Don't worry, I am aware that if I blogged more frequently I would not have to write such long post, I promise to do better! To preface this posting, you should know I’m kinda in love with technology, and border on OCD perfectionism in things that I do. Combined, these two lovely personality quirks lead me to trying my hand at computer drafting (well my cheap version that is). Let me explain why, in my crazy brain I think this is necessary…
Hand Drafting:
Drafting on paper is super fun, but has a huuuuge margin for error for people who:
A. Don’t have patience (me)
B. Move paper around easily because they are clumsy, have no ability to keep everything but hands still ,and have boobs that have a mind of their own and are often heard giggling when they move said paper (me)
C. Are easily distracted by anything that isn’t what they’re doing at the moment, thus leaving project to wander off (me).
D. Are named Carisa (I blame that stupid Clarissa Explains it all show…somehow…)
If you manage to draft it then you have to cut it a part in several strategic points, spread them out by an array of different centimeters, and redraft it for each size (zzzzzzz). Causing more scandalous boobie paper movement and more errors (boobalized of you will)
Well I don’t know about you, but I’m a total perfectionist, and if I’m going to do something it’s going to be as perfect as I can get it…especially if someone else is going to see or use it! Therefore, my next idea was scanning! I thought, oh I’m SOOO gonna knock this outta the park, sans cork and steroids.
Scanning and Editing:
Just know that scanning is a sucky idea for the following reasons:
A. If you go to Kinko’s, or any other printer, it costs a fortune to have it scanned, and there is a strong possibility that they tear your paper while running it through their monster scanning machine. If you think this isn’t a big deal, think about how much time you took making it as perfect as it could be and then hearing “ooops” while waiting. Yeah, I think “going postal” would have a new ring to it for you.
B. Scanning on a scanning bed seems like a rad idea, if you have one at your disposal. Know that you will spend HOURS, matching up the scans that you had to do separately since most scanners are 11x17 at their largest. HOURS.
My scanning experience:
I personally tried the work scanner idea (insert boring day at work) and ended up spent hours using a program to connect the pieces together called GIMP, which is almost exactly like our friend Adobe Photoshop but f-r-e-e, my favorite word. After a very long time piecing it together I had to save it as a jpeg and then open it in AdobeAcrobat to make it print in pieces like a downloadable pattern (see, I said techie nerd, if you understood any of that you too have a problem and probably an iphone or crackberry. Don't you! Admit it!) I got it home to try out my masterpiece by comparing it to the original and I swear I thought my boobs has somehow been involved again because it was crazy off aspect. (argh)
Doesn’t it even look a bit off? (well it 's, I swear) It’s the bodice front piece, ack…
Never one to give up easily I tried taking measurements and going back to GIMP, to rearrange till it worked. HOURS later, much cursing, a few temper tantrums, and several diet cokes later, I realized it just wasn’t going to work.
Now at this point you are thinking, why don't you just put down a few hundred and get a FashionCAD (thousand actually) or another pattern drafting program. Well I don't know about you, but I'm really poor, and I have to make do with my limited resources! Unless you wanna give it to me for free, I'm all about free :-)
Again not one to throw away a perfectly good idea (I think we can add stubborn to the list of personality quirks, right about now), I convinced my IT department to let me download Adobe Illustrator. I haven’t used this program before but I heart it already. It is based on a vector system (geometry) instead of raster format (graphics), (I can't believe I know that) so it is much cleaner and easier to use. I just click, type in the angel and the length of the line and there it is! I am not kidding that I seriously want to fake a baby or something and run home and start using it! (I told you I was a huge dork right?)
Who said you would never use a protractor again!!!
Crap, I totally lost that bet didn't I.
I owe you a dollar Meredith.
