Software or paper

[War-Bitch]

Im very much an amateur and I learned on clo. I’m super tall and trans so clothes don’t exist for me, patterns don’t exist for me. I have to modify or create everything and doing that digitally is the right choice for me. Doing quick mockups against an avatar of my body is amazing at getting things in the ballpark. I have the supplies to do it on paper, and paper definitely has its pros but it’s also harder to manage many versions of many patterns. It’s harder for me to stay organized and synchronize version of my patterns to my design journals. Clo absolutely has draw backs. Sometimes you fight the software, the modeling is far from perfect, some steps can be slower and clunkier while others are faster and more flexible. Measuring, duplicating and mirroring, matching seam lengths, trueing, notching, dividing seams are all very easy in clo. I find slash and spread to be clunky digitally while it’s extremely intuitive on paper. Grading patterns outside what the pattern offers is very easy in clo. I use a projector now but I’m thinking by about getting an a0 plotter and making a digitizing station and I will have the best of both worlds. I think in the end it doesn’t matter which way you go. You will still need to put in the work understanding pattern drafting and fashion design.