Making a flat sketch from a photograph
Published 9 September 2026
A flat sketch is a line drawing, front and back, laid flat with no body in it, showing seams, topstitching and closures. You can get one from a photograph of the garment, and it is the normal starting point for a tech pack.
The flat sketch is a garment's identity document. Until it exists, nobody, not the factory, not the pattern maker, not the buyer, is looking at the same thing you are.
What a flat sketch has to show
- Front and back, laid flat, no body and no mannequin, at the same scale.
- Seam lines, including the panel seams you cannot see from a distance.
- Topstitching, as a broken line, because it is sewn and it is billed.
- Closures: buttons, zip, snaps, with their positions.
- Edge finishes: hem, rib, facing.
What it does not show: shadow, cloth, drape, colour. A flat sketch that tries to be beautiful becomes unreadable in the plant.
Starting from a photograph, and why that works
A photograph of the garment, worn or laid out, already contains most of the information: proportion, where the panel seams fall, the collar type, sleeve length. Turning it into line work means removing the body, the light and the cloth, and keeping only the construction. That is a translation task, and translation is exactly the sort of thing an image model is good at.
What it will not do for you: decide the ease, choose the grainline, settle a construction. Those are pattern-making decisions and they belong to the pattern maker. On this platform the AI does the design and visualisation work and a human pattern maker cuts the pattern. That split is deliberate.
The method, in three moves
- Photograph the garment flat, in daylight, without creases and without a hard cast shadow. A laid-out photo beats a worn one.
- Get the line drawing, front and back, and check that every seam visible on the garment is on the drawing.
- Annotate by hand what the photo could not say: the cloth, the weight, exact closure positions, and tolerances if you know them.
Make the flat sketch from your photo
Drop the front photo: the garment comes back as black line work on white, with its seams, pockets and closures drawn. Ask for the back view next in the studio, from the same drawing.
Drop a garment photo here
or choose one from your phone or computer
JPEG, PNG or WebP. Any phone photo works.
Your photo is stored for 30 days, then deleted. It is used to make your image, and by the studio if you continue there. If you order a pattern from it, a copy is kept with your order.
2 free renders, shared across all our tools. No account. A free account then opens with a one-time welcome of 50 credits, then gets 15 credits a month.
After the sketch
A flat sketch is not a pattern. It becomes a tech pack when you add the measurement table and the tolerances, and it becomes a pattern when a pattern maker cuts the pieces. Here that step is $29, $59 or $129 by piece count, published before payment.
Try it on your own garment
Drop a photo, get the front and back line drawing back. 2 free renders, shared across all our tools. No account.
Draw the flat of my garment