---
authors: 1
caption: 'This post is mostly about our work on progressive disclosure. Also: Three new patterns!'
date: '2019-10-06'
intro: "We've just release FreeSewing v2.1 🎉"
title: 'FreeSewing v2.1: Three new patterns, expert mode, and help with measurements'
---

We've just release FreeSewing v2.1 🎉

<!-- truncate -->

## Meet Penelope, Waralee, and Simone

There are 3 new patterns in this release:

- [Penelope](/designs/penelope) is a pencil skirt by [Wouter Van
  Wageningen](/users/user?id=132)
- [Waralee](/designs/waralee) are wrap pants, also by
  [Wouter](/users/user?id=132)
- [Simone](/designs/simone) is Simon (our versatile button-down pattern)
  adapted for breasts by [Joost De Cock](/users/user?id=1)

All of these patterns are either womenswear or -- in the case of Waralee --
unisex clothing. Which in an indication of our commitment to bring more
womenswear patterns to the site.

Apart from creating new patterns, a lot of efforts have gone into making things
simpler, without making them dumber. Let me explain:

## Our work on progressive disclosure

Striking a balance between giving our users all the power of the platform, yet
making it easy for newcomers to get started, is an ongoing challenge. We have
started making inroads into addressing that issue with so-called _progressive
disclosure of complexity_.

The idea -- which we didn't make up, but is a concept in UX design -- is to
simplify the experience for most people without limiting the abilities of more
advanced users.

We are focusing our attention for progressive disclosure on two areas that are
the ones that our users most often struggle with:

- **Pattern options**: Our patterns often come with dozens of options. That is
  great for those who like to fine-tune every detail of their pattern, but can
  be a bit overwhelming for newcomers
- **Measurements**: Taking accurate measurements is crucial for good results
  with our patterns, yet not as trivial as you would think.

While we're certainly not there yet, we've made progress on both of these.
Let's look at what we've been up to:

### Pattern options: We now have an expert mode, and it's off by default

(some of) Our patterns have had _advanced options_ for a while, but they are
now hidden by default. That is until you turn on the **Expert mode** in the
settings (below the pattern options).

Apart from advanced pattern options, export mode also reveals the lesser-used
draft settings such as the ability to change the language, units, details,
margin, and contents of your draft.

![Advanced mode](https://posts.freesewing.org/uploads/recreate_a6e2f9c4d6.png)

:::tip Also shown: Pattern vs Recipe defaults
When configuring your draft, every option has a little button to restore the
default value for that option. Things get more complicated when you're
re-creating a recipe. Now when you restore the default, is it the pattern
default, or the recipe's default?

The answer used to be the pattern default, but with this release, you'll find
that options where the recipe default is different from the pattern default
will have two buttons. Once to restore the pattern default, and another to
restore the recipe default.

You can see this in the screenshot above.
:::

### Measurements: Helping you spot mistakes in your measurements

We've added a few indicators to help you spot mistakes or problems in your
measurements. Your models will now show a graphical representation of your body
measurements, which will allow you to spot any outliers.

![A graphical representation of your model's
measurements](https://posts.freesewing.org/uploads/model_c3fa8fc50c.png)

In addition, we are showing you an estimate of your different measurements
(based on your neck circumference) next to the actual value. If the difference
gets larger, we'll draw your attention to that.

This is a difficult area for us to work in. We want to help you get the best
results, and that includes helping you spot issues with your measurements. On
the other hand, we in no way want to imply that someone's measurements are
_wrong_ somehow.

We are an extremely size-inclusive pattern outlet, and a disproportionate
amount of our users are people who struggle to find clothes or patterns from
other outlets. So on one hand, it might seem like we're setting ourselves up
for failure by comparing measurements to a set of more or less _standard_
measurements. But you know your body. You know which of your measurements
deviate from the average. And us pointing out that they do is in a way only
confirmation that you've been measuring correctly. On the other hand, if
something jumps out where you are fairly average sized, you know to
double-check those measurements.

Last but not least, while we try to provide guidance about measurements to help
spot mistakes, we never exclude anyone based on size or measurement. No matter
what you throw at us, we will draft a pattern that works for you, or (our
software will) die trying.

## Other changes

- We have extended our size ranges for our comparison views. Menswear sizes
  are now sampled from size 32 up to 48, while womenswear is sampled from size
  28 up to 46.
- We've made some changes to the defaults in the Simon pattern, based on our
  tests with Simone
- We've added support for preloading models with breasts to our development
  environment for pattern designers
- We've implemented fixes and improvements in our Jaeger, Bruce, Benajamin,
  Simon, Carlton, and Carlita patterns
- We've added a bunch of missing images in the documentation, and [started an
  effort to make sure all options have an image to illustrate their
  purpose](https://github.com/freesewing/freesewing.org/issues/190).

More information is available [in the
changelog](https://github.com/freesewing/freesewing/blob/develop/CHANGELOG.md).

We hope you enjoy this release, and please [stop by our chat
room](https://discord.freesewing.org/) to share your thoughts, feedback,
suggestions, or ideas. We'd love to hear from you
