Posted on 2 Comments

Me Made May Sewcial Sketches

What a month! I love Me Made May I find it super inspiring and even this year when I felt my own clothing offering was boring and repetitive I still enjoyed the challenge of going out and finding walls to photograph my outfits in front of.


The drawings though, wow those were a challenge! I normally try and do a few at a time so I don’t have to rush each day, but I just couldn’t seem to get ahead of the days so there were quite a few done late at night or over breakfast in order to keep up.


Despite the pressure I really enjoy drawing and I find I notice differences in how I approach the drawings as the weeks go on.
A few things stood out for me this year
– the sheer breadth of talent in the sewing community. Some days I’d get stuck just trying to decide what to draw because I had too much choice!
– I need more practice at faces, gah they are so hard to try and capture and I’ve spent so long focusing on drawing the clothes I need to keep working on the faces more
– I struggle with skin tones. I’m working on an iPad Pro and using tools that replicate the marker pens I love to illustrate with. You get this kind of translucent quality to the drawing and it makes replicating skin tones difficult. I’m going to work on it and hopefully I’ll see a big improvement in the depth I can bring to the tones?

Just wanted to say an enormous thank you to everyone who left a comment, sent a message, shared my imagery, left a like and allowed me to use their photos to make a drawing of. Thank you all so very much and hopefully I’ll be back with another round of drawings next May!

If you want to see the full range of drawings I’ve done of the sewing community you can search the hashtag #sewcialsketches on instagram

Posted on Leave a comment

Black Friday 2017 30% off Sewcial Sketch Calendars

With Black Friday sales almost here, I’ve decided to let the sale start early with 30% off Sewcial Sketch Calendars starting from today using the code FRIYAY

The sale will continue from now until next Monday but get in quick as there aren’t too many calendars left and you won’t want to miss out.

Posted on Leave a comment

2018 Sewcial Sketch Calendar is now available to buy!

Introducing the Sewcial Sketch Calendar! 13 illustrated postcards to keep you on track and inspired for a year of sewing.

The Sewcial Sketch Calendar is a collection of my fashion illustrations of the sewing community. The #sewcialsketch hashtag on Instagram has been getting so much love and encouragement that a printed calendar seemed like a great way to celebrate our wonderful community.

Each month is an illustration capturing the style and personality of a different sewer. 13 cards in total with some illustrations you may have seen before and some brand new ones too. The back of each card has a blank section so it can be used as an actual postcard when the month is done.

Postcards measure 105mm x 148mm you can choose from the postcards or the postcards and a miniature wooden easel to display them in your sewing area.

Available to purchase now in the shop.

With thanks to

@kbfield

@jasikatrycurious

@tanyamaile

@katiemakesadress

@joliesbobines

@sewvee

@selfassemblyrequired

@pigeonwishes

@Saturdaynightstitch

@bloglessanna

@Taylortailor

@bimbleandpimble

@tabithasewer

and

@george_does @lifewithmycubs

 

Posted on 3 Comments

Me Made May 2017 – drawing challenge

And another Me Made May comes to a close. I don’t always do the challenge as I wear me made almost all the time anyway but it is fun to do and see where and what I actually wear.
Of course this year has been completely different as I threw in the challenge of surgery, hospital visit and recovery to the mix! Knowing that was coming up I had set myself an additional challenge to do a drawing of a fellow sewer every day.


I wanted to do this to increase my skills, practice and honestly in case I was too sick/in pain to be bothered to take my photos.


Luckily my recovery has been going well and I’ve been enjoying the drawings and the responses so much I am working on ways to do more  with my drawings, including ways for them to be printed.
And in no particular order, here is the months drawings.

Everyone was chosen for their inspiring makes, and I was wanting to work on different patterns so plenty of patterned garments make an appearance.

Thank you to everyone who has left lovely messages, regramed, tweeted or mentioned the drawings, it has been a privilege to showcase just a fraction of the talents of the entire online sewing community.

Posted on 6 Comments

Fun with Fashion Illustration

img_0008

Birthday gifts are always fun and sometimes the most surprising gifts keep on giving. My birthday was in July and The Englishman surprised me with an IPadPro and Apple Pencil. I was blown away as I had no idea he was even considering such a gift (for the record his gift giving is always amazing, past gifts include a Cambridge Satchel and Ernest Wright and Sons scissors to name but a few).

img_0017

The IpadPro is different to the regular iPad in that the screen is pressure sensitive. So when you draw using the pencil it feels like actual drawing. I use a wacom tablet for Illustrator work and have tried many other types of digital drawing products but none of them ever felt right. This exceeded all my expectations.

img_0026

In order to practice and play I did a 30 day drawing challenge on Instagram. A new drawing each day. Sometimes focusing on line work, sometimes volume and other times movement or fabric quality.

img_0018

These are the results of my 30 days challenge (in no particular order).