Here’s a photo tutorial on just how I adjust my photos. Warning. This post is a little bit technical.

The first thing I do is find an image for something I like. Here’s one I found.

This is Vogue 9202. It’s best to find an image that is straight on so it will paste over the croquis, which is also facing straight on.

You can see from the above screen shot, I save the image. I save all my images as JPEGs, as I find that the easiest image to use.

Once saved, I open my Photoshop program (I’m sure there are other programs that can do the same thing, or look for an older version of the program – it doesn’t have to be the newest. Mine isn’t new.)

In the above photo, I’m selecting the Lasso Tool. You also want to select the Magnetic Lasso Tool next.

In this next photo, I’m part way around the dress with the Magnetic Lasso Tool (MLT).

That might be a little hard to see, so I’ll enlarge this one.

Those little dotted lines and squares show the part being saved, and what will be cut out of the photo. It only takes a minute or two to do all of this so far.

The next thing I do once I’ve gone around the entire image with the MLT is I go to Edit, and Cut. Below is what remains. An outline of the image. This is the background that is left over. The image itself has been cut out from it.

Select the Move Tool (just because it’s easier to use at this point).

Now, I go to File, select New and then Blank File. That’s going to be my new photo without the background – the one I can now use to paste or layer over other photos.

Here’s the new blank photo ready to have the dress pasted onto it.

With this blank photo, I go to Edit, and select Paste.

There. My dress is back. This looks pretty much the same as the first image I opened in Photoshop, but it will behave very differently! As well, I cut the back neck away from the dress.

If you’ve done this with me, you’ve done the work and now comes the fun!

I open my croquis now. It won’t close the other photos I have opened in the program.

You can still see the new dress photo without a background, and the original dress photo with only an outline left, and my croquis all at the bottom of the screen.

Now I simply click on the dress and drag it up over my croquis.

You can see it doesn’t fit yet. All you can see of my croquis is an elbow and wrist peeking out from behind the dress. That’s okay.

I click on the dress photo and a small box appears around it, which I can adjust in both height and width.

Above I’ve adjusted the top. You can see the box in the photo. The dress is still too big, so time to make another adjustment or two.

There. I’ve brought the bottom up to about the right length for me. Still too wide though.

Now to adjust the side. I try to adjust it so the width of the dress is covering my hips. They’re my widest part, so I want to see how this will look covering that part of me.

There. That gives me a really good indication of how this dress will look on me.

Just one more click outside the dress area, and I see the final results. The box is gone.

If there’s anything I still feel needs adjusting, I can simply click on the dress again, and that same box will show up allowing me to make adjustments. This new image can now be saved.

It’s not perfect. If you look closely, you’ll see the shoulders are too big on my croquis, however, the croquis proportions are right. I can see what this dress will look like on my figure – shorter than the image on the pattern cover, and wider too. At this point I can see if I like it or not, and decide if I’m going to try the pattern or if it’s a pass.

I hope this helped. Let me know if you try this, if you have Photoshop or another program that you use to do something similar.

Happy creating!