Documenting & planning my sewing with MyBodyModel, by Nathalie

Belgium-based sewing blogger and YouTuber Nathalie of Atelier 292 shares how drawing on her body model croquis has helped her to organize her projects -from documenting to planning her sewing, to discovering her signature style. She even made a video to show how she does it!

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When I discovered MyBodyModel, I found the initiative very interesting, but I had some doubts about how a sketch could help us to accept ourselves.

And then, I tried it out and I must admit, it was a big revelation. I’ve always had a hard time having a precise image of my body, which made it difficult to identify what really suited me. 

Following a color and body shape analysis workshop, I decided to draw my latest creations on my MyBodyModel fashion croquis to see what they looked like on paper, and that was immediately revealing.

In the workshop I was suggested to wear wrap-oversand indeed, when I look at the drawing of my figure with a wrap-over, it jumps out at me, more than when I look in the mirror:

Documenting vs. planning my sewing

When I started using my MyBodyModel templates it was mainly to document my projects, to keep track of my different achievements. I used for this a notebook in which I transferred my croquis, on which I drew my make and colored it in afterwards.

For this new season, I decided to use it to plan my future projects upstream.

The last few months, I’ve been focusing on the gaps in my wardrobe, sewing much more thoughtfully than I have done in the past.

Having identified this difficulty in knowing what suits me or not, I now use my croquis to draw my future project and assess whether or not I like the way it looks on me. I like to use my 3-models-per-page printable sketch page.

Thoughts on color

I also decided not to color my fashion sketches any more. Color is very important to me and I couldn’t reproduce my visions faithfully. It frustrated me a lot.

So I now prefer to leave them in black and white to focus on the garment silhouette. Then I attach a piece of the fabric in which I will sew my garment. As I sew some sewing patterns several times, it’s a better solution for me.

Planning my sewing queue

I just watched season 1 of “Next in fashion” on Netflix and it motivates me even more to draw before embarking on my sewing projects. 🙂

For this spring season, I had fun testing different sewing patterns on my croquis.

Discovering my favorite styles

By doing these different tests, I’ve identified a silhouette that I really like: fitted jacket, cigarette pants and a floaty blouse. This is probably what I will focus on for my next projects, plus a wrap dress that is sorely lacking in my wardrobe!

From sketch to finished

My new sketching process helps me not only with planning but also documenting my sewing makes. Here are 3 projects I’ve already sewn :

A little video to show my sketching process

I often get very positive comments when I post a photo of my body model sketches on Instagram. I thought that a little video to show you how I do it might be of interest to you.

I actually laminated a page with my MyBodyModel croquis and I use this laminated sheet to trace. Then, I dress my figure based on the technical drawing of the pattern or based on a picture … it’s as simple as that!

Drawing my makes now completely part of my sewing process, all the way from making mood boards, to planning and documenting my makes. I really enjoy it!

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...We’d love to hear from you below: How do you plan and document your garment making projects? Do you prefer to color in your sketches, or leave them as outlines?