How do I create a Seam Allowance for a simple draw string bag

Documentation / How to
#1

There is a lot of great documentation however I am having difficulties matching up the instructions within the PDF and Windows version of Seamly in order to create a simple 1/4 seam allowance.

  1. the dialog box does not appear after selecting the pattern peice, therefore I do not see the following: Once you have the whole pattern piece outlined in red, and all the points selected, press enter to accept the selection. A dialogue box comes up where you may check that you have everything. If you have missed something, donā€™t worry about it at this point, as we will cover adding points and items when we cover the ā€˜Insert Node Toolā€™. At this point, all other options are grayed out so you cannot do anything other than to click on ā€˜OKā€™ to accept the selection or ā€˜Cancelā€™ to delete the selection and to start.
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#2

Hello & welcome to the Seamly forum @MacOwenGoods

Iā€™ll redo the PDF manuals once all the latest upgrades have been completed to the program, so I apologize that itā€™s a few years out of date :slight_smile:

What you should do is to select all your points and then hit Enterā€¦ A box will pop up which you may select OK, if it isnā€™t greyed out. If it is greyed out, this means that thereā€™s an error that will need to be correct first, in which case, itā€™s normally easier to cancel and start again.

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Once you have clicked on OK, change to the Piece mode. Right-click on the pattern piece, select Options from the menu. go to the Seam Allowance tab and make the adjustments that you require:

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I hope this helps you :slight_smile:

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#3

Hi Grace, thank you for the extremely prompt response! Where I am struggling is as follows:

  1. I have created a rectangle with 5 points (starting + 3 corners + ending point).
  2. I select All 5 points per instructions.
  3. I double check all 5 points are selected I have attempted several time with 2 ways to select all. First, Cntrl selecting A1 through A5 and also Select all with the mouse dragging over all points.
  4. I hit the enter key - Nothing happens.

On one of my attempts the box did appear. I clicked X as I had to leave my work in progress and now I cannot get it back :frowning:

Now I could have clicked something to cause the error. So I will attempt to create a new rectangle to ensure I have no errors. THANK YOU

Thank yo

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#4

Just to add to what Grace postedā€¦ you can choose to just use the default seam allowance ( set in the preferences) for the same allowance all around a pattern piece, or set the seam allowance based on the values ā€œbeforeā€ and ā€œafterā€ each node (point) in the pattern piece so you can vary the seam allowance on different seams of the piece. For example - if you have a ā€œfold lineā€ you can set the value to zero between the 2 nodes.

As alwaysā€¦ the outline path of a piece goes in a clockwise direction when determining the before and after. :slight_smile:

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#5

You donā€™t need to select the starting point twiceā€¦ the app will automatically connect the last point (or curve) selected to the starting point.

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#6

Youā€™re very welcome.

One more thing that I forgot to mention is that you must click on the nodes consequitively in a clockwise direction.

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#7

@MacOwenGoods

Not that itā€™s applicable to this simple rectangleā€¦ a node can be a point or curve or multiple sections of a curve if there are points - such as a notch- on the curve. In the case of a point on a curve, you need to select the 1st curve segment, the point, the next segmentā€¦ then the end point of the curve. If you fail to include a segment of a curve, donā€™t fret - you can always insert nodes to a piece and change their order after a piece is created.

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#8

BTW, itā€™s not necessary to hold the shift or Ctrl keys while selecting and dragging wonā€™t work in this case. Just click each node/curve in a clockwise direction.

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#9

Yupā€¦ thatā€™s only applicable to operational tools, like group, rotate, move, & mirrorā€¦ or changing the direction of a curve when creating a pieceā€¦ or constraining an angle with certain tools - all of which are noted in the tooltips in the status bar.

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#10

Wow, I took a few days off from looking at this and figured it out today.

Now to work through my next learnings. Thank you for all your support.

Kind Regards, Stacy Owner of MacOwenGoods.

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#11

The brain is funny in that wayā€¦ sometimes itā€™s best to sleep on it, let it sink in, and then the light bulb goes on.:slight_smile:

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