LivingSoft Subscriber Newsletter | Volume 10
Q. How many patterns do I get with My Pattern Designer™?
A. My Pattern Designer™ comes with 5 personalized patterns when you first buy it. Through the end of 2005, early buyers of My Pattern Designer™ will get 3 bonus patterns.
Q. That does not sound like a lot of patterns. Most other Dress
Shop collections came with more than that.
A. That's true. But, all prior Dress Shop™ collections came with a group of patterns that somebody else chose. Some were great and just what you wanted, but probably not all of them. Every collection had some gems, but also included patterns that you did not ever get around to making. My Pattern Designer™ is all gems. You pay for only those patterns that you really want, making your own personalized collection. We call them "cherry" patterns and "Cherry Collections" because you can cherry pick the patterns that are the best of the best for you. MPD is a whopping big catalog of patterns that you can choose from.
Q. So, just how many patterns are there in the My Pattern Designer
catalog?
A. At the time My Pattern Designer was first released, there were over 60,000 patterns included. The number changes as we identify features that just do not work together and remove those from the menus - you should have seen the yoked princess patterns or the raglan sleeve halter tops! But, the list gets longer when we overcome a compatibility problem. The high-waist princess line blouses were worked out during the final beta testing. In the coming months, we expect to hook up the menus for outerwear, loungewear, activewear, men's wear, and children's patterns.
Q. I just purchased My Pattern Designer™. Do I have to take all of my measurements again?
A. No, you do not. Upon opening your My Pattern Designer™, your personal measurement files are automatically imported from your Dress Shop™ program. If you add to or change any measurements in your Dress Shop™ program, use the Import Measurements feature to retrieve them for use in My Pattern Designer™.
Q. How do I get my measurements from Dress Shop™ into My Pattern Designer™?
A. MDP automatically imports your personal saved measurements from Dress Shop™ the first time you open the program. If you make changes to your measurements or add a measurement set in Dress Shop™, you can import the new files by going to Size>Import Measurements.
Q. Can I use the patterns I purchase in My Pattern Designer™ in my Dress Shop™ program?
A. Yes, you can. You can load saved patterns from Dress Shop™ into My Pattern Designer™ or load purchased patterns from My Pattern Designer™ into your Dress Shop™ program.
Q. The printer icon has an X in it. How can I print?
A. The X displaying over the print icon indicates that printing is disabled. You will see this for patterns that are not yet purchased. After you purchase a pattern, you can print in any scale from “screen view” to full scale. To get a scale other than the pre set, enter the number in the scale box followed by the Enter key to set and display the scale. Or, just click on the word “Scale” to step from fit-to-screen to quarter scale to full scale and back again.
Q. I already have Dress Shop™, why do I need My Pattern Designer™?
A. With My Pattern Designer™, you can design personalized collections, purchasing just the patterns that you want and none that you do not want.
My Pattern Designer™ has MANY more options, combinations of features, and adjustments with every pattern. You can create your own custom pattern library with My Pattern Designer™. Design and purchase only the patterns you want, when you want.
Q. I also have all the Dress Shop™ tools and Pro features. Is there anything new in My Pattern Designer™ for me?
A. Absolutely. My Pattern Designer™ includes new options and allows combinations of features that just do not exist in Dress Shop™, even with all of its tools. Here is a very partial list of some of the options:
a. Length selection on blouses – drop waist, ab, waist, crop, or empire
b. Any of 47 neckline choices on virtually any blouse, dress, jumper, or waisted dress pattern.
c. Hemline options for blouses, skirts, and dresses include flat, curved, hanky, weskit, vee, and more.
d. Princess, panel, pleated, yoked, fitted and unfitted variants of every blouse, dress, and jumper. All possible mix and match combinations supported for waisted dresses and jumpers.
e. All possible sleeve choices available for every blouse, dress, jumper, waisted dresses, or waisted jumpers.
f. New skirt types (double pleated, trumpet skirt, high and low waisted for all types), can be combined with any bodice for a huge selection of waisted combinations.
There are many more. The Dress Shop™ tools can make many of these. But, My Pattern Designer™ includes hundreds of thousands of combinations that the Dress Shop™ type pattern menus and tools just cannot give you access to. Same great fit, but many more choices!
Q. How do I adjust the darts, necklines, and other settings?
A. Use the Options dialogs. Many of the DS6 Pro’s tools and even parts of the Fashion Designer tools are included FREE.