Colors, Supplies and Inspiration... Oh My

Hello again,

Its a new week and I am slowly getting my ducks in a row for my massive cleanup of projects.  .

On the whole this was a geek week for me.  With the gears in my brain still turning from my Renaissance Dress, I was thinking about how to streamline things to make things easier with colors, supplies and inspiration.  To be honest the supplies have popped up in my head from time to time, but now is the time to do something about it.

Color:

When it comes to my Renaissance Ensembles, my head-wear is my jumping off point.  The issue with this years headgear was finding colors to go with the unique vibrant blue-aqua drama pieces of the circlet.  Don't get me wrong I do love the colors that I got, but its not the easiest to pick when you don't have the actual item with you.  Pictures on phones are easier and more convenient to deal with rather than bringing along the actual piece.

A while back I received a copy of the Teen Vogue Handbook to Careers in Fashion.  One of the things recommended in the Designer Tool Kit was a Pantone Color Guide.  From time to time I have looked at them in the past but always thought that they were too expensive.  This past week, I looked again.  Still looked expensive and there were too many varieties to tell which would be best for me.  However, one of the things that I came across was the Pantone Capsure.  It was still quite expensive but it made the gears of my brain turn and click.  Why not see if there is a Pantone app for my phone?  And there was, so I downloaded it.  I played around with it a little but not enough yet to judge.  Below are some of the screen shots that I took from it

Supplies:

Living where I currently do, I have a 30 minute drive to any JoAnn's store (this is the only drive-able brick and mortar store that caters to apparel seamstresses in my vacinity - Quilters rule the land here).  Given the 30 minute drive and the fact that working 2nd shift hours, I typically purchase more than what I need because it is not convenient for me to drive 30 minutes 1 way during the work week. In the past I have also guessed at what I have supply wise, but could also be quite wrong.

Here comes Tap Forms App...

I found out about this app via the Colette Patterns Blogs in regards to digitally organizing patterns on your phone (How to organize a mountain of sewing patterns with your phone, 6 Apps to Help You Plan Your Sewing).  It is a data base app, where it comes with some pre-made entry forms like "Movie Library" which my Dad loves.  You can also create your own forms.  This is what I am slowly working on, and I am taking advantage of the scanning barcode to quickly look up what I have at home while in the store.  Well that is the goal at least.  I still have a lot of data to enter.

Inspiration:

As mentioned above, my Renaissance ensemble is inspired by what headdress I plan on wearing.  In spite of this, I always struggle with locking into a design that I absolutely love, but that I will also be able to pull off in the time that I have.  At this current moment in time I have done the following...

1. Turned my "Dream" hook board into a physical memory board where I can place all my physical pieces together (the Greeting photo above)
2. Take advantage of Pinterest as a visualization board.  I currently have my below board as my start-up internet page.  This way I will see it more frequently for ideas to click together.

My ducks are still not in a row, but they are beginning to be.  I just need some time to play and think.

So that is where I am this week.  Things are and are going to be a little crazy for me time wise, so my next post will be on November 10th.

Until then...

Some pictures from JoAnn's for happiness and entering "Supply" details into tap forms.