Right at the beginning of this project I had encouraged C11 to make a design board in order to create a clearer idea of the clothes she wished to make for her dolls. Here is the initial sketch:
This helped C11 to visualise and consolidate the ideas in her head. They also gave me a pictorial idea of where she was going.
As she had never encountered a mood or design board before, I suggested we had a look on pinterest. This gave her lots ideas to incorporate into her own board. She played around with her board using material cut offs and cereal box card, until she came up with a design she was happy with.
I bought her a large sheet of black card, and a white pen to write her notes with. She cut out all the shapes of the clothing she intended to make and using strong glue she proceeded to stick them as per her cereal box rough copy:

She used sticky backed foam to make the title, choosing brown to give a peasant-y feel to the board. She then wrote all her notes, labelling each piece of clothing:



And here is the final design board alongside the final costume:

She’s doing the knight’s lady next and we’ve only got three more weeks left to finish it in. The pressure’s on!
The design board is a great idea – and it looks fantastic! Good luck with the knight’s lady!
Thanks Marie! We need all the help we can get!
Wow, it’s brilliant, I kinda want to make my own now!
They’re kind of fun! If I ever go back to sewing for pleasure I’ll definitely be making use of them!
That’s a great idea as a prelude to the sewing. It’s a bit like making a prototype?
Well done C!
Yes, I think it slowed C down, which is a good thing. She had time to really think about her design.
I love this! I think your children might work in museums when they get older. They sure will be qualified.
LOL! That’s one of the few jobs they haven’t shown an interest in!
I love the outfit, and the design process – well done C11! The skills your children are learning are mind-boggling!!
I don’t know about that…none of mine would be able to build multiplication blocks on mine craft!
The design board is a fantastic touch – one I never would have thought of. Great job!
Thanks Kris
She did a great job on her design board.
Thank you Beth
Someday when you and your daughter have an infinite amount of time to be distracted by historical fashion check out this blog: http://thedreamstress.com/
Then come back and curse me because I’ve now given you a new obsession and you will never sleep again reading the old posts. Or wait, was that me that happened to, and I’m cursing/thanking my friend for my new obsession.
And design boards are so much fun, I make them all the time. Though mine are often sketches of concepts for clothes. Not the fully realized one you have.
I’ll check it out, thank you for the link.
C11 did a wonderful job on her design board. I showed this to Gracie and she was quite impressed. The girls and I are excited to see her next project. I am curious, do they ever sew their own clothing? We do skirts, but we haven’t tackled tops yet. Not sure about those sleeves.
They don’t. C only started to learn sewing on a machine about three weeks ago. I kept putting it off (not sure why). She took to it like a duck to water, so I can see homemade clothes in our future
Sewing doll clothes is a great introduction to sewing, and I love the medieval costume. She did a great job.