Pattern Master Boutique Expert?

Dear Beverly,

If you have a perfectly fitting set-in sleeve, I'll be happy to walk you through turning it into a two-piece sleeve.

Teri

Thanks, Teri, I appreciate the offer, but I don't have a perfectly fitting sleeve for this particular garment.

I bought Pattern Master Boutique Celebrations hoping that I would be able to generate patterns for DGD's Highland Dance outfits without so much altering of Big Three patterns. For instance the sleeve has to be rotated slightly more to the front (not a major fix), has to have generous underarm allowances (or additional roominess in the back of the armscye) to allow for the arms to be extended overhead (many of the commercially made outfits have a godet added to the underarm, but that's so bulky I'd like to find a better way), the sleeve head is raised about half an inch over the top of the shoulder and the shoulder seam shortened, etc....

I could play around with all those changes in a commercial pattern, and make multiple toiles, but I would love to just use software. I guess it's back to the drafting board. I have an e-mail request in to PMB but I'm not sold on this program at all so far.

Beverly

You do not appear to be at the beach.

Send your question directly to the PMB forum. All their experts will jump to answer you.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

No, I stayed home to try to get some yardwork done. Instead of that, I'm banging my head against a brick wall. Ouch! PMB support... doesn't.

I'm headed out to buy the Claire Shaeffer Vogue pattern I should have bought in the first place. At $25.00 I would have saved a bundle over PMB.

Beverly

PMB support has "answered" my e-mail. I'm done with that POC program, I would have saved a bunch of $$ as well as frustration buying Vogue patterns at full price.

Beverly

OK, I'm going to share a little wisdom with you, from the vantage point of my advanced years, and nine years working for a large internet auction company. When you want to know how something works, or how to make it do what you want it to do, don't waste your time with Customer Support. The basic requirement there is high school completion and the ability to breath through one's nose. Go to the forums. Ask other, experienced users what you want to know. If it can be done, they'll tell you how. If it can't be done, they'll tell you that, too.

I generally find that if I "tweak" the pattern EXACTLY as Karen C. tells me, it fits my odd bod just as I want it to.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

This was one of the PMB experts I think, the same one Olwyn Mary is writing about. I didn't like the sleeve shape when I used DGD's measurements, so just to be sure I had not accidentally input corrupt information, I generated a pattern using the default measurements which come in the software. Same result. Apparently the program does not make any adjustments for the custom measurements you use, you have to tweak i.e."cuff width" to get a proper sleeve.

Ugh! I expressed my dissatisfaction in a several-e-mail exchange. Finally, even though I bought it more than 90 days ago, Karen C says if I e-mail her the de-activation code she will issue a refund. That's fine with me, I'd much rather start out with a well drafted pattern, so it's back to Vogue and Claire Shaeffer. And the PMB is deactivated. Too d___ed steep a learning curve for this old brain.

Beverly

BEI Design wrote:Too d___ed

I find it very hard to believe that there is anything with too steep a learning curve for your brain. However, I respect your decision to choose not to exert that much effort when you can get a complete refund.

Believe me, I gave it the old college try over the past several months. I'm not sure I have EVER given up on a software package before, this was just way too time consuming for the payback. I thought they were very generous to offer the refund, and decided that rather than let this consume massive more amounts of my time, I'd take them up on it. In addition to the problem with the sleeves, I was totally perplexed by the complexity of the editing part of the program, simple slash-and-spread was about an eight step process. Really it would be simpler to just do it with paper and pencil.

I'm very disappointed, I was so looking forward to having a pattern-drafting program. :-(

Beverly

When you consider all the possible variables, and the limitations of a computer (1 or 0), and keeping a program to a size that is reasonable, certain assumptions have to be made. So they choose those that they think won't vary, and limit the areas that can be tweaked. That's probably fine for most users. But then there's the special-purpose garment that needs a very unusual construction, and the program can't accommodate it.

Personally, I love the program. For the first time in many years, I can make myself an armhole-princess style bodice which fits my mature bustline, rather the the perky one of an over-siliconed twenty-something. Of course, I don't pretend to have anything like the expertise Beverley does, I only sew for myself and nowadays I stick to classic styles.

Different strokes for different folks!!

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Dear Beverly,

Well, it's too late for you, but I had trouble with PMB sleeves when the program first came out. I got a curt reply from them, telling me that my measurements must be wrong (I, who have hand-drafted perfect sleeves for thirty years). I found that if I put in my around the hand measurement rather than the wrist measurement, I got a better result. Some other things that I don't like about the program are the very strange lapel/collar shape for jackets; the pocket shapes for pants; the fact that patterns have to be designated "all black" and "bold" to get them to print correctly.

But saying that, having the program just to generate slopers for my oddly shaped family makes it worthwhile for me. I found it much easier to edit self-made slopers in an architectural program than the way required in PMB.

Teri

limitations of a

reasonable,

they

That's

special-purpose

can't

fwiw ...

i would re-word as... considering all the variables, many assumtions are made to control the program costs.

you may not be to surprised to find that development costs vs potential sales forecasts mostly drives the sophistication, quality and feature set of software and not the *limitations* of todays computer.

that is sophistication = time = money quality = time = money features = time = money

I doubt there is nearly as much sales in pattern drafting software as even landscaping and room design software and that is pretty flaky software.

$0.02 robb

Oh, absolutely! The bottom line is always $$$

I agree, my requirements were probably just beyond the capabilities of this software. I created a couple of fairly simple garments, and tried the editing feature to customize them. A simple slash-and-spread was a many-step routine, and had to be done in just the right order, I never could get just what I wanted.

It also was horrible at drawing curves. The armscye princess seams center front and back parts were drawn with three straight lines. Since I would have had to redraw the curves, then check to be sure the two parts fit together correctly, I gave up.

I downloaded a demo a long time ago of a program called "Fittingly Sew" I really liked, googling shows it is available maybe I'll look into it. But for now I'm done struggling with this.

Beverly

I included a screen shot of the sleeve PMB generated, and also got a very curt "you must have done it wrong" reply from support.

Mine seemed to print ok, but if the pattern is useless what's the point? ;-(

Maybe someday when I have more time I'll take a second look at it.

Beverly

Beverly's expertise does not extend to pattern software, though. ;-}

Indeed!

Beverly