PDA

View Full Version : Sewing Patterns



Toska
03-18-2019, 09:41 AM
Hi all! I just joined to share this bit of info I just figured out since I didn't see anything on it here before. Artrage makes a fantastic program for creating sewing patterns. I just created a pattern for a leotard for my daughter in it and it worked fabulously! No sore back from hunching over the paper, could move things about and align them and move them right back without fiddling over massive sheets of paper. Select, grab, move to make those adjustments without cutting and taping. Undo! Undo is awesome. Stencils and rulers and such of course and always perfect squaring with either the grid or ctrl+shift if your line is falling off the grid... so many wonderful things to say about it. I know there's programs out there specifically for this but I already use Artrage for painting and find it so easy to use I figured I'd give it a go and it worked so well, I thought I'd share.

As for how to set it up, I used a canvas set to 100x100cm (I like huge canvases and metric is easier despite my imperial roots but feel free to use inches if you prefer. Just pick a number that'll work with the grid set up) and slapped on the grid set to 200x200 square and centered it. This gave me perfect .5cm measurements to work from which was excellent for precision. I kept the dialogue box open so I could snap to grid and not as needed. Used a separate layer for each pattern peice which made manipulating them easier and had all the measurements I needed pasted in a separate layer that I turned on and off as needed.

Now for the best part. Seam alllowances :) After a few attempts and measuring out with the ruler and marking from the pattern line, I decided that was too fiddly and made some brushes. They're pretty basic and I wish I knew how to offset them so I could just trace the line directly and have it shoot out to 1cm or whatever away, but as is, as long as I have a steady hand and find the right distance, I can line it up right just off the line. I'm attaching the package file for anyone who wants them. I have some standardized 1cm, 1.5cm, 2cm brushes which may or may not work with your set up, but they're accurate on mine as well as a freeform seam allowance brush that doesn't have size stored but does have pressure sensitivity turned off so it always comes out the same size and opacity. Once I had these, adding seam allowances was a breeze.

When I was done, I cropped the canvas of the white space, converted an exported image to a pdf in Foxit PhantomPDF (free) and printed it using Adobe Reader and their poster settings to keep the scale (ask if you want details on that), taped and was good to go. Now I have a pattern I can easily scale as she grows and won't get lost or damaged. I'm inserting the image so you can see how it worked out but keep in mind I have only sewn 5 things in my life and am self-taught so I don't use standard markings usually and it might have some funniness going on. I'm sure if someone wanted, they could polish this up quite a bit further and have a rather professional looking product. Anyways, I hope this is helpful to someone and thanks Artrage peeps for making such a flexible, easy to use program that "off-brand" uses flow out of it quite naturally :)

97427

97425

sueellen
03-19-2019, 09:26 AM
I love your seam allowance brushes SO MUCH. It was hard for me to figure out how to expand a drawing rather than enlarge it so I'd have a seam allowance -- and your brush actually shows the seam allowance with criss-cross lines. Too cool. Somewhere I have a post about creating stencils to expand a drawing for seam allowances... Have you checked out Spoonflower? You can design the fabric as well as the pattern. For small things (less than a yard) I have the design printed on the pattern so all I have to do is cut and assemble. I use ArtRage to create the design and upload it to Spoonflower as a png. Spoonflower saves my designs for when I'm ready for them to print. I have designed a tea cozy that I'm ready to assemble but I wish I'd had your seam allowance brush before I had it printed. It's hard for me to stay focused without clear markings. Like you, I am self-taught and I've sewn very few things but it's way fun. I also have a post somewhere in the forum about how to make infinitely repeating designs, made possible by ArtRage's snap-to-grid. It's amazing how much you can do with ArtRage. Thank you for sharing the info about Foxit. That was new to me. And Spoonflower is also free. I know you'll enjoy designing your own fabric.

Toska
03-21-2019, 06:39 AM
I'm glad the brushes worked out for you! I haven't seen Spoonflower. Thanks for turning me on to that. It looks really neat and that's such a clever idea to print the pattern right on it! Yeah, having the seam allowances visisble helps for lining up those corners that have to be lined up by where the seam is not where the fabric is. Glad you found my post useful!