I've Downloaded White Ginger Demo

I bought the full Wild Ginger "Celebrations" software. It did not produce usable patterns for what I was trying to create, Highland Dance jackets with very specific body and sleeve alterations to accommodate the movements of the active dancer. After a lot of time and work with support, I was fortunate that they agreed that it was not going to work for my purposes, and they refunded my purchase price.

I would much prefer to work with drafting paper and rules. Just my $.02.

Beverly

I use the Wild Ginger Boutique and love it. I have a heavy bust, and trying to alter commercial patterns got to be a real problem. Some things, such as princess line bodices, were just impossible. I now have a blouse and several vests in that. Currently, I am working on perfecting a pants pattern. I have made several pairs which are acceptable - certainly better than I can find in RTW - but I am still improving, by means of adding and subtracting within the computer program. Also, the tech support is outstanding.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

You'll probably get different answers from different people. There are some here who are very enthusiastic about Wild Ginger. My personal experience had different results.

I bought the Click & Sew Pants software from Wild Ginger over a year ago. After about ten months and nearly three dozen attempts, I finally gave up on getting a wearable pants pattern from them. Never mind perfect--I couldn't even achieve sort-of-acceptable. I called the company three times without satisfaction. Maybe it was my fault for not being able to explain the multiple problems adequately. I finally decided that if I needed that much help, then maybe this wasn't the best program for me to use. Click & Sew led to months of frustration, discouragement, and ultimately no results.

So I gave up and bought Dress Shop, by Living Soft. It's a lot more expensive, but does a lot more than Click & Sew, so maybe this is not an equal comparison, but I am THRILLED with Dress Shop! Only three weeks of use, and I had a perfect sloper! Last night I made a test pair of pants out of cheap fabric, and it is perfect. I'm ready to make the real thing now, and I couldn't be happier. Dress Shop has you put front body measurements in separately from back body measurements, instead of just the total circumference measurements that Click & Sew requires. This made the difference for me, because pants-wise, I have a lot more of me in the back than I do in the front. Just not proportioned the way Click & Sew anticipates, I guess.

Don't expect any pattern-drafting software to give perfect results on the first attempt. Even if your measurements are exactly right (and they probably aren't) there is still some fine-tuning to do.

I've tried unsuccessfully to keep this brief, but if you want more detail, feel free to email me privately. Good luck!

Donna Gennick Michigan's Upper Peninsula

I have Boutique (love it), Curves (don't care for it, but it's not designed for people with my build), and Tailor Made (made a number of things for my sons from it), not to mention Wild Things and Icare.

The demos are some of my favorite computer games.

If you plan > Just this evening, I downloaded a White Ginger Demo on pattern-making. >

To be fair, Celebrations is not for dancewear but for formal wear, and I hope you don't diss the entire Pattern Master family because you were unable to modify it for purposes that it was not intended for.

I am glad you found something you are happy with.

I had an exactly opposite experience than you. Drooled, listed over Dress Shop for a number of years, finally bought the Sampler, and I could not get patterns to print nor get any help in getting them to print. I was devastated. Fortunately, WG was there to help me pick up the pieces.

Different strokes...