A while back on Facebook someone posted a link to this site.

TracingRealBodies.org invites designers to print, trace, and use their real body models as templates for design. I have found it incredibly useful to design a garment onto a real body as opposed to designing within the flatness of a sweater schematic.

Here’s how I use it with my MacBook and Pages. I open their website, and open a blank Pages document. Drop the “real bodies” into the document. I put two views of the same body (there are lots to choose from) on one page. Set the opacity to 10%, which is barely visible. When I print that, there is enough to see for sketching, but not so much that is shows through. Perfectly useful.

I’ve just printed a stack of 15 different bodies and have them at the ready to sketch whenever I have an idea. This is working so, so, so much better than what I used to do.

I even enlarged a few and blocked out most of the body, leaving legs upon which socks can be drawn.

Let me know if you give it a go.