Introductions Thread

My name is Kim. I have 37 years of personal computing experience and much of that time was a professional computer geek (programmer and various other titles). I am retired from the professional workforce. I started sewing in 1967 and have learned a great many habits over the years. A few of them are good habits. I now volunteer with a community theater as a costume designer and am hooked on making my own patterns. I discovered Leena’s work in 1999 and have made patterns from her macros. I have modified many commercial patterns for size and fit, also have modified patterns to create new designs. I have Don McCunn’s book and am teaching myself how to use it. Currently, I use a combination of paper & pencil, computer tools, draping and creating muslin test garments, intuition, and luck to create what I want.

I abandoned windows for most uses and use a dual boot and KUBUNTU for most of my work. I like the idea of open source and have not yet figured out how to contribute. I am willing to learn. Currently I just started trying to figure out how to use Valentina tools and am still fighting very basic issues. Eventually I hope to be able to contribute both as a coder and patternmaker.

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Hi @kmf !

Maybe you could document (video, wiki) how you implement Don McCunn’s blocks!

If you write it up, we can post it to the blog with screenshots, etc. And we can post your video to our YouTube channel!

Thank you @Sophia for you offer to create a video for Valentina in the future. Whenever you’re ready, we’ll be here!

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Making a video is a good idea , I have of yet made no offer to do one yet though that was @rozenn . You got your posts mixed up there :wink:

I would be happy to document what I am doing, but first I need to figure out how to do it. I had originally downloaded the most recent (untrusted version) of valentina and had problems. I deinstalled it then installed version 0.4.5.0 built on Sat Oct 15 2016 and that is what I am using. Where do I look for help with simple configuration issues?

  1. when I try to use tape, when I attempt to use “new” or “open individual” I get an error KSambaShare: Could not find smb.conf! I figured out how to fix this. I had to install the Samba package which is not done by default in ubuntu.

  2. next, I try to create a new pattern piece “basic sleeve” using unit = inches. I click measurements and load individual to get my basic measurements. I start with the given point “A”. I select line from the valentina tools and click on the point (A) and drag and release to get the dialog box. I correct the angle (was 269.374 changed to 270 for vertical downward). I want to enter the length (shoulder point to wrist as described in Don McCunn’s book 1977 revised edition, page 72. This corresponds to arm_shoulder_tip_to_wrist. In the dialog box (edit length) I see the list of measurements, so double click on arm_shoulder_tip_to_wrist, which appears in the data entry area. The value of that measurement (21.5) appears at the top of the dialog box after the =.

  3. I want to draw the “biceps line” so I select point “A”, select the tool for “point at distance along line” tool, and attempt to select a point which I will use “arm_shoulder_tip_to_armfold_line” as the distance from the origin. I am stuck. I get the magenta “rubber band line” and in the lower left part of the valentina tool it says “select select second point”. I am unable to select the second point. First I tried to click, to double click, to use the “enter” key. None worked. Then I accidentally dragged the rubber band line at an angle other than 270 and clicked. I got a dialog box. It said point label A2, first point A, second point A. I changed it to be second point A1. I changed the length to be “arm_shoulder_tip_to_armfold_line” (value 4.5) and clicked OK. I got an error box. When I tried to close the error box, I got an error:

Application “valentina” is not responding You tried to close window “Warning. — Valentina” from application “valentina” (Process ID: 25008) but the application is not responding. Do you want to terminate this application? Warning: Terminating the application will close all of its child windows. Any unsaved data will be lost." I have tried this several times and can find no way past it.

Can you tell me where to look next?

I believe my response to your welcome contains detailed information that should not be in the welcome thread. Where should I post it?

@kmf - Click on the big ‘V’ icon at the top of this thread. Then click on ‘+ New Topic’ button to create a new thread about this issue.

Bonjour, Je m’appelle Virginie, je suis française et je couds très occasionnellement depuis une vingtaine d’années. Actuellement je dois coudre 11 costumes pour le gala de danse de ma fille. Pour ça je dois:

  • apprendre à faire des patrons (puisque ça ne m’est pas fourni)

  • Reproduire ces patrons en 11 tailles.

C’est en recherchant les bases du patronage que je suis tombée sur le logiciel Valentina et vraiment je vous remercie pour votre logiciel qui va grandement me faciliter la vie, une fois que je l’aurai suffisamment pris en mains ;p

Merci également pour ce forum!

Pour les bases du patronage, c’est bon, je me suis fourni des bouquins :wink: Il ne reste plus qu’a pratiquer encore et encore Valentina.


My name is Virginia, I am French and I sew very occasionally since 20 years. Currently I have to sew 11 costumes for my daughter dance gala. I have to: Learn how to make patterns (since it is not supplied to me) reproduce these patterns in 11 sizes. It is by looking for the basics of sponsorship that I fell on the software Valentina and really thank you for your software that will greatly easier, once that I’ll have enough taken hands; p thanks also for this forum! For the basics of sponsorship, it’s good, I am provided books: wink: just that to practice over and over again Valentina.

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@djiboutou -
C’est exactement pourquoi nous avons créé Valentina, pour des situations comme la vôtre. Veuillez créer de nouveaux postes si vous avez des questions. Nous serons heureux de vous aider !


This is exactly why we created Valentina, for situations like yours. Please create new posts if you have any questions. We’ll be happy to help you!

Hello, I’m Susan and I live in Alabama. I’m not new to custom tailoring, but I am new to patternmaking software. Valentina is just what I need to explore creating my own pdf patterns.
I’m as self proclaimed pattern hacker, but I hope to improve my skills here by gleaning info from the experts here. This community is just what I need to share ideas with.
I look forward to meeting many of you on my journey. Peace!

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Hi @Metrofrock My name is Susan, and I live in Alabama too! Where are you, maybe we can meet up!

Hi @MetroFrock, my name is Kim and I sent you a private message. I live in Alabama

Hi @slpencer, am I confused or did you just say you live in Alabama?

Yes! I live in north Alabama, near Huntsville.

Hi Susan. I’m on the Gulf Coast

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Ok. I was confused but now I understand that both of you @slpencer and @MetroFrock live in Alabama. I invited slpencer to visit the theater where I do much of my costume work since we live about 30 miles apart. She suggested that the gulf coast might be a good place to have a meeting about Don McCunn’s book and I would like almost any excuse to visit the Gulf Coast so I think that can happen sometime soon

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Hello everybody! I am Angeliki from Greece. Valentina project is really exciting and useful. I sew frequently and I am glad that I can digitally draw my own patterns. Although new to programming, that really interests me, I am willing to contribute to the development of Valentina. I have already started to help with the translation in greek. Wish to all good sewing!

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does anybody else have experience using patternmaker (version 6, while Leena was still alive)

@kmf - Please start a new thread for patternmaker topic. Thanks! :smiley:

Hello!

Andrea from Netherlands here!! I#m still a noob but today I finished my first pattern for pants!! YAY (using Danckaerts method) So happy that this is available!! I was getting tired of doing it all on paper and this will definitely help me make patterns quicker and for different sizes! So excited to make all my patterns like this now.

Below is my finished pattern and I hope that very soon I can make the fitted sloper, I tried that one first but I really had some trouble to find out which tools I had to use for it. Today I discovered how to use the ‘Point intersect curve and axis’ —> Love that tool! :heart_eyes:

Not sure how I could contribute to this amazing project, but definitely open for it!

Ciao! Andrea

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