Layout/design Technique

[JHobbs]

I use Adobe Illustrator for my patterns. Here is my process, hope it will help:

1.) Take a belly scrap and make a quick envelope style pouch with a couple inches of space around everything, throw a few lines of 3-4 stitches at intervals around the flap to hold it together. Wet mold around the dummy with the sight track dowl in place, and then take a pen and draw where the outside mold lines and key features (ejection port, cylinder, magazine release, etc depending on the gun) are. Also a reasonably straight line down the top where the site track/center of the fold is.

2.) Remove the dummy and cut the stitches. Use a rolling pin to flatten out the pattern. Scan into my computer (300 ppi, same as my documents in Illustrator so I don't lose or gain any size).

3.) Now that it's in the computer I place it into an illustrator document and "trace" for lack of a better word the outlines on a new layer. Add an appropriate gap for the stitchlines, draw the cutlines outside of those, and go from there. I use the rulers and guides EXTENSIVELY to get the spacing right, and for envelope styles I copy one whole side, paste it into a new layer, and use the reflect tool to make sure everything matches up. Or, I'll just draw half the pattern, trace it onto the leather, then flip it and draw the other half from the backside.

4.) Print the pattern on regular paper, and treat it as a disposable pattern (I've still got everything saved on my computer). No cardboard at all.

If I have made a mistake and given myself too much/too little room I can measure the error, use the rulers and guides tools in the program, and move whatever line I need to move almost exactly the right amount. Usually the second one is close to perfect, at least as far as layout goes.

I guess to answer your original question a little better, I don't use the stretch tools much. I draw each segment separately with the straight and arc line segment tools, so each corner or straight line is a different segment and can be resized independently.

I've attached a PDF of what it looks like after the mold/scan/trace process.

Is that the finished ai file? I was contemplating how to do just that. you could design the entire rig in illustrator. 300 ppi have to try it.