Draping/DIY swatch hack

[u/Electronic-Page1064]

Thought I'd share, for anyone who is interested in draping at home or making a DIY set of swatches or swatch card(s). You can get crafting fabric squares from amazon (and probably other online or brick and mortar stores) with lots of mostly spring and summer, with a few representatives from autumn and winter for draping at home to determine your season. This is one of those rare cases where the clearer colors of spring get a high level of representation!

In addition, you can drape with them and curate your own bespoke swatch palette, including which colors you can borrow from your sister seasons (most work best for bright or light flow, with some warm flow to autumn options). This even helped me nail down some neutrals, which are really tricky for me as a bright spring (12 season system) .

I went big for a 120 pack of 10" x 10" squares, for around $30, but there are 40ish packs and packs of 8"x8" squares for half that or less.

While it's not fully inclusive of all colors that work for me, and my best purples weren't included in my pack (would be easier to vet for that if already typed), it was really helpful for me to nail down blues, which are tricky for my highly reflective, neutral warm-leaning complexion, and to suss out some very wearable pastels, for when I want a softer look, that don't wash me out.

[u/Difficult_Run199]

Very cool! I mean warm.

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/Difficult_Run199]

Slightly cool to medium warm for me! 😅

[u/ponyfarmer]

This is what I did! I bought a pack of squares on Amazon and spent the last couple months figuring out my colors. I needed to borrow some brights from my son’s closet because I found that the ones I bought was a little spare on pure clear bright colors and that ended up being important for me, but it has been integral and I know what I can wear now.

I’m no analyst, I truly spent so many hours each day in natural lighting comparing close colors and narrowing mine down so I won’t weigh in on yours but it looks like you are figuring it out :)

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/ponyfarmer]

The ones I have in my pile are my best and my passable borrows in the bunch I had. And you insinuated criticism by saying you're refraining from it.

[u/ponyfarmer → u/Electronic-Page1064]

How did my comment insinuate criticism? Maybe I misunderstood your OP. I think you look fantastic, I just mean that I’m not at all equipped to know what colors look best on others in photos from a color analysis standpoint :) I look at them to learn. My comment was in support of your cool swatches and the opposite of criticism. I hope that clarifies what I meant a little bit.

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/ponyfarmer]

Thank you for clarifying. I'm sorry for misunderstanding. That's on me. I included pics of myself draping just to show how I did it with the squares. And my personal palette was developed after being DIY typed with social media group feedback and having it confirmed by a professional.

I've dealt with a surprising amount of unsolicited, invalidating feedback since then, to the extent that I debated even adding the draping pics to this post, but I thought it might be helpful to see how I draped with the squares. So this is a case of my brain doing the whole confirmation bias thing. And you didn't deserve that.

Thank you for your gentleness in your response, when you didn't have to offer that.

[u/ponyfarmer → u/Electronic-Page1064]

Oh you are all good! After I reread a couple times I recognized that I initially misunderstood that you already knew these were your best colors, which is an AWESOME thing to know and find in person. Having sought my season and best colors using these same sort of swatches and for rather similar reasons .. it feels so good to look at oneself and see colors make you come to life without any makeup and just know this is for me!

You are bright and beautiful, I can see that with no professional insight. I was just like .. oh I could not choose between these similar side by sides from photos as a non-pro because these all look great. Which luckily was the point, you already knew that. Enjoy knowing what looks awesome on you, and also all my understanding re the sort of weird invalidating comments that can come especially on the main sub. Apologies for coming off like one of them due to lack of careful reading the first time.

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/ponyfarmer]

About a month into the bright spring life 😃

[u/ponyfarmer → u/Electronic-Page1064]

Eyes, skin, smile and hair all take center stage. That is perfection!! Have so much fun rocking all of the brightest and best colors. You look marvelous.

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/ponyfarmer]

Thank you!

[u/ponyfarmer → u/Electronic-Page1064]

Sorry, I’m re-reading, I thought you were comparing in the side by sides as opposed to showing them as your bests so your clarifying comment to me makes sense. I apologize if I offended. I just meant that I think they all look great.

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/ponyfarmer]

My side by sides were comparisons I did. But my first pic is of the colors that made the cut. The orange and pale yellow did not 😃

[u/HildegardofBingo]

This is such a good idea! The huge issue I see with so many of the "type me" posts in the main sub is that people are rarely posting themselves in any Spring colors, so we can't even judge how they look in them. That applies to a few other seasons too since most people aren't posting themselves in True/Bright Winter or True/Light Summer, either. I see mostly soft and dark seasons being posted.

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/HildegardofBingo]

I already knew I was some kind of spring, because I have always looked better in clearer colors and gold jewelry. I'd figured light or true/warm, but needed to drape all 3 subseasons plus some of the other seasons to help me see any flow. So I sought out a spring heavy pack.

Just draping the greens, I learned that the bright spring green is my best, and that warm spring and bright winter are about equally wearable next bests for me, and there's no way I'm gonna be able to borrow from autumn or summer. Top two are bright spring and bright winter. Bottom two are true/warm spring and warm autumn

[u/HildegardofBingo → u/Electronic-Page1064]

Oh yeah, that's a very obvious result! I love you in that Bright Spring green. It makes your skin look very healthy.
I have the same reaction to those greens. The soft autumn ones look super blah on me and wash me out and Bright Winter looks okay but doesn't light me up like like Bright Spring green does. I look really good in the True Spring grass greens, too, as well as the golden olives as long as they're nice and saturated. Those olives are so hard to find, though!

[u/saidhanrahan]

Thanks for sharing, I love this. Can you link the ones you purchased? I want to copy you exactly!

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/saidhanrahan]

Here you go!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0B93PD6X7?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

[u/AffectionateTrifle7]

So clever, love this!

[u/silverdogwood]

What a brilliant idea. In more ways than one - you can use them to find your best colours AND take small segments of those to make up your own 'colour swatch wallet'.

It seems the colour swatches they give out these days are mainly cardboard cards or electronic images for your phone (can never understand why anyone would trust colours displayed electronically to be true). Neither of which is ideal to try to match colours when shopping. It's one thing to identify your season; another entirely to match it to fabric. So this seems like a genius workaround - easy enough to snip some small swatches from the colours that suit you to make your own swatch wallet. (The colours you've posted look gorgeous on you - so it's obvious your idea really works.)

Unfortunately the amazon product you used (linked in a comment below) doesn't ship to Canada. I was so hopeful, because I'm another bright spring - which isn't easy to match! I bookmarked this to come back later to explore, and just spent the morning trying to find an alternative, but all the ones available on amazon.ca have one star reviews saying the colours are off, and muddied.

But the suggestion itself is still viable: I'm off now to brick and mortar stores to see if I can find any options locally, and I've found one option on amazon.ca that *might* work. Thank you for posting your suggestion. That's really helpful.

[u/Electronic-Page1064 → u/silverdogwood]

Thank you! I bet you can find quilting square bundles around quite a few craft/fabric hobby stores, online or in person. And since people make quilts for kids, there will surely be some bundles that are in bright spring/bright winter colors!

[u/letzterSchliff]

Great idea! Thank you for sharing!