The One Thing You Need to Make Home Sewing Patterns
Selling digital products is great. You don’t have to worry about shipping or returns. You make the item and it goes out into the world and people make beautiful things from your templates. If you are just starting your journey into the home sewing pattern market, it could seem like a relatively simple task. However, there are a lot of steps involved and potentially a handful of people you would have to hire to make it work.
But let’s be clear, this is a business venture whether it be a hobby or a career. Being mindful of the bottom line is important. If there are tasks that you can do yourself, then you should absolutely do so. However, if you have to hire, it’s always good to have at least a basic understanding of all the facets so you know what questions to ask and/or check on if things are being done to the standards that you want.
The one thing that I would like everyone who produces home sewing patterns to know would be Adobe Illustrator. (Note: this is not a sponsored post. It’s just plain advice) This program is your foundation for all aspects of the pattern production process. Some designers draft their patterns in Illustrator. For grading, I directly import Adobe Illustrator patterns into my software and then the graded pattern will be sent to you in the same Adobe Illustrator format. From here, your pattern needs to be tiled for PDF set up, line qualities changed, text added and branding and labels included. This all happens in Adobe Illustrator. When it comes to writing sewing directions, I find this is also useful to create your diagrams. For marketing purposes, you can create all sorts of presentations using this software. Can you see where I am going with this? It’s a multifunctional program.
It’s a lot to learn
Yes, it’s complex and there are so many functionalities that you will never need so taking a course on Adobe Illustrator will give you a ton of information, but you’ll need to figure out how it works for you. I believe there are online courses for using Adobe Illustrator specifically for home sewing patterns which focus on the context that you need.
Are you still terrified?
That’s ok. You can absolutely hire someone to set up your pattern for you. But I want you to learn the basics. You should be able to open up the graded file that I send to you and zoom in and out, and move around the workspace so you know it’s looking like what you want.
If you are having someone format your file for you then you should be able to open the master file that they will send to you. If you want to change something minor, sometimes it’s easier to do it yourself. Let’s say that there is a typo. If the formatter is busy, they may not be able to get your change request done immediately so you don’t want to be stuck waiting.
There is definitely a learning curve. I never took a course to learn the fundamentals. I had to figure it out before youtube tutorials were a thing. So if I can do it, so can you!