Digital sewing basic block patterns and slopers from PatternLab London
It was PatternLab London that sparked my original interest in digital sewing patterns. I came across it a few years ago on the web in a random search and at that point it was still in testing mode. In their own words, “PatternLab is a new flat pattern-making tool, developed specifically for creating made-to-measure basic sewing patterns* for garments that fit like a glove. PatternLab dramatically speeds up the production time of your garment or collection, giving you more time to focus on what really matters, the design process!”
So when I needed to create some basic blocks and was short of time, I went through the process of creating a set of slopers with Patternlab’s website tool. Just to be clear, I haven’t been asked to review PatternLab’s website, this is just my personal opinion and I wanted to write about it purely because I have been so impressed with the results. The process was beautifully simple. You input a whole array of measurements for which PatternLab have made a great set of precise instructional videos to help you get each measurement right. You choose the style of block. There is a very good choice and at the end of the process and for an incredibly reasonable price, You can purchase the PDF or the ePub SVG version.
On the website are some very good tutorial videos on how you can edit these files with adobe illustrator. I’ve been working with these same files in free open source software, Inkscape and many of the processes from Adobe illustrator can be replicated. This I will cover in future blog entries. So I heartily recommend you try PatternLab out. Their website has heaps of free and good quality information and tutorial videos on digital pattern cutting and the resulting blocks were excellent.