Garment designing

Huge apologies, I’m a bit late posting this week, but I do have a very good excuse.

At the beginning of the year I was contacted by a fashion student trying desperately to find someone to knit a jumper for his final collection.  I don’t often take on commissions like this but I did feel sorry for him and the jumper was to be in a super chunky yarn. I am showing you just a peak at the knitting above because he hasn’t yet submitted his collection.

Over the following two weeks he sent me over images and measurements.  I worked on tension squares, which he discussed with his tutor.  One of my resolutions this year was to design a  garment so the whole process has been fascinating.

As you can see I am pretty hopeless at drawing,  but in order to make sure I had got everything right I decided to buy Cochenille’s Garment Designer package.  It’s not cheap but I think it will be very useful for me as I develop my skills.

I was able to take a standard, dropped shoulder template and amend it to the student’s measurements.  Then I could add the tension and the weight of a stitch and the programme worked out all my shapings, and gave me an indication of the amount of yarn I would need.  Honestly it’s absolutely amazing and pretty intuitive.  I couldn’t find the pdf manual to start with so had to work it out myself and it really didn’t take long.

What I am really excited about is I can put in my measurements to create a custom template and then choose what kind of garment I want to design, tweaking as I go.  Now I know I should be able to work all the maths out but I am a very visual person and I find this programme really helps me to understand where I am going.

It will also generate a sewing pattern, so if I have a favourite top or trousers, I can take the measurements and create the pattern.  The only down side is it doesn’t make tea.

I was able to give the student a stitch count and he amended his graphic accordingly.  Now I am knitting up a storm with lots of intarsia, which I really don’t enjoy.  However this has provided me with another learning opportunity.  I downloaded a Craftsy class on Intarsia to improve my technique and it’s made a huge difference.

So many boxes ticked in just one month.