---
authors: 1
caption: 'The freesewing logo'
date: '2017-03-24'
intro: 'I am are proud to announce freesewing core v1.0.0 and the accompanying documentation that describes the freesewing project in detail.'
title: 'Announcing freesewing, an open source platform for made-to-measure sewing patterns'
---

I am are proud to announce [freesewing core
v1.0.0](https://github.com/freesewing/core) and the accompanying
[documentation](/docs) that describes the freesewing project in detail.

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But I'm also realistic, and understand that you don't have time to plow through
pages upon pages of documentation.

So instead, here's a story to give you the essence of freesewing in a nutshell:

## The freesewing origin story Sewing is easy. It really is. What's hard is

getting things to fit properly. That's why you use a sewing pattern. It's a
blueprint for whatever it is you are making. A good pattern gives you good
fit. Most patterns don't.

That's because &mdash; much like clothes in the shop &mdash; patterns come in
sizes. And sizes are a crude way to put people in boxes. They are made for an
imaginary average person, rather than for you.

There's another way, and that is to draft a pattern based on your measurements.
These made-to-measure patterns are vastly superior, but they require a lot of
work.

I wanted to change that, and that effort evolved into
[MakeMyPattern.com](https://makemypattern.com/). I ran that site for a
number of years, and it was a remarkable success. Probably helped by the fact
that I gave away all patterns for free.

In the world of home sewing, it tends to require a bit of explaining why one
would choose to give away their work for free. Things are different in the
open source world where the idea of sharing your work with others for the
benefit of all is the very thread from which communities are woven.

While I can't magically bring the culture of open source to sewing patterns, I
certainly can bring sewing patterns into the open source world.

[Freesewing.org](https://freesewing.org/) will continue to offer what
[Makemypattern.com](https://makemypattern.com/) does today: free sewing
patterns drafted to your measurements. But additionally, it will be open to
your contributions.

Here's hoping that in the Venn diagram of the somewhat geeky and sewing, it's
not just me in the middle.

joost

## Shout-outs Freesewing is a project by [Joost De

Cock](https://github.com/joostdecock) and contributors.

Hat-tip to [@jakesgordon](https://github.com/jakesgordon) and [Kevin
Lindsey](http://www.kevlindev.com) for allowing me to port some of their code.

The early-stage enthusiasm and input of
[@diggydev](https://github.com/diggydev), [@cabi](https://github.com/cabi),
[@woutervdub](https://github.com/woutervdub),
[@cloutiy](https://github.com/cloutiy),
[@straytaoist](https://github.com/straytaoist),
[@netpraxis](https://github.com/netpraxis),
[@Stefan1960](https://github.com/Stefan1960),
[@brendare1](https://github.com/brendare1),
[@JorisJoppe](https://github.com/JorisJoppe),
[@JamJenkins](https://github.com/JamJenkins), and
[@fightingrabbit](https://github.com/fightingrabbit) has been a great boon to
this project.

Thanks to [@annekecaramin](https://twitter.com/annekecaramin) for designing a
logo cool enough to put on a Tshirt.

Special thanks to [@scorchtorch](https://twitter.com/scorchtorch) for being the
best at that heart/salad/antlers thing.

Last but not least, this project would not exist without the users, supporters,
and donors of [makemypattern.com](https://makemypattern.com/).

Thanks guys!
