Colour and Style - 7 Essential Tips For Sewers, Knitters, Felt Makers and Other Makers

Colour

How do you approach shopping for knitting yarn or dressmaking fabrics? Planning which colours to look for, to enhance clothes that you already have, is the best thing to do. If you have visited a colour, style and image consultant you will not only know which colours suit you but you will know how to wear these colours. People who visit me for a colour consultation often tell me that they have got in a rut with their clothes and often when shopping or making things for themselves they often go for similar colours. After a consultation they feel they really do know how to use a greater colour range more confidently.

Body shape

Being a knitter and spinner myself I am a fairly frequent visitor to shows and exhibitions and see many people wearing items they have made. An important aspect of how good the item looks when worn is whether it flatters body shape. All too frequently it seems that attention, and many hours of labour, is concentrated on the item without sufficient consideration to whether it suits the body lines of the wearer. If you make a lot of items for yourself, do consider the advice an image consultant can give you. Think of all those items that you have lovingly made that you can't wear! This need not happen again, once you know how to dress your body shape.

Style personality

You may use shop displays as a source of inspiration for knitting or sewing items. You may be tempted to rush home and make your own versions. However, do you know which styles really suit you in terms of style personality? You might know that you prefer smart clothes but what does this mean to you and your colouring and body shape. An image consultant can work with you in some depth to tease out your style personality which will help you to develop the look that you want to achieve. Without this knowledge you may end up with a range of items in your 'made by me' wardrobe that don't work.

Proportions

Knowing one's body proportions and how to dress to make the most of these is often one of the most important aspects of a consultation for some of my clients. Even changing the sleeve length can make such a difference to the overall appearance of an item when worn. If you knit and sew to standard patterns then knowing about your proportions of could make such a difference to how the garments you make work for you.

Scale

Whilst shopping, for example for material to make a dress , skirt or top it is important to consider your scale as this has a large influence on how the garment looks on you, rather than on the model on the front of the paper pattern envelope. Large scale patterns on fabrics can be misleading and not look large at all in a store. However, once you have assembled the item and eagerly tried it on you may be very disappointed. Scale as a topic for you and your image consultant is more than whether your size is grande or petite, we will discuss with you the scale of your features for example face, hands, feet and ankles and how this affects details in clothes. Once you have experienced this you are likely to find this more useful than you ever imagined.

Fabrics

Understanding the best fabrics for your body is important for anyone who makes clothes for themselves, be it by sewing, knitting, crochet or felt making. You will need to know where you have curves, straight bits, bits to hide and bits to draw attention to. Once you know about fabric and your body, then you are much more likely to be able to find (or make) fabric that will flatter the body. Your task as a clothes maker is to make that decision when you are planning the item and possibly when making the fabric itself. Once you know about fabrics and your body then you will be able to make a sample of sufficient size to see how the fabric 'hangs'.

Texture

If you knit, crochet or make felt then do be aware of how different parts of your body react to fine and thicker texture. For example a really beautifully constructed thick aran jumper, that has taken hours of making can swamp the wrong body shape and may end up in the drawer unworn, whereas using the same pattern in a finer, thinner fibre could have resulted in a much worn and appreciated item.

Making your own clothes can be wonderful, we all know how pleasurable it is to receive compliments about how good we look, when we have laboured over an item for hours. Conversely we know how frustrating it is when no one mentions what we are wearing and this just confirms what we already know - that it doesn't work on us. By visiting an image consultant you can know so much about personal aspects of colour, style and image. This will enable you to be confident that what you make will really suit you - no more time needs to be wasted on things that don't work.

Janet Major is a Senior image consultant with Colour Me Beautiful Image Consultants. Located on the South Cheshire/North Staffordshire border, Janet offers advice on all aspects of personal and corporate image, such as colour analysis, style consultations and make-up lessons for women; colour and style and image for men and tailor made sessions designed to improve the personal image portrayed by individuals in business. She carries out one-to-one consultations, group workshops and presentations. She contributes to magazines and newspapers on these aspects.

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