today if you want to test yourself without buying my booklet.Before you can learn to sew with knit fabric you have to purchase the right kind to make a simple straight skirt. I want to share some tips here about knits sold in fabric stores today. I know you have bought many knit skirts before and are now searching how to make a skirt with the same look. Many times your local retail fabric store does not keep up with the designer ready to wear market. My first clue is for you to identify the fabric choices out there. You will find that some of them have more stretch than others. Sometimes it is the type of knit stitch that is used. Sometimes it has added spandex to the yarns used. Many of our new clothing, even woven ones have stretch fabric included, spandex, meaning the generic name. If you are looking for the word Lycra you should know that that is a specific type of knit owned by a particular company. When looking for fabrics with stretch call it by the generic name, spandex. There is all spandex fabric that is primarily used for swim wear. It is very stretchy but recovers well because you would not like a swim suit that stretched out in the water. It is beautiful and colorful but hard for a beginner to sew with. I would suggest a cotton blend with some polyester and or spandex in it.  It will be easier to sew and holds it shape well. If you are a knitter you will know the term knit and purl. The knit stitch is usually on the surface of your fabric and the purl is on the back or inside. This  type of  fabric is called a jersey stitch. It is usually used for sleep wear and undergarments that are loose fitting. This fabric will not make a great tight fitting straight skirt. I prefer to use a fabric called Interloc Knit. It looks like there is a knit stitch on both sides. Do not confuse it with the old fashioned double knit that some of us wore in the 70’s and 80’s. and was usually made of polyester.  An interlock fabric with some spandex added would be great to start on too.  If you want to be a Fashion Designer it is imperative that you learn about all the fabrics there are out  in the world today and how to use them.  Be sure to prewash what ever fabric you buy for your first skirt. If it has some cotton in it it will surely shrink a little. If you get a chance take a class in Textiles taught at many universities and continuing ed classes, or your local fabric store if they offer it. There are many books at some libraries on this subject also.  Good luck shopping for your first knit skirt. Most knit fabrics are 60″ wide, You need to buy a piece at least as long as you want your skirt to be with at least 4 or 5″ more. If your hips are larger than 60″ you will need to buy two lengths of the skirt you want to make plus 4 or 5″ Watch for my next tip. how to put your skirt together