Is it possible to do proper freelancing with seamly 2d?
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What do you mean by ‘proper freelancing’?
I guess it all depends on how dynamic you are. There are people making & selling sewing patterns, people making custom (bespoke) clothing on here. Some do this full time & some only part time.
Some people have proper tailoring shops and some sell fabric on the internet & make patterns to accompany the fabric.
For myself, I’m a bookkeeper. I make & sell patterns part time, but not on the internet. I also use Seamly to make patterns for clothing that I may have an order for or for family. And then I help others to get their patterns laid out nicely to sell.
So, I guess, it’s up to you to decide what it is that you wish to do and to set up accordingly with advertising on social media, etc., build your name & see where it takes you 
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Thank you for your reply.
I meant ‘proper freelancing’ as full time. Bad phrasing I guess. 
I am new to this, but I would like to get to know the software more, and the people who are working on and with it.
I am making patterns too, and know a few pattern makers, but none of them work in this program.
Thank you for sharing your experience about seamly2d and for the suggestions. 
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I have been a pattern maker theatrical tailor for 35 years, I draft on paper, because for me it is quicker and more intuitive, as I can make changes quickly and I am making custom one off pieces.
I am not sure yet whether Seamly will be something I can use professionally, but it has certainly been an interesting thing to learn.
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I don’t, but speaking as a consultant, what I’ve heard industry insiders profess is that if you are in charge of every phase of the production process, then you could certainly use Seamly professionally. But if you are just a freelance cog in a fashion design house you probably have to use Adobe.
Personally, part of the allure of Seamly is hope for a future in which fashion designers don’t have to be subject to the Adobe-industrial complex.
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Hm… so you need Adobe for the same reason you could use Inkscape instead?
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Obviously we’re both in a similar boat. Here’s my point of view… most of my work now is custom work most of the time with custom sizing. While sometimes it may be a one off, a lot of times it’s multiple sizes of the same jacket / pants. A few years back I was looking to program a plugin for CorelDraw to draft patterns, when I came across Valentina. While intriguing I found the applications clunky and not very garment industry friendly. So I started working on my own fork to make it more useful… and at some point decided to contribute to Seamly rather than going it on my own.
That said… one of the things I’m trying to address in the applications is to not only add the features that one would expect in a professional pattern application, but to help speed up the process of drafting a pattern. That’s where I’m still with you… I can draft and make changes quicker right now on paper. Ideally I can get the Seamly2D to the point where the pay back time is shortened… that is to reduce the amount of time needed to enter a pattern, and then to be able to simply pull up an existing pattern, enter new measurements, and plot out a newly sized pattern with little time required.
I’ve had to deal with the same issue when it comes to video production. Adobe is so engrained in the industry with Final Cut, Premiere, and After Effects… and I’m just not a fan of Adobe. To be honest I find the “slick” UI just gets in the way too much. I use Vegas to edit video because I want to get work done fast, and not be concerned with how cool the UI looks. That being said, I do like using AE for some effects, but I hate using Premiere. Some things are just so counter intuitive compared to Vegas.
Actually I would add Optitex, Gerber and Lectra to that industrial complex. 
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I use Inkscape to nest the different sizes and to create the PDF files, it works really well, but AI will preserve the layers in the PDF, as well. Seamly’s PDF patterns waste quite a bit of paper currently, since it lays out the pattern pieces for you, and there’s always a better way to do so when you do that yourself. (Save the trees )
I also use Inkscape to make a technical drawing of a garment so that I can see the design details.
I have my ladies ‘Master Patterns’ on Seamly which makes quick work of creating new designs once I have my tech pic. After creating the new design, it’s a matter of creating the pattern details & then printing and testing. Once I’m happy, I can do the prepping for nesting & PDF.
This works very well for me, however others will work differently. Each person develops their own methods according to their client base.
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I do use Seamly professionally. For bespoke jeans and pants.
I don’t have experience with the larger, commercial software offerings like Gerber or Optiplex, but I do have extensive experience with Adobe (including drafting patterns in Illustrator).
I started out drafting on paper by hand. Then moved to illustrator. Now I do ALL drafting in Seamly. Then I export to SVG and use Illustrator (or Inkscape) to create a layout that is efficient for my large format printer. And then convert to PDF.
I love the idea of open source software and I try to use it at every opportunity. And Seamly is one of my favorites. With a good active user base, good community. And we have @Douglas doing some great work and making improvements!
Seamly works pretty well for what I do with it. And if I was selling patterns, I believe that I could create a pretty good workflow for drafting in Seamly and then create good layouts for PDF’s in Inkscape.
I would add, is that if your workflow is to draft on paper, then the feature I’ve been waiting for: (Existing SVG file as a background) could be useful. As you could trace over your patterns with Seamly. And then use Seamly to grade and size up or size down based on a of “Individual Measurement” file for different sizes.
What I like about Seamly is it’s a tool that you can adapt your own workflow around. I’ve learned to work with it and use it for what I can (which is a LOT). It has it’s limitations currently, but even the large commercial programs have their limitations as well. Finally, I really find that sometimes a program only SEEMS like it has a limitation, because I may be set in my ways. And sometimes if I just learn to re-evaluate and adapt my workflow I’m able to incorporate a new tool (new program).
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Just a thought on that… Seamly2D can be run from the command line, which provided a front end, one could drive Seamly2D online to generate patterns.
Besides the huge cost most commercial is way more than any small shop would need. We have an older Opitex setup at my shop, but it’s geared towards digitizing and grading existing patterns, not drafting made to measure patterns. Our business has shifted away from mass wholesale of Halloween costumes, and we deal mainly in custom jobs for Theatre and movies. That’s why I needed an application like Seamly2D to draft (period) costumes.
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Ich arbeite seid 30 Jahre in diesem Beruf. Mit eigenen Entwürfen und Maßanfertigungen, mal mit Mitarbeitern und seid ein paar Jahren alleine. Vom Entwurf über die Produktion und den Verkauf bleibt alles in einer Hand. Nach dem ich 25 Jahre alles von Hand gezeichnet, weil so gelernt, habe ich vor ein paar Jahren Seamly kennen gelernt. Alle anderen Programme waren für meine Betriebsgröße einfach nicht rentabel. Besonders das Erstellen von Mehrgrößenschnitten hat mich überzeugt. Schnitte, die mit einem Kunden zusammen erarbeitet habe konnte ich so auch in andere Größen umwandeln. Gradieren auf Papier war zeitlich gar nicht zu machen:) Ich habe mich über die Jahre in Seamly eingearbeitet und mitlerweile sehe ich eine echte Arbeitserleichterung.
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That is what my-pattern.cloud currently does. Manage patterns and measurements online, and it runs Seamly2D headless to generate the PDF.
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Hallo und einen Gruß aus Berlin, ich habe ebenfalls die Schnittkonstruktion mit der Hand gelernt und verwende die Schnittaufstellung von Müller und Söhne, ich habe dann ebenfalls Seamly entdeckt und benutze dieses auf einem Mac. Bin damit ein bisschen unglücklich weil das Programm instabil ist und gerne mal mitten in der Konstruktion abstürzt. Hast Du ähnliche Erfahrungen? Gruß H. Nähmann
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Hallo und willkommen im Seamly2D Forum, @H.Naehmann
Ich weiß, dass wir in der Vergangenheit Probleme mit Mac hatten, aber ich glaube, diese sind behoben. Können Sie bitte einen Screenshot von der Hilfe > Über Seamly2D machen und eine Beschreibung geben, was Sie zum Zeitpunkt der Abstürze tun, damit die Entwickler einen Blick darauf werfen können?
Hello and welcome to the Seamly2D forum, @H.Naehmann
I know that we had problems with Mac in the past, but I believe these have been resolved. Can you please take a screenshot of the Help > About Seamly2D and give a description of what you are doing at the time of the crashes so that the developers can take a look?
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Hallo und willkommen. Ich arbeite auf Windows und arbeite mit anfänglichen Schwierigkeiten mittlerweile ohne Probleme mit dem Programm. Was ich gelernt habe ist, dass man sich im Vorfeld einen Plan zurechtlegen muss, um damit zu arbeiten. Immer wieder speichern und Test Dateien anlegen ist immer sinnvoll, damit man nicht wieder von vorne anfangen muss. LG aus Darmstadt Bettina Scholl
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Yes next time when it crashes I will do that
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Hallo und danke für die Antwort, es beruhigt mich ein bisschen das es offensichtlich auch bein Windows Probleme gegeben hat. Ich verstehe nicht ganz was es mit dem Plan auf sich hat. Ich weiß, wenn ich mit der schnittkonstruktion anfange was es werden soll. Z.B ein Herren Raglan Tshirt entwerder in Konfektionsgröße oder individuell nach maß. In Seamlyme habe ich die entsprechende Maßtabell angelegt. Als schnttmuster System benutze ich Müller & Söhne. Soweit mein Plan.
Immer wieder speichern und Testdateien anlegen ist nicht die Lösung des Problems. Das kostet unendlich viel Zeit, dann kann ich ja gleich wieder Packpapier, Konstruktionslineale, und Bleistifte nehmen, dann habe ich eim Schnittmuster ohne das ich was zwischenspeichern muß und am Ende bin ich Schneller. Das sollte es aber nicht sein.
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