In a recent post I talked about why I couldn't live without patternmaking software, which solutions I've used, and I promised I'd give Valentina a spin.
Patternmaking Software Valentina – In Short:
So far I really like it.
In fact, it is the type of solution I was looking for when I researched a few years ago.
I'm offering custom, made to measure flamenco dance costumes so I need patternmaking software that fits in with the way I work.
I wanted to be able to create a pattern and then adapt it to individual clients' measurements in a quick, low hassle (I've got some tolerance here :-), precise way. Flamenco dance costumes are very close fitting garments, mostly made from non-elastic fabrics so the precision part is really important for me.
I'm interested in standard sizes for the digital sewing patterns I offer over at www.flamencodressmaking.com but for my own sewing working off standard sizes isn't perfect.
When I researched patternmaking software I came across a grading approach called “parametric”. It basically means that a pattern is drafted by defining the dependencies between points of a piece and using “placeholders” for the actual measurements. Whiile it's more upfront work, once done you can associate a different measurement file and instantly get a pattern that's as precise as if it had been drafted from scratch for these exact measurements, well, the software actually did draft it from scratch. It works like a macro, if you know those from Excel.
Valentina is based on this parametric approach.
And that makes it really interesting in my eyes.
Installation
Not much to say here really. Just double-click on the downloaded file, follow the wizzard and you're up and running (I'm using Windows)
Getting Around
The workspace is certainly not overwhelming. It's easy to find your way around. In fact, if you've used other patternmaking software you might wonder how you are going to do everything with just those few tools.
Getting Help
You're certainly not alone.
There is the User Manual. https://wiki.valentinaproject.org/wiki/User_Manual It's not complete but has lots of helpful information to get you started
The Forum https://forum.valentina-project.org/ is a great resource. It's active and admins reply quickly. I get the impression that the creators of Valentina are patternmakers themselves.
There is also a youtube channel with lots of short tutorials. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC61WgbNdZ_wqxKf9PzJrjgA Most videos don't have any sound but they do explain basic functionality.
And there are a couple of other tutorials I found incredibly helpful:
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