51dc1d9732
Refer to the CHANGELOG for all info. --------- Co-authored-by: Wouter van Wageningen <wouter.vdub@yahoo.com> Co-authored-by: Josh Munic <jpmunic@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: Jonathan Haas <haasjona@gmail.com>
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9.3 KiB
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240 lines
9.3 KiB
Text
---
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authors: 1
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caption: 'Open 24/7 from now onwards'
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date: '2017-08-25'
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intro: 'Freesewing.org is open for business. That is, the business of giving away free sewing patterns'
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title: 'Freesewing.org is open for business. That is, the business of giving away free sewing patterns'
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---
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When I released freesewing core back in March, I did not expect it to take
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another 5 months to finally have a proper front-end for it, but here we are.
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From today onwards, [freesewing.org](https://freesewing.org/) is the place to
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be for your made-to-measure sewing patterns.
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<!-- truncate -->
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If you're new to freesewing, I suggest you start reading [the about
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page](/docs/about/), which hopefully does a half-decent attempt at describing what
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this thing is.
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> As of today mmp will no longer allow new users to sign up and after a grace
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> period of a few months, I will shut it down
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If you do know what I'm doing here, or you saw _An open-source platform for
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made-to-measure sewing patterns_ at the top of this page and that was enough
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for you to figure it out, this announcement comes after 18 months of work to
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reinvent my previous site, [makemypattern.com](https://makemypattern.com/).
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Speaking of which, makemypattern.com has so far generated more than 6500 sewing
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patterns, so I think it's fair to say it's been a good run.
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But [every new beginning comes from some other beginning's
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end](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGytDsqkQY8). So as of today mmp will no
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longer allow new users to sign up and after a grace period of a few months, I
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will shut it down.
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Update your bookmarks people, because [freesewing.org](https://freesewing.org/)
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is where it's at.
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## Everything is new or different, and hopefully better
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The idea of generating made-to-measure sewing patterns based on your
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measurements is the same. Apart from that, pretty much everything you see here
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is different.
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I've written before about the choices I've made when building this frontend.
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The [matters of principle and ethics](/blog/privacy-choices/) as wel as [the
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technical stuff](/blog/freesewing-goes-jamstack/).
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Today, I won't go into the details of how things work under the hood. Instead,
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I'd like to briefly highlight some of the most significant changes for the
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users of the site. Hopefully, that includes you.
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### Patterns vs drafts
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I told you earlier that mmp generated over 6500 patterns. I can also tell you
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that mmp has 10 patterns available.
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So which one is it, 10 or 6500? Well, it depends on the context. Which is
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ambigious and confusing.
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Now, patterns are patterns, and drafts are drafts. That is, a draft is what
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you generate from a pattern. It's a pattern drafted to your exact
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specifications.
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I hope that in using both terms consistently, it will become self-explanatory.
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So, for freesewing that means there are 12 patterns available, from which a
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number of drafts have been generated that you can track live on the status
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page.
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### New patterns, and blocks
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Currently, 12 patterns are available on freesewing.org. All 10 from mmp (note:
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some have had their name changed) plus the new [Sven
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Sweatshirt](/designs/sven) and the [Brian Body Block](/designs/brian).
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The block also existed in the mmp backend, but it wasn't available to you. So
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that's another change, I am making all my blocks (slopers) available.
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And more is coming, I currently have 3 patterns and 1 block that I am working
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on. They are not ready yet, and I didn't want to delay the release for them,
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but I hope to have them all out before the end of the year.
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What I'm saying is, watch this space. Or better, check the links at the bottom
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of this page for social media accounts to follow.
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### Better support for _les autres_
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I
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[tried](https://makemypattern.com/blog/imperial-units-have-been-spotted-and-they-might-break-things)
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and [failed](https://makemypattern.com/blog/imperial-units-not-worth-it) to add
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support for imperial units to makemypattern.com.
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This time around, both metric and imperial are fully supported. You can set
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your preferred units in your account settings. And in each model you can set
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the units seperately, just in case you happen to sew for people living in
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different parts of the world.
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Speaking of different parts of the world, freesewing core fully supports
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different languages. You can get your pattern in a number of languages, and if
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yours is not listed you can help with the translation.
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Arguably, that is a bit of a half-measure when this site is only in English,
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but baby steps, right?
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### Compare to catch issues early
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One of the common pitfalls is that people take measurements the wrong way.
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When they generate a pattern, those incorrect measurements can sometimes really
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mess up the pattern in a way that can be hard to spot if you are not familiar
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with the pattern.
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One way to tackle that is with better measuring instructions, which I have
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added. But what I really wanted was a way to make spot issues in an easy way.
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Comparing yourself to others is the fastest way to be unhappy. But in this
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case, there's value to a comparison.
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Putting your pattern side by side with a pattern that is known to be correct
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can help you spot any issues that go beyond size differences.
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So, comparison is built-in. Every time you generate a draft, you get two
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things:
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- Your drafted pattern
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- A comparison of your draft to a range of standard sizes
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It's a way to quickly eyeball your draft for any glaring issues before you
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start working with it.
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### Paperless because trees are precious, and printers not a given
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Something that I am curious to see whether it will catch on are paperless
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drafts.
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Apart from the obvious upside of saving paper, I hope this will allow people
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who don't have access to a printer to use freesewing.
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The idea is that you don't have to print your pattern. Instead, you can
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transfer it directly onto fabric or another medium.
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To make that possible, the pattern comes with detailed dimensions and a metric
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grid (or imperial grid if you're into that) that helps you transfer all the
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information.
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As I said, I'm curious to see whether this will be useful to people, but I felt
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it was worth a try.
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### I've got your back (up)
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Also new is that when you draft a pattern, I will keep that draft for you, and
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it will remain available.
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You can come back at any time to re-download the pattern, or tweak it, redraft
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it, or fork it. Yes fork it, which is kinda cool because
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you can also fork patterns from other people after they've shared their draft.
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You can also add your own notes to your drafts (and to your models for that
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matter).
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### Community-driven blog and showcase
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Your makes deserve better than a Flickr album somewhere, so I've added
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showcases to the site. The idea is to have a grabbag of examples here on the
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site of things people have made.
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Obviously, I can't add your work if I don't know about it, so either get in
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touch of make sure to use the #freesewing hashtag when posting about it.
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Speaking of posting, the freesewing blog is also open to your contributions if
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you feel you have something to share.
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### Badges baby
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This is a bit silly, but you can now unlock badges on the
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site. I added the feature initially because I wanted to find a way to thank
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the people who took part in the early access program.
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A while ago, I opened up an early access version of the site to those people
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who were interested, and I would like to thank all of you who tried out the
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site, reported issues, or merely gave feedback or encouragements.
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Those of you who took part should all get that coveted early access badge. If
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it's missing from your profile, get in touch.
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Other badges are available, including one for signing up on launch day. The
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full list of badges is here.
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## What happens now?
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Maybe it's just me, but after every major project comes to completion, I tend
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to slide into a black hole of _is this it?_ disillusionment.
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I might need a few weeks to bounce back from that, but don't let that stop you
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from giving me your feedback and opinions on the site. And if you
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manage to break something, you can [create an
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issue](https://github.com/freesewing/site/issues/new).
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## One last thing I've worked on this for about a year and a half, and
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especially the last 11 months or so rather intensively.
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Now that it's ready, would you help me spread the news a little?
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If you could tell somebody about this or perhaps tweet or write about it, you'd
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do me a real favour.
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Thank you
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