The drawing app Procreate helped me sketch my entire spring wardrobe in under 30 minutes. In this article—don’t miss the video below—I’m going to show you how to do the same thing.

You'll learn:

• What you'll need to use Procreate


• How to create a croquis of your body


• How to sketch outfits on the croquis


• How to use these sketches in your wardrobe planning

How to Create a Croquis

First, I'm going to show you how to create a croquis. In case you haven’t heard that term, a croquis is an outline of your body. You can use it for fashion sketching.

Take a picture of yourself wearing something form-fitting, like leggings and a tight T-shirt. Stand in a neutral pose against a blank wall with your arms slightly away from your body.

It helps to have someone take the picture for you, or you can use the timer on your phone or iPad. Just position it at your body’s level so the picture is straight-on.

Once you have the photo, open Procreate. You can then select the photo from the gallery. Or, tap the plus sign to create a new image, click the wrench icon, and select your photo.

Then, add a layer from the layers menu on the top right.

On the photo layer, adjust the opacity to 50% or less, which makes it easier to trace.

Next, select the brush you want. I like to use the studio pen. You can adjust the size and opacity.

On the top layer, trace your image. You don’t have to worry about making it perfect because you can always undo or erase it.

Once you’ve drawn your whole body, draw in some lines for your joints so you know where your knees and elbows are.

When you’re done, you can hide or delete the photo layer.

How to Draw on Your Croquis

First, duplicate your croquis so you aren’t drawing on the original. Do this every time!

In the duplicate, turn the opacity to 20%. Add a layer for the outline of each garment and the color of each garment. It helps to keep your layers separate.

For the first garment’s outline, give the layer a name, then start drawing the garment. You can reference pattern flats or your inspiration images—or just use your imagination!

Once you have the outline, add another layer for color and position it below the outline layer. Then sketch some colors or prints.

When you’ve drawn your garment, you can erase the croquis if you want to. Then just export your images and print or move them to wherever you keep your sewing plans. That’s it!

By the way, if you want to learn even more about Procreate, I took a really great course on Skillshare. It’s called Intro to Procreate: Illustrating on the iPad by Brooke Glaser. We’re Skillshare affiliates, so if you click here, you can take the class and get one month of Skillshare for free.

How to Use These Drawings in Your Wardrobe Plans

After I’ve sketched out all of my outfits, I use them in my seasonal wardrobe planning. I use Design Your Wardrobe to plan my sewing each season.

With Design Your Wardrob, you get a free sewing planner, so I just print my drawings and tape them directly into my planner. (You can get the planner for free here.)

Do you sketch your sewing plans? What tools do you use? Share some pictures of your sketches below!