Simple Low Tech Wardrobe Plan Tutorial

Since I’m about to put together my wardrobe plans for Fall-Winter 2014, I thought I would show you how I made my previous storyboards.

I had looked on the Internet at different ways to create one including one with color and fabric swatches. It didn't work for me but I still loved the idea of have the pattern sketches along with their fabric or color swatches. I thought about how I had created my Etsy shop banner using PowerPoint, so I started there.

What You Need:

1. PowerPoint - Luckily for you, if you have any version of Microsoft Office you probably have PowerPoint and if you don’t have a home business you probably don’t even use it. Well, now you have a reason to!
2. Image software/program - Photoshop (you can use the cheaper Photoshop Elements), MS Paint, etc. Basically, you need a program that will allow you to view image files, crop, and resize your images. That’s all.
3. Images - you will be using the pattern sketches from pattern company websites and online stores for scanned images of your fabric.

First you must accumulate your images. You probably know what you want on this board, so you need to go to any of the pattern sites and right click on the outline sketches of the patterns that you want and save them. They will sometimes come up as an image showing all of the pattern's views. This is where PowerPoint comes in. I did mine with a 2007 version of PowerPoint; however, the steps should be the same.

Open up these images in your image editing software and crop out any part of the image that you don’t want. I try to leave as little a border as I can so I can fit more images onto one page storyboards. After you alter each image you will get a chance to save it as a  jpeg file.

If you are going to use fabric swatches, right click and save the images from the online store that you purchased the fabric, if possible. If not possible and you have access to a scanner, scan a section of your fabric and crop down to a usable size. Save as a  jpeg. It neither of these are possible you can save an image from the web that includes a large enough swatch of your fabric color and follow the steps.
Once you have all of your images created, all you have to do is bring them into the presentation document. The cool thing about using PowerPoint is that you can move these images anywhere you want or you can use the handy grid to line them up.

Open up PowerPoint. The program should open up on a blank slide. This is your storyboard ground.
If you want to create a title use the title bar already there and size it with the toggle switches, move it up and make it narrower. Type in your title. To change color or size of type, highlight the text and use the Font tools. Click on the subtitle box and hit delete.

To attach your first image, click on Insert and select Picture and insert image from file. I opened up my file and selected my first image. Once the image is on the slide page you can use those same toggle tools to reduce or enlarge the picture. I made all my images the same size, as if they could be worn by the same size croquis.

After you have arranged your images on the board first save it as either a .pptx or .ppt file.
Then to save it as a jpg file, on the Save dropdown box select Other Formats. Find jpeg on the dropdown list and click Save.

Once you click on jpeg, a dialog box will ask you if you want to export every slide in the presentation or just the current slide.

Select Current Slide Only. Once you have it as a jpeg, it can not be changed but the original PowerPoint file (pptx/ppt) can. At any time, you can go in and move things around, switch one pattern for another, or add different fabrics. I hope this helps! Good luck!