Friday, December 8, 2017

Looking Back

Clothes always fascinated me. Not in the normal teenage girly sort of way. I remember at a very young age dissecting clothes in the movies and TV shows. My all time favorite movie dress was the suit the Baroness wore in The Sound of Music when she met the children for the first time at their home. I loved it so much I designed a stamp (Natalie) around it a couple of years ago. The clothes in Sabrina come in a close second. I caught the Barbra Streisand movie Hello Dolly on TV a couple of Sundays back and was so excited to see the clothes. My husband thought I was nuts when I said here comes THE dress. Now, I had only seen this movie once at age 10 but I remembered the 14 kt gold dress on the stairway and it took my breath away, then and now! I loved just as much, the funky fun fashions of Laugh In and That Girl. Oh, That Girl could dress and every young girl wanted to be just like her when we grew up!

I started drawing fashion at about 8 or 9 years. I would use my paper dolls and awkwardly  trace around them. There were fashion pages in the Archie comic books and I would trace over Betty and Veronica also. This is how I learned to draw. I spent hours doing this every day. Sometimes I would find the most wonderful illustrations in magazines and copy them. The covers of patterns were other great sources of inspiration for fashion. How I wished I could take one of those great big catalogs home from the fabric store with me!

Looking back at the process is so much fun. NEVER in a million years would I have believed those hours so many years ago would bring me to this place right now! I still love drawing and even more sharing!


My first drawings, obviously from the 60's!
From my portfolio in the late 70's




Jennifer Lopez from the 2015 (I think) Oscars. I still love drawing those dresses!

8 comments:

  1. I love your late 70's drawings, I'd love to see them in stamps.

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  2. I love your story and all you do, thanks for sharing with we all!

    I love crafts since very little and love to draw too, so I really enjoy to play with JN dolls! But there are three I still don’t have to complete my new addiction collection: Zoe, Haily and Gracie!
    By any chance, would you consider to put them in the market again? Just not in a very high price please! 😆

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  3. Awesome reading your drawing history. Thank you for sharing,

    Michelle Rossibell

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  4. Thank you so very much for sharing these photos!! They are beautiful. We are all so happy you share your talents with us!! <3

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  5. Such a GREAT stiry...rhank you for sharing it with us! l love your early dolls!
    Maria Chavez

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  6. Its like a dream to continue drawing and have so much Joy along the life ❤️

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  7. Thanks for sharing this Julie! I would have loved to have been your friend when we were girls. 😁.

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  8. Julie, thank you so much for sharing your story of how you began. It is very uplifting to know how hard you worked on your talent which we all enjoy very much.

    Just to let you know, you can own those huge pattern books from the fabric store. A couple of times a year, JoAnn Fabrics does a pattern relay. When they do this, they throw out all those books. If you know someone who works at a JoAnn's or just go there a lot, you can ask them to hold one of the books for you at the next pattern relay (usually in spring and fall.) I know this because I was an assistant manager for two years at a JoAnn's so this isn't just a rumor. Thanks again for all you do!

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