deep stash thoughts #4: range plan and croquis

deep stash thoughts #4: range plan and croquis

Deep Stash Thoughts is a series of posts explaining profession design processes and tools, and how you can use them to get great results in your knitting, sewing, and other creative endeavors. DST posts appear on Fridays when I don't have f.o.s to share.

In the last post, I wrote about how to use your mood board to create a design language. This week, I'm talking about range plans and croquis.

So what the heck is a range plan? It's a categorized list of all the silhouettes included in a clothing line, or in this case, your seasonal wardrobe.

I like to organize my list by layer. Layer one includes items worn next to the skin. Layer 2 goes on top of layer 1, you get the idea.

deep stash thoughts #4: range plan and croquis

In order to keep things simple, I'm not including any "special" items, and just naming the overall silhouettes of what I normally wear (or think I'm going to wear) during the average week, October - December, so I can figure out where I have holes that can be filled with new knits or new sewing projects. Speaking of which..

deep stash thoughts #4: range plan and croquis

..Here's that same list, this time in color. The items in white are already in my closet. The items in yellow still need to either be made, or be finished. Oh boy.

Wondering what to put on your range plan? Try stuff! If you're thinking about adding a new shape or style to your wardrobe, you can get a sense of how that particular garment shape is going to look on you by using a croquis.  

A croquis is a fancy name for an outline of your silhouette that you can then use as a background for sketching clothing accurately. There's a great tutorial for how to make a croquis here.

Sketch and be bold with pencil and paper. If you find what works for you by sketching it, you can avoid adding things to you wardrobe that languish unworn in the back of the closet.

Wishing you happy planning and sketching!