How should yardage math handle metric and imperial?

Store one canonical unit internally — centimetres or metres — and convert at the edge based on a user setting. Mixing units in the database is how you get a fabric record that claims 45 of something ambiguous, and quilting and garment sewers genuinely split across both systems, so neither can be the only option.

Do progress photos need cloud storage?

Not at first. Keep photos in the app’s own directory and reference them by URI, which costs nothing and works offline. Add cloud sync only when users ask for it, and be clear that it is what a paid tier funds — image hosting is the one part of this app with a real per-user running cost.

How to Build a Sewing Project Tracker App with AI (2026)

What a sewing project tracker app needs

Fabric stash with yardage, fibre, and a swatch photo
Pattern library with size and adjustments that worked
Projects that consume fabric from the stash
Progress photos and a finished shot per project
Cost per finished garment

The screens

Screen	What it does
Stash	Fabric with photo, yardage remaining, and where it is stored
Patterns	Pattern list with size, view, and past adjustments
Projects	In progress and finished, with progress photos
Project Detail	Pattern, fabric used, notes, and running cost
Add Fabric	Photo, fibre, width, yardage, price, and storage location

The data model

Fabric: name, fibre, widthCm, yardsTotal, yardsRemaining, pricePerYard, photoUri, storedIn
Pattern: brand, number, name, sizesOwned, format (paper | pdf), photoUri
Project: name, patternId, status (planned | cutting | sewing | finished), startedAt, finishedAt
FabricUse: projectId, fabricId, yardsUsed
Adjustment: patternId, description, appliedInProjectId
ProjectPhoto: projectId, uri, caption, takenAt

The build prompt (copy this)

Paste this into ShipNative and it becomes a working React Native app with these screens, navigable in a live preview, in about two minutes:

“A sewing project tracker. The fabric stash is the core: each entry has a photo, fibre content, width, yardage, price per yard, and where it is physically stored, and the list is searchable by fibre and colour because that is how people shop their own cupboard. Starting a project links a pattern and one or more fabrics, and recording yardage used decrements the remaining yardage on those fabric records automatically — the number in the app has to stay true or nobody trusts it. Patterns store the sizes owned and, importantly, a list of adjustments that worked, each linked to the project it was used in, so the next make starts from what already fit. Projects move through planned, cutting, sewing, and finished, and each carries a photo timeline plus a finished shot. The project detail screen shows a running cost calculated from the fabric consumed plus notions entered manually, which is the number people are curious about and never work out. Screens: Stash, Patterns, Projects, Project Detail, Add Fabric. Works offline, since sewing rooms and fabric shops both have bad signal.”

Then iterate with small, screen-specific prompts (“make the primary button bigger”, “add an empty state”), preview on your own phone, and export the full Expo project whenever you want. The full method: how to build an app with AI.

How it makes money

A one-time unlock ($5-8) past a free tier of roughly twenty fabric entries matches how the audience buys, and craft communities are unusually willing to pay once for a tool that respects them. Subscriptions read badly here. Affiliate revenue on fabric or pattern purchases is a plausible second line but should never distort the app into a shopping surface.

Implementation and the revenue math for every model: how to make money from an app. When you’re ready to ship: App Store and Google Play publishing guides.

Build it now

The prompt above is free to run at shipnative.dev — working sewing project tracker app on your phone today, full code export, no credit card.

How to Build a Sewing Project Tracker App with AI