Newbie needing help with measurements! :)

Documentation / How to
, ,
1

Hi all!

I am totally new to Seamly2D and have some basic pattern development knowledge but never on CAD.

I am trying to input size small measurements from a standard chart i.e

Once I have input the sizes from the chart I then have followed the Walkthrough tutorial on YouTube by Minimalist Machinist but I keep getting a few steps in and not having all the measurements that are needed! I have tried so many size charts now and I keep coming across things missing.

Please help! If you know of any size charts that include everything?! or if the tutorial I am following isn’t the best?

Any advice for this newbie would be appreciated as I am starting to go crazy with it all. :crazy_face:

Thanks! Charlotte

2 Likes
2

Hi @CharlotteB,

Are you trying to use a particular pattern and it gives you the error messages that you don’t have some of the measurements? If so, please post the pattern here and we’ll help you get the measurements you need.

Here’s the TL;DR on the Seamly measurements approach:

There are 2 issues around measurements: Which measurements to use, and what name to give them?

These problems occur because no two patternmakers have ever used the exact same measurement set, because there are many different ways to make any garment. Also, sewing is an old craft and the vocabulary evolved more from convention than from a precise engineering approach.

*Issue 1: Number of measurements. Seamly incorporated information from over 100 patternmaking books to add in all the different types of measurements that each system uses. And it appears that we still didn’t get all of them, as there are requests for new measurements to be added. We have about 275 measurements. Other patternmaking systems have even more, but their extra measurements can’t be measured on the body directly and are derived from formulas using other measurements and they exist to make a particular patternmaking system easier to use. If you need these types of complex patternmaking system-specific measurements you can create them in the Variables Table for the pattern, or add them as custom fields to your measurement files.

Issue 2: Measurement names Seamly’s measurements use names that describe the begin & end points for measurements (eg shoulder_tip_to_shoulder_tip_f for shoulder width across the front, neck_front_to_waist_f for Center Front Length). Each patternmaking system uses it’s own names for measurements, and sometimes the same name is used to describe different measurements. It’s way too confusing and very difficult to translate between languages. Our naming convention enables better translations and better understanding of each measurements by this naming convention.

To illustrate the For example, Winifred Aldrich’s books and pattern drafting formulas use one set of measurements but Lori Knowles’ books use some of the same ones that Winifred Aldrich uses but also uses some different ones.

I hope this helps.

4 Likes