Digital Croquis

If you've ever read Polka Dot Overload by the talented Mikhaela, you've probably seen her digital croquis (if not, you can see some here and here and here.)  You may have also seen the croquis included in Project Runway patterns by Simplicity.  Now you can see mine:

It's rather scary, isn't it?

To be honest, I decided to make one because I thought it would be interesting. I didn't actually plan to make sewing decisions based off of it.  But within minutes of printing out my mini-me, I realized it was a useful tool for figuring out proportions and determining whether an style was going to have any chance of looking good on me.  I also realized I should start wearing my hair down, since my 30 extra post-honeymoon, post-baby pounds make my head look small :)

Here I am with clothes on
I'm thinking I need to make a
slightly longer top to balance out
those child-bearing hips

I used this tutorial from Lladybird to come up with my baseline image.**  Then I printed it out and traced outfits on it, because I'm just not that comfortable sketching on my computer, even with a drawing tablet.  I used a pencil and regular paper to trace over my digital image, sketching in outfits while referring to the pattern envelope.   I "tried on" two garments from the patterns in this post.  Once I found the details I liked (sleeves/no sleeves, length, ruffle thickness, etc), I traced the final version in sharpie and scanned it into my computer so I could then post the images here.

I used my croquis to decide that I
wanted to reduce the width of
the ruffles for this pattern
(envelope picture of M-6024)

Haha, just realized I drew my collarbone in going the wrong way in that last image and it makes me look like I have a bodybuilder neck :)  I had fun playing paperdolls with myself, and my daughter enjoyed coloring in Mommy, though she gave me green hair.


**Just a note:  The tutorial mentions using a light background to make it easier to filter out.  Well, you may want to make sure you wear light undergarments as well, otherwise you may find those hard to crop out!