Digital Patternmaking, Can I Do It Myself? Yes I Can!

After some good long thinking,  not only am I going to work on my portfolio with some original designs,  but I'm also going to see if I can teach myself digital patternmaking and develop a way to send printable pattern files to my clients.  

Well,  I did take a course in desktop publishing years ago and I learnt how to use CorelDraw 9,  I love that program and I've been wondering if I can use it for patternmaking because whenever I look at screen shots of patternmaking programs they look a lot like vector programs.

I'm thinking regular patternmaking programs probably have a database of ready make blocks to edit,  maybe in different sizes too,  and have neat features like notch adjustments,  seam allowance builders,  mabye even a way cool dart manipulation feature.   But technically speaking a person should be able to pull all of that off in regular bare bones vector program if they know how to use one and they also know how to draft regular patterns.   Heheheh,  I know how to do both :)   So several hours later (I've never done this before) I've completely reconstructed my basic bodice block in CorelDraw 9.  Here it is:

Something to smile about for sure.   I just can't stand by and wait to learn something when I think I can teach myself somehow.   After all that's what got me this far.   So now,  I'm not in the clear,  I have to see if there's a way to create a "tile" file for the pattern to perfectly printed out from a file I can create in Adobe Photoshop CS2.   That might be tricky,  I believe the newest versions of CorelDraw allow you to do this easily,  "but I ain't got the money for that".   No problem there's always a way :).    Now,  if you're wondering how I got those beautiful neckline and armscye curves,  it was a little digital ingenuity.  

I found a non-angle shot of a vary form curve ruler (googled it of course) than I imported it into CorelDraw 9 and enlarged it so that the image's inch measurements matched a little 'inch' bar at both the straighter end and at the curved end.

Then I made some inch marks and half inch markers so that I could still measure my curves in the software,  neat huh?   All I have to do is flip this baby around and basically use it the same way as I would an actual ruler.

Well,  now if I get a client,  think I may have one when these holidays are over, crossing my fingers,  but even if I don't,  I'm going to work on these digitals and my portfolio pieces so I can show em my patternmaking expertise.

Before I send off any digital patterns though,  I'm going to be printing out a hardcopy see how they measure up.

If you'd like to check out my fashion or eco friendly fashion resources lenses here are their links, feel free to drop me a note if you like what you see/read, I'll be happy to hear from you:

Budget Online Fashion Design Schools and Resources

The Eco-Friendly Fashion Designer's Resource Page