Whilst we're asking for advice
I wonder if any of you would be able to help me with something. As you may be aware, I make corsets! Each one is made to the customer's exact measurements, so I have to draw an individual pattern out for each one. This is obviously quite time consuming, so what I wanted to know is if it's possible, through whatever software, to have a standard pattern on my computer and to then elongate or reduce certain sections of each pattern piece according to the customer's measurements. I would then want to print out the pattern and for it to be actual size.

Any ideas?

Alt Q: If you could have one tool grafted onto your hand, what would it be? I think I would have my first two fingers turned into scissors, although not all my fingers, you saw how that worked out for Edward.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:40, 58 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

ward mund - at least, given his current surgical track record...
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:41, Reply)

I'd have a multitool
What's that? There's a small stone stuck in your horse's hoof, miss? I can help!

And you could set up a pretty simple Excel document where you put in a set of measurements and it works out your dimensions without too much trouble.

Actually drawing it, however, would take a fair bit more work.
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:43, Reply)

ooh that sounds like a good idea
the excel thing. The way it works is I have 6 pattern pieces for each side of the corset and most of them are roughly hourglass shape so I have to increase or decrease the top, middle and bottom according to the measurements and each one has to be altered by the same amount or it ends up wonky. It would be great to have a programme to figure out how much I shoud increase or decrease stuff by. If anyone's offering...!
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:44, Reply)

Would it be best to have 2 different parts to this?
An excel part that works out dimensions, and then some sort of 2D CAD layout that you can vary the dimensions of once excel's worked them out?
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:48, Reply)

yeah probably
I do have autocad for students but I can't work it yet, I haven't even looked at it. Is it easy to do that sort of thing in CAD?
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:51, Reply)

It should be reasonably easy to do in CAD
If you have the main outlines, you should be able to put a number of lines across in certain places according to the measurements, and when you changed those it would pull the main outlines to the correct size and shape.
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:56, Reply)

ooh that sounds good.
I'll learn me up some CAD then. What about the life-size printing bit? Would I have to make it bigger on screen for it to print out in actual size, or is there a way of printing it as it looks?
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:00, Reply)

Have you got a life size printer?
If not then it's fairly pointless.
(PsychoChomp, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:04, Reply)

No.
Wiggy mentioned a life size printer too. Can I not make the pattern piece bigger on screen and then just work out the scale from screen to page?
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:06, Reply)

Yes you can,
but it'll invole taping lots of A4 sheets together.
I think the spreadsheet that works out all the dimensions for you would help but it won't do it all for you.
(PsychoChomp, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:08, Reply)

Most pieces would probably fit inside A4
the width of most pieces is around 4" and the biggest piece lengthwise is the front centre which is 15" so it would only be maybe two pieces where I would need to tape A4 together, so I could to those two bit in two halves couldn't I?
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:13, Reply)

Or you could just get someone to print them on A3 for you

(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:17, Reply)

I wonder if I could do them half size and then get them photocopied onto A3
I don't know anyone with an A3 printer.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:19, Reply)

You technically could, yes

(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:27, Reply)

^ This
You would probably need a printers with a barrel printer to get them to print as you needed,
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:07, Reply)

Maybe gaz Chompy?
He loves his spreadsheets. I can see a simple equation thing (ie, if I input value X, then Y and Z update according to the defined ratio) being a doddle to do.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:48, Reply)

I always harass him for stuff like this,
he's probably sick of me by now
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:55, Reply)

Yes it is possible
And I'd have a massive frying pan for spanging and bacon cooking
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:43, Reply)

That'd make driving more interesting

( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:46, Reply)

I could spang you everytime you called a stobart

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:47, Reply)

thanks for that Captain Useful

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:47, Reply)

Well the only way I can think would be to use Autocad which is like lotsocash
I was thinking if the free vector programme I used to use would work for it
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:48, Reply)

Hmm, maybe Google Sketchup?
I think that might work as a free option.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:49, Reply)

Unfortunately not
As I just tried doing it in it. It doesn't let you easily adjust dimensions after they've been initially drawn, and doesn't let you export 2D drawings in the free version.
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:52, Reply)

Gash
I only used it once to plan my living room, and it mostly worked fine.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:52, Reply)

It is actually quite good
But the free version's limited in many ways.
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:55, Reply)

would you like to try inkscape for us researcher penguin :p

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:57, Reply)

Might as well
I think I might have it on my netbook already.
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:59, Reply)

Ok, so Inkscape looks pretty good in general
I like how easily it lets you change the position of certain points on a vector, and adjusts the shape of curves to match it. You can easily add and subtract points from the path, and mess about with them and smooth things. It appears to have lots of preset shapes too, but I don't really care about those. Let's you save as lots of different file types too.

All in all, fair powerful, and free, so definitely worth using.
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:11, Reply)

ok that sounds really good
the smoothing thing is important as all the pieces need to flow in a curve when sewn together so It would be good if it adjusted the curve as you moved the width.

Thanks a lot for this, it's really helpful and if it works it could cut an hour out of my 6 hour creation time.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:15, Reply)

I'll have more of a play with it and see what happens if I put two parts together then mess with dimensions

(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:19, Reply)

fantastic, thanks

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:20, Reply)

I've never heard of lotsocash
but I do have a student version of Autocad, so I might have a play with that, thanks.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:56, Reply)

I think it's like "lolcats" but done with banknotes

(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:57, Reply)

Unless you mean it as a joke
lotsocash = she means it's very expensive.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:57, Reply)

I was kidding

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:58, Reply)

ambiguity of text means I wasn't sure

( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:59, Reply)

it's ok
I usually am pretty thick
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:07, Reply)

Please tell me you realise she meant AutoCAD costs 'lots of cash'

(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:57, Reply)

I think I'd keep my own hands
They are pretty good tools as they are.
Sorry for the boring answer.
( Peej, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:49, Reply)

I would have my house keys grafted on
And then I would never lose them again.

No idea about the other thing.
(Applebite Uh! A cow!, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:49, Reply)

Jesus, I thought moving house was a sufficiently painful process as it is...

(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:52, Reply)

They'd be changeable, they'd have to be. I'm moving house about once a year at the moment.
Oh! Or, I'd have the Terminator 2 liquid metal stuff, and then I could do anything with it.
(Applebite Uh! A cow!, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:58, Reply)

you could have little screws on the end of your fingers
for changeable attachments.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:10, Reply)

O HAI!
I did upside down teddy bear thing into superman last night, it was proper smooth and everything. I dismounted by doing a full body splat to the floor though, needs work.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:57, Reply)

Yay, congrats!
I'm working on handstand spin at the moment. It's fucking well hard and damned if I can get it.
(Applebite Uh! A cow!, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:06, Reply)

FUCK HANDSTAND SPIN!
I HATE IT. Seriously, that's the only move I've been completely unable to do, in terms of I just can't take my hand off the floor. I don't know what it is, I don't know why it scares me but I just cannot make that second hand lift up. I half managed it once, but as soon as I took my hand off the floor my body panicked and my legs immediately clung to the pole in a tangled mess which took me ages to get down from!
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:08, Reply)

I can get past that,
I just seem to take my head the wrong way round, and end up clinging upside down to the pole, only having moved about two inches round.
(Applebite Uh! A cow!, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:20, Reply)

yeah that's how I ended up
I struggle with putting my left leg out at 90 degrees away from the pole, I always feel like I'm just going to fall off horribly so as soon as I start to try and spin I just automatically cling to the pole like wet tissue.

We'll have to practice it next week, with mats of course!
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:45, Reply)

I'd have electrode things in each fingertip
So I could transfer data at a touch, but also fire lightning like The Emperor.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:52, Reply)

that'll probably be plausible in a few years
didn't they try and develop microchip phones a while ago in Japan where you have an implant in your hand? Or was that a joke?
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:58, Reply)

I think they tried it
But it was very, very shit.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 10:59, Reply)

just like your face
and your mums face

and all other female relatives
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:01, Reply)

I can do that in excel.

(PsychoChomp, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:02, Reply)

Plotting the finished data full size is going to be tricky though, I doubt Kitty has an A1 printer.

( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:06, Reply)

The excel thing would be a great start
I spend ages sitting there with a calculator trying to figure out the measurements plus seam allowances. Any chance you'd be able to help me? I'd really appreciate it.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:09, Reply)

yes, gazed.

(PsychoChomp, Thu 7 Oct 2010, 11:13, Reply)

I use...
Illustrator and work full scale, printing and taping A4 sheets together introduces a certain amount of error, so you do need to then measure your pattern pieces and adjust manually, but it works just about fine.

CAD is great, but although I have managed to do patterns with regular autocad, I found it significantly quicker and easier to use illustrator, modifying a basic block pattern.

If you need templates I can upload some basic stuff for you to get an idea.
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Fri 8 Oct 2010, 1:06, Reply)