@hazelthewriter

Digital Pattern Drafting

Sharing resources is caring! So I decided to start a new category on my blog called ‘Learn With Me’ where I can share other tutorials and resources I’m using to learn a new skill! These will be short and sweet little posts that I can link to share where I’m finding tools and knowledge to grow my own skill base.

Alright, lets talk digital pattern drafting! I have done a couple of stints of very basic pattern drafting on paper in the traditional way, but I find this to be very tiduous and space consuming. I have to clear off my eternally messy crafting space to lay out the paper, and do lots of measuring, drawing and erasing of lines that just feels very time consuming and not that fun.

I knew folks could use their computer to draft and edit patterns, and I also am very fortunate to have access to Adobe Illustrator, so I decided to dive in and try to learn this new skill!

Tools I’m Using:

Right, so a lot smaller list of tools already in comparison to traditional paper pattern drafting! I like the sound of this.

Pattern Drafting in Adobe Illustrator: Tutorial Series by PatternLab

I’m using this tutorial series at the moment to learn the technical skills involved in using Adobe Illustrator for pattern drafting. I’ve had some experince with Illustrator and other Adobe programs before, so I’ve been doing a lot of skipping and scrubbing around in this playlist, but it is an effective tool for helping you set up your Illustrator workspace, and learning the key basics.

From what I’ve seen when scrubbing around, I don’t think it’s the most effective tool for learning the foundations of pattern drafting, so if you’re like me and coming at this without an in depth understanding of manipulating patterns, there is a secondary playlist of tutorials I’m using.

Pattern Drafting: The Basics

The Minerva series is what I’m using to learn how to actually manipulate a pattern! I like to follow a tutorial as I do it, so I first followed the PatternLab Adobe Illustrator to learn the basics of Illustrator, and then I switched to the Minerva series to learn how to actually place Princess Seams into a bodice block.

Annnnnd….. yeah! That’s where I’m at currently in this learning process. Hopefully this is helpful? Feel free to comment on this post if you’ve gotten this far and I’d love to hear about your own learning journey with digital pattern drafting.