Tutorial

Operation principle

To draw a pattern you need to

1. create an instance of the corresponding class,

2. call different methods of alteration or transformation,

3. draw and, if necessary, save the pattern.

Pattern drawing can also be done directly from the classes Pattern and Point as we will see later. To start, however, I recommend that you use the existing pattern libraries. I will add patterns depending of my free time.

The Basic Pattern

This tutorial shows how to use the available classes to draw complete patterns from standard measurements (a French 38 by example) or from bespoke measurements taken on the person of your choice. Different classes allow you to do this first job, often the most difficult, which consists of drawing a pattern base: base of pants, skirts base, bust and sleeve base. From these patterns it is then possible either to use the database directly (for a straight skirt or basic trousers for example) or “alter” or “transform” this base according to your imagination.

warning:

In all the scripts of the tutorial I consider that the base of data measurements.db is in the same directory as the script major.

Note

The measurements are registered in French (sorry for this). A lengthy discussion on measurements issues can be found in this doc

Bodice

The following script shows how to draw a Basic Bodice. We will draw and save a pattern for a woman’s bodice without darts in 36 (French size) according to Gilewska’s method.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import OpenPattern as OP

# Creation de l'instance
p = OP.Basic_Bodice(
  pname = "W36G",
  gender = 'w',
  style = 'Gilewska'
  )

# appel de la fonction de dessin
p.draw()

plt.show()

We then obtain the following figure saved by default at 1:1 scale in a pdf file.

Different options are passed in the arguments of the different class methods (draw_bodice) or when instantiating class (Basic_Bodice in this example).

The list of bases currently available is given below We are going to see in detail each of the bases and their options.

Style	Women	Men	Kids
Chiappetta		x	2-16
Donnanno	x	x
Gilewska	x	x

Note that as far as men are concerned, the bodice by Gilewska and Donnanno are actually simple shirts without sleeves. Sleeves are part of the body class because their shape is calculated from the armhole depths measured on the bodice once it has been drawn.

Warning

Note the 1cm squares on the figure. You should always check on a print that the scale is ok because more often then not printers automatically adjust the size of print (you do not want your nice 40 to become a small 36 do you ?). Furthermore, at the request from a friend, I added the scale bar (to be sure that everything is fine !).

Skirt

The following script shows how to create a basic skirt (or pencil skirt or spindle or pencil in English)

import OpenPattern as OP
p = OP.Basic_Skirt(
  pname="W6C",
  style='Chiappetta',
  gender = 'G',
  ease=8,
  curves=False
  )

p.draw()

The arguments upon instantiation of the class are as follows

Argument	type	Definition	default value
pname	str	size code	W6C
style	str	Style used	Chiappetta
gender	str	gender	G
ease	int ou float	ease to be applied to the pattern	8
curves	boolean	Should the waits be drawn as a curve	False
kwargs	dic	supplementary arguments as dbPATH	vide

Note that for Donnanno style the pencil skirt is symmetrical whereas for Gilewska it is slightly asymmetrical with a wider half front (1cm) than the half back. Donnanno Treats this asymmetry as a transformation and we will find it in the “shifted-side-seams” skirt by example. For Chiappetta, the girl’s pencil skirt is symmetrical whatever the age.

Trousers

To create trousers with darts we use the class Basic_Trousers

import OpenPattern as OP
pans = OP.Basic_Trousers(
    pname="M44D",
    gender="m",
    style="Donnanno",
    darts=True,
    figPATH="../docs/samplePatterns/",
    frmt="svg",
)
# pans.Donnanno_add_darts()

pans.draw_basic_trousers(dic={"Pattern": "Basic trousers with dart"}, save=True)

Currently only the Donnanno style is implemented for pants. If you choose another style a message will be displayed indicating the unavailability of the requested style and OpenPattern will attempt to draw pants according to the Donnano style.

Alterations (Transformations)

Children classes have been added to the three basic classes for skirts, cullotes and Bermudas, Trousers, shirts, dresses and waistcoats. These classes are under construction and I complete them when I have time! Ancillary classes are also added for cuffs, plackets, and collars

• Waistband

• Cuffs

• Placket

• Collars

• Bowties (butterfly and diamond)

• Gowns

  • Hospital_Gown (done during the first COVID confinement)

• Shirts

  • Basic shirt

  • Yoked shirt

• Skirts

  • Culotte

  • Skirt transform (Shifted side seam, A line, Flared A Line)

• Trousers

  • Bermudas

  • Flared pants

  • Pants block

• Waistcoats

Cuffs(pname = "sophie", gender = 'w', style = 'Donnanno', age = 12, cuff_style = 'Simple',\
  overlap = 2, width = 5, ease = 3 )
Placket(pname = "sophie", gender = 'w', placket_style = 'Simple', slit_length = 10)
Collars(pname="sophie", gender='w', style='Gilewska', collar_style = 'Officer',\
  overlap=0, collar_height=3)