-----PATTERNS & PATTERN-MAKING-----

[Wired]

Hi all,

Warwick - Top Marks!! If your project is successful, I'm sure you will be the toast of the town.
A application like this would be extremely useful for cutting out one of the main niggles about making latex clothing ie ,where to come up with that elusive catsuit pattern, yayyyyyyyyy!!
Would it work on the same principle as the Custom Corset Pattern Generator.

http://costume.dm.net/custompat/

Would it be a case of inputting your measurements and the application constructs the pattern accordingly, if so this would be great.

Great stuff! Keep us posted with work in progress.

Dont forget folks, you can pick up catsuit and leotard patterns designed for Lycra and usable for Latex with some modification to overall sizing here,

http://www.nevtex.co.uk/

Regards,
Wired.

[Claustrophilia]

Thoughts on building a pattern library: Forget about the magical pattern maker you drop your measurements into for now. People who have the tools, money, and time to make latex garments are smart enough to know how to adjust patterns to meet their own needs - so long as people include their personal measurements with their pattern. For the short term, let's just build up a pattern library of what works for the individual.

There are still some questions to be answered about the tools for the job:

The problem with svg and "Inkscape" the cool free svg creation program is that it's printing abilities are limited to a single page. I currently use Adobe Illustrator to create my designs, which prints them out easily into "tiles" of pages that fit perfectly. Adobe's free SVG viewer is useless...I believe the latest versions of internet explorer can already view svg's. Illustrator can export to svg, but that's only useful for sharing. It also exports to PDF which would allow anyone to print a design in Acrobat Reader that spans many pages, but would not allow any editing of it. Unfortunately PDF is a guarded intellectual property so there won't be any open source tools for getting a saved design from PDF back into svg or editing it directly. Realistically, Adobe Illustrator is not that hard to come by through shady means on the net, and I think it's only $150 or so if you get it through a university ($500 on adobe.com). I've seen clothing design sites referring to designers using Illustrator for professional pattern design, so it's a good standard...just expensive.

Inkscape is great for making patterns though. I'll post again if I find something that can print as well as Illustrator or Acrobat for free (I'm hopeful that GIMP will work). I think this library could really take off as soon as an easy set of tools to work with are found.

[leinir]

I know of one free tool for doing press-quality PDFs for Linux and MacOS X, but unfortunately it doesn't exist for Windows (personally I find that of little importance, but I know others will find it a tad annoying ). http://www.scribus.org.uk has the lowdown

[Wired]

Hi all,

The pattern making saga continues.

I see a problem with computer based pattern making appz and software in that considerable extra time needs to be spent familiarising ones self with the chosen software even the simpler ones. This means that even before with the tricky process of learning to make latex garments starts people have also to learn the in's and out's of graphics software, adding to the complication even more.

I dont want to sound like some digital Luddite here but if we are going to have a useful and successful pattern library here at IAR then the system should be uncomplicated and useable by all, not just the ones who have experience of computer gfx.

Perhaps success may lie more in establishing a list vendors and patterns that are suitable for modification for latex and in detailing instructions on how to modify them efficiently to fit personal size. Also how to modify and upgrade the patterns to create garment types not covered by existing patterns. For example, catsuit patterns designed for lycra are readily available worldwide though they do not have the fetish oriented features such as high necks, zips, hoods and feet etc. So the trick here would be for all interested parties to purchase a catsuit (or whatever) pattern and then use this forum to help each other out with advice and how to's regarding adding the extra's.

IMHO this is much easier to do than creating patterns from scratch especially as I'm assuming that ,like myself, most interested parties have no prior experience of garment design or construction.
Once you have a paper pattern of the desired garment in front of you it's relatively simple to trace out a new copy of the pattern and translate your own measurements on to it. Seeing how the individual pattern pieces are shaped also gives you the knowledge then of how to construct your own designs. Plus a range of sizes is provided in the pattern making it easy for people to find a similiar size of initial pattern to work off.

Regards,
Wired.


:uk:

[Claustrophilia]

I agree completely...perhaps the idea of a "catsuit calculator" or patterns you can tweak on the computer are both too inconvenient to be useful right now. In that case we should build the pattern library in PDF. That way ANYBODY can print the pattern in the free Adobe Reader by taping together tiling pages. They can edit the pattern on paper once they have it back in the real world. It's not that much extra trouble for those creating the PDF's to include SVG and/or Illustrator versions as well so the tech savvy people can make their adjustments in the virtual world.

The only problem with this is, it takes an expensive application like Illustrator or Acrobat to create PDF documents...perhaps the tool lenir suggested can work as well. I'm happy to contribute designs, but I hate to see this project stagnate because of the price tag. This may not be a problem if the only people interested in making digital patterns are those with the tools already.

Personally I can't believe I wasted so much time sketching things by hand, trimming them a bit here and there and ending up with a garment I liked but no documentation as to how to make another...I would make the same mistakes over and over. There were little things like the margin of error from tracing over an older paper design that is probably wrinkled from use if it's any good

To give up on "the lay person" being able to edit patterns also removes the connection between pattern maker and pattern user. There would be little community interaction and patterns evolving unless people were willing to translate paper patterns, theirs or for others, back into the digital world. Again, maybe the key to this is leaving the task to those with the means and interest...but obviously just having the library out there is not enough...either the technical people have no patterns to submit or the lay people have no time for such complicated technobabble.

[Claustrophilia]

This might be an interesting solution: I created a grid of registration marks (little crosshairs) that fit inside the corners of a sheet of paper. If you download Inkscape it really isn't hard to install, open and print from. Just use the cursor to move the whole pattern across the page and print different sections of it. Then tape the printed pages together by lining up the registration marks...and voila, a full-sized pattern printout you can trace on to your latex.

So attached is a simple unitard pattern to demonstrate. Because of my personal tastes in fit it probably won't be of too much use to anyone, but I'll upload more patterns this way if anyone finds this promising. If anyone has a minute please give it a try so we can get some opinions on whether this is a good way to do it.


It's looking like the PDF format won't work out at all. Only the expensive Adobe Acrobat will print to tiled pages. The free Reader program doesnt do squat. I still haven't found any sort of free multi-platform program that prints tiled pages... but it does look like the new SVGPrint standard will do the trick once programs begin using it sometime in the next few years.

Note: If you do want to edit the pattern and are willing to learn a bit of Inkscape here's a quick rundown. You must first select all (Ctrl+A) and ungroup the elements (Ctrl+U). Then use the edit tool (F2 or the icon on the left) by clicking on a line. When you click a line all of it's points will highlight. Then you can click and drag them wherever you want. Some points have an extra dot for specifying the amount of curve. These are fun to play with and make nice curvy outlines. Group everything back together (Ctrl+G) and go back to the cursor tool (F1) to move it around for printing. This program is easy, well designed, free, and it's really all you need for making and printing patterns.

[Claustrophilia]

Allright dammit, I'm not giving up on this!

I finally got my website up and running and I've started a tutorial on printing designs from computer using wired's mask as an example. Check it out here! It's really not that hard and I've found that I am tons more efficient in creating garments by putting the patterns on a computer...but there needs to be a system.

I'll have more tutorials up soon...once how to do everything is listed I'll start working on mediumish size versions of the designs I wear. With the designs and tutorials up I'll then start allowing people to upload their modifications and voila': instant pattern sharing community. It could happen...

[Wired]

Hi Claustrophilia,

I just clicked your link and got the 'page cannot be displayed' message. What happened to your site? I was gonna have another look at Inkscape and check out the unitard pattern you made. Has your site address changed?

Regards,
Wired.

[Claustrophilia]

Hmm...I just checked it and it was up. Try going straight to www.claustrophilia.net. Perhaps this is just the result of cheap hosting.

[leinir]

Whatever happened, it's back And nice work, too, Claustrophilia, much better than the version I put up some months back