Digitizing Patterns

Elisabeth (Eli) Lorenzi is the researcher for Textil en Abierto at MediaLab-Prado.  She has made several garments and patterns, including a simple pattern for Poliana (shoe spats).  

We decided to convert Eli's Poliana paper pattern into a Valentina digital pattern.

First we ironed the pattern, then placed a small Post-It Note on it, and took a photo. We imported the photo into Inkscape, and adjusted the size of the image so that the Post-It Note in the image was the same size as the actual Post-It Notes, using Inkscape's 'Visualize Paths' extension.  We drew on top of the image, starting with a grid which encased the pattern image. We drew lines, curves and points, and assigned point labels, similar to how the pattern would be built in Valentinta, All lines and curves were measured with the Inkscape extension. This information was fed into Valentina, and we have a digital pattern for Eli's Polaina!