Elements of print
Here are a few things to think about this week:
- Prints vs. solids: What percentage of your wardrobe do you actually want to be comprised of prints? Some people wear prints all the time, for others they’re more of an accent.
- Scale: Do you tend to prefer large scale prints, small scale, or a mixture of both?
- Contrast: Do the prints you like use lots of contrasting, bold colors? Or are they more tonal and subdued?
- Naturalism: Do you feel drawn to flowing, organic, or naturalistic prints? Or are strong, abstract, geometric designs your thing? Or are there versions of both that you love?
- Mood: There are hundreds of styles of prints. Are there prints you choose that relate to your 5 style words?
Taken from the Colette Blog
I am so glad there is a week in this project focusing on one of the biggest problems I have with sewing, and that is the seductiveness of prints, especially loud, bold, often novelty prints, when on closer inspection about 60% of my wardrobe us made up of solids!
I love prints in all senses of the word, I love the repetition, the sense of symmetry and have been known to frame fabrics and patterned wallpapers I like. But translating this into my everyday wardrobe is not so simple as my most worn handmade items are, pretty much without exception, plain.
That said, I did some wardrobe snooping and found some pattern trends which will help me when picking printed fabrics for future projects. Amazingly, no noveltys! Shocking...
1. Stripes
2. Bold, rich florals
3. Small, delicate repeat patterns in earthy tones
4. Embroidered and lace patterns
5. Gingham and checks
On to the questions!
- Prints vs. solids: What percentage of your wardrobe do you actually want to be comprised of prints? Some people wear prints all the time, for others they’re more of an accent. I recon about 40% of the clothes that I wear are printed. I greater proportion of my handmade wardrobe is actually printed but I do not wear all of those pieces with any regularity!
- Scale: Do you tend to prefer large scale prints, small scale, or a mixture of both? I prefer small scale as I am fairly small myself.
- Contrast: Do the prints you like use lots of contrasting, bold colors? Or are they more tonal and subdued? I like both! Although worth mentioning is that all my favourite prints fit into my previously created colour palette.
- Naturalism: Do you feel drawn to flowing, organic, or naturalistic prints? Or are strong, abstract, geometric designs your thing? Or are there versions of both that you love? Again, I would argue that I like both! Just to be awkward. But in my wardrobe florals are the biggest print trend my far but they vary from bright and bold to soft and organic.
- Mood: There are hundreds of styles of prints. Are there prints you choose that relate to your 5 style words? My words were relaxed, young, London and feminine, so I suppose florals tie in to the feminine trend and can also look very relaxed too. In London it is very grey so bold colours brighten up the cold days. I do feel I wear youthful prints seen here in the bold colour choices. Striped are also, in my opinion, the ultimate in laid back, relaxed chic!
That's all for today, I will I am sure find myself revisiting this post to help me when fabric shopping, as I have done with my colour post and silhouette posts. Do let me know if you are attempting the Wardrobe Architect project yourself so we can have a chat about how It's going! Thanks for reading and happy sewing x o x o
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