When I was younger — well, up until a few years ago, really — I used to sit around drawing outfits. It was the best way for me organize my thoughts and remind myself of ideas when thinking about how the garments in my closet went together. Or what I needed to shop for. They were super crude — I was never the best at drawing, and didn’t get a lot of practice. But I’m a lifelong admirer of fashion illustration and always dreamed of being good at it.
I’m pretty sure the first I ever heard of Fashionary was a photo last year on @lladybird’s feed. (aka Lauren Taylor of the Lladybird blog — hi, Lauren!) I was stunned at her confident drawings, bemused by her stylish way of staggering the figures on the pages, in awe of how uniformly … sized … they were … hey, wait a minute, what is this? And then I read the caption and learned it’s a sketchbook called Fashionary, which has the faintest of figures outlined on the page for you to draw over. Not to discount Lauren’s illustration skills at all (the girl can draw), but it’s basically cheating! It’s BRILLIANT.
It turned up again a month ago on Grainline Studio, and I broke down and ordered one. The day it came, I started sketching the tops I want to make to go under all my cardigans. Then I sketched my sweater queue. And within a few minutes of receiving it, it ranked among my favorite possessions in the world. So naturally I ordered a big box of them for Fringe Supply Co!
I’m not nearly as talented as Lauren or Jen, but by drawing my same plain line drawings over these figures, and thereby getting the relative proportions right (!) I sorta-kinda look like I know what I’m doing, right? I have never been more excited about my sweater queue.
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p.s. I’ve had a request or two for a post about good tops for wearing with cardigans, and that’s something I’ve actually been working on, so consider that upper image a preview of the post to come!
If those are your drawings in the photos, I’d say you were good at it (cheat sheet or no cheat sheet).
One of my favorite knitting books is Sue Bradley’s “Around the World in Eighty Sweaters” because of the layout of the book which shows her colorful illustrations next to the patterns.
before I read the post I thought to myself “woah, how did she do that so everything is the same size?”. ‘Cheating’ or not, the sketches are great!
Good tops for wearing with cardigans is a brilliant idea for another post – might you expand that with what to wear under sweaters and how to accessorize knitwear in general? I have so many lovely FOs and queued projects but I am lame at putting the whole look together.
the more you draw the better you’ll get. keep it up as a daily routine….like brushing your teeth!
So, so clever! I’m an artist by profession … doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a great tool. It reminds me of paper dolls, which I truly loved as a kid. I just ordered two, one for me, one for my sewing, passion-for-fashion friend.
Look forward to the post on tops to go with cardis, great idea….
Looooool again so much in common! I’ve always with me my fashionary book, it’s so brilliant i love it!!!! But you’re much better than me for drawing!! By the way i figure out some apps to draw with my galaxy note 4 as i have a pen with it and i love it too!!
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That is brilliant! I want one!
Hey Karen, can’t wait to read you post on cardigan-tops! I have a weird difficulty integrating cardis into my wardrobe, even the Svalbard I finished last year, so I have high expectations for this one!
Plus your new Fashionary reminded me of a draft with a few thoughts on the Fashionary + body image so I wrote that and a few other random stuff down in a post, maybe you’d like to check that out!
Oh yeah… I’ve seen that Fashionary on a couple of blogs, including Lauren’s and you were the straw that broke the Camel’s back….! When I was in grade school my best friend and I would draw platform shoes (dating myself), but I cannot draw for sh*t. But you have given me the nudge to try my hand…. Thanks Karen!
Couldn’t resist ordering one, these are so great! Thanks for stocking :)
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