In sewing, we attempt not only to create garments that are well fitted and well finished, but garments that are pleasing to the eye. The most difficult part of this is often the generation of an idea - that essential moment when we think "Ah, if I did *that* it would be interesting."
Here I will attempt the impossible - to teach you how to be creative. Of course, we don't really learn to be creative, but we can try to place ourselves in circumstances in which our natural creativity comes forth. Here, then, are the circumstances I use to bring forth my own creativity.
How you might think about this: "I look good in red. I should wear red more often." "I think royal blue is beautiful. How will I make it look good on me?"
A color is a good starting point for any garment. Once you have a color in mind, think about whether you would want to wear that color on your upper body, your lower body, or all over. This leads you to think about particular patterns. Upper body garments could include shirts, blouses, pullovers, jackets, or coats. Lower body garments could include pants, shorts, skirts, kilts, or mens' swimsuits. Garments for the whole body could include any combination of the above to form an ensemble, a full length coat, a jumpsuit, a dress, a cape, or a cloak. Look through the pattern books for the style(s) of garment you have chosen, and find something that draws your eye. Do you think it would look good in your chosen color? If you think it will, or even if you just can't tell, that pattern is a good candidate.
Once you have a pattern, you'll need to select fabrics. The pattern will usually have some comments on the envelope back about what fabrics are appropriate. Use your own judgement as well - sometimes substituting in fabrics the pattern company never thought of can give remarkable and interesting results. My general decisions in choosing a fabric of a particular color are solid or printed, heavy or light, insulating or breathable.
Next choose notions. If you want to de-emphasize the notions and have them disappear in favor of the dominant color of the fabric, choose notions that closely match the color of the fabric or which are transparent. Contrasting notions can emphasize the major color of the garment and are also a good idea, but remember not to choose notions that overpower the garment or draw the eye to the color of the notion rather than the color of the garment.
Go to your favorite fabric store and find a fabric that you just adore. Don't think about what to do with it, or color, just find something you really like.
If it's a solid color, you'll want to make a garment that has strong lines, as the lines of the pattern will dominate the design of the garment.
If it's a strong print, consider the size of the repeated pattern. If it's a large print, you'll want to make a garment with large pieces so as to enable the print to come through. If it's a very fine print, you could choose to make a garment with smaller pieces if you like.
If it's a subtle print, you could choose to treat it as if it were a solid color.
Next unroll a yard or so of the fabric and drape it over your outstretched fingers. Observe how it falls from the bolt and drapes over your hand. Observe the ruffles (or lack thereof) of the hanging fabric. Notice if it is limp or has structure. All of these facets give you clues to what sort of garment you can use this fabric for.
Go through the pattern books of your favorite pattern companies - or through your own pattern collection. Choose something different from what you usually make. If, for example, you make a lot of standard shirts, choose a casual pullover or a pair of shorts.
The pattern envelope will usually have some suggestions on the envelope back for what types of fabric would be good to use for the pattern. Often they'll give vague recommendations like "cotton weaves". This gives you a direction in which to look for fabric, but at the same time leaves you open to a variety of different colors, textures, and prints. If you don't find anything that catches your eye, you can always take the pattern to a salesperson at a fabric store that you like and ask for suggestions - sometimes salespeople know the stock well enough to come up with surprisingly good ideas.
In your local fabric store, go browse the button section. Take your time and glance for a moment at every different style of button available. Many you'll find boring or ugly - ignore those. A few will stand out for their amazing glitz - usually those that are mirrored or sequined or set with cut glass, metallic, or otherwise shiny. Some will stand out for their subtle, quiet elegance. Others will have a less definable quality, such that they intrigue you and you love them but you don't know what to do with them. All of these are good choices for buttons. Once you've chosen buttons, you can select a pattern to go with them.
Particularly glitzy buttons are well used sparingly, which is good because they tend to be expensive. My rule is, the more glitzy the button, the fewer of them on the garment, until for the super-special buttons covered with large cut glass diamonds or the buttons that are each one large crystal, I use only one on the entire garment. Think of such a button as a kind of jewelry that is attached permanently to the garment - you display it on the chest where a broach would go, or at the neckline where a pendant would go, or one on each sleeve cuff where bracelets would go. Choose a pattern that will allow you to use one button as a closure in one of these locations. If you see a pattern that you like but which requires more closure than that, consider using velcro for the remainder of the fastening or tiny, subtle buttons which will blend into the fabric and disappear. For the fabric, you want a color that goes attractively with the color of the button but doesn't blend into it - since you're going to the trouble of creating a garment to show off this button, you want it to show up strongly.
Subtly elegant buttons can be used in more abundance, although the one single subtle elegant button on a garment can be a feature too. Consider when choosing fabric for the garment whether you want to blend the buttons in, such that they would become a special treasure for those who take the time to notice the gorgeous buttons which almost disappear into the fabric of your clothes, or contrast them strongly so that the buttons stand out to get noticed. Both methods work.
My third category of buttons is what I think of as more fanciful buttons - those which you want but don't know what to do with. In these cases, I recommend a very plain and simple garment in a solid color on which the button is the only real feature, thus drawing the eye. In one example of my own buttons, I bought a pair of purple circular buttons with an inset track in which a number of tiny, brightly colored balls roll around the button as it is tilted and moved. This is playful, and suggests to me childrens' clothes, or a whimsical pullover in a vivid color that I could run and play in. Another set of buttons of interest was a set of navy blue buttons with metallic, pewter-like rims which opened at center to form a star, with tiny suns, moons, and planets embossed into the metal rims. They're too interesting to hide, so I'm making a black western shirt just to show them off.
Maybe you were shopping in the fabric store and you found an interesting new notion you'd never seen before. Maybe you just feel like you need practice applying bias tape bindings. Maybe you have a presser foot that you just realized that you've never actually used for anything. A new project is a great time to learn something. Look for patterns that call for whatever technique or tool you want to try out, or think about how you can apply the technique or tool to one of your existing patterns.
Pieced fabrics
can make for particularly interesting garments. Perhaps you might like to
have a stripe running down the front of your shirt from your right shoulder,
or perhaps you want to go so far as to piece yardage from which to make
your entire garment.
Piecing doesn't have to be difficult. You don't have to develop a special pattern for a pieced garment - just piece the fabric before you cut the garment pieces. For example, for the above mentioned shirt with pieced stripe, you could simply piece a stripe into some yardage and cut the front out of that.
If you feel creative you could paint your own patterns on the yardage. If you're feeling uncreative, you could consider stencils - an interesting application of stencils can make for exciting yardage. Also, consider getting a whole set of colors to make up a rainbow - I find I often get good results if I just start making random patterns with one color ("hmm, green squares") then different random patterns with another color ("I think I'll make yellow squiggly lines this time") and so on. This may seem like the "lucky charms" method of fabric painting, but the results tend to be at least interesting.
Another idea is to task friends or family members to paint on yardage for you. Particularly personal results can come of assigning each person a color, having them dip their hands in fabric paint, and then press their hands against the yardage to make yardage imprinted with the hands of your family and/or friends. This can me a project in itself - last year my friends and I had a party where we took plain white t-shirts and decorated them with fabric paint, and it was a lot of fun.
Threads is a constant inspiration to me. Don't just look at it and think "that would look good (or bad) on me," but rather, "how did they do that? Can I use that technique on any of my patterns? Would those colors look good on me, or if not, how could I blend colors for myself that would look good in a similar way? I like that sleeve, maybe I could make myself something with sleeves like that." The garments shown in Threads are full of fascinating details, and you can get all sorts of marvelous ideas from looking at them.
Movies often have interesting costumes with details you may want to adapt to your own work. I think science fiction films, because the costumers often want their stuff to look radically different from today's clothes, often are inspirational in this regard. I commend to you the film "The Fifth Element", which has costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier, and the television programs "Babylon 5" and "The Prisoner".
We all have gaps in our wardrobe. Perhaps you're a bit short of short sleeve business shirts, or summer is coming and you need more shorts, or you don't have a nice light jacket for spring or fall. Perhaps you're well wardrobed for your daily needs, but you don't have anything truly fabulous for eveningwear for that special occasion. Examine your wardrobe and think about its needs. There's sure to be a sewing project there somewhere.
If you're like me you have piles of fabric at home waiting to be sewn. Take it all out on the bed (or, well, if you've got too much for that, a few boxes anyway) and look at it. Touch it. Rub it between your fingers. Anything interest you? If that doesn't make you remember one of those projects you meant to make but never quite got started on, try putting fabrics together to find which fabrics look good together, and think about what kind of garment you could combine them in. Or maybe you've got a lot of small pieces that aren't, individually, big enough for anything. Try to attractively match colors of your smaller pieces and see if you can find enough pieces to make some patchwork for a quilt top or to use as yardage for a garment.
If nothing else, this is an excuse to reorganize your stash and fondle your fabric.
Find a painting or photo you like. It doesn't have to be a painting of people or show any clothes. In fact, I think it's better if it doesn't. Just find something you like.
Look at it. Notice its colors. Moreover, notice its balance of colors. Think about how you might use those colors in approximately that balance in a garment. Perhaps it has a lot of purple and a bit of teal. How about a purple jacket with a teal zipper and cuffs?
The artwork can inspire images for your garment as well. Perhaps it shows a field of golden wheat against a red sunset. You could make a red shirt with golden wheat embroidered onto it.