Garment Designer

What Garment Designer is

Garment Designer is pattern-making software for sewing and knitting, available for Windows and macOS. Choose a garment category and style, then click and drag pattern points to change fit or appearance. Designs can start from included ready-to-wear sizes for infants through adults and dolls, or from your own body measurements: Simple-Fit uses 12 measurements, while Refined-Fit supports up to 36.

Pattern details include collars, hoods, pockets, darts, facings, hems and seam allowances. For knitting, weaving and stitching, enter a gauge or sett to generate shaping instructions, including row-by-row summaries. Patterns can be printed at full, half or quarter scale from a home printer or plotter, and exported as PDF. The software can also create a pixel-per-stitch graphic for Stitch Painter and other paint programs. Optional Style Sets are plug-ins that the maker says add roughly 50 style features each. Basic editions cost $199.00 per once, while editions with Style Sets 1&2 cost $249.00 per once. Garment Designer was founded in 1988 and is based in Encinitas, California.

Who it suits

Garment Designer suits creative sewists, knitters, weavers and stitchers who want to shape patterns around standard sizes or their own measurements. The maker describes its audience as ranging from home users to professionals, including people who may not know much about pattern drafting.

Limits

Garment Designer has no free plan, and size grading is not included. The Basic editions cost $199.00 per once; editions with Style Sets 1&2 cost $249.00 per once.

Getting started

1. Visit https://www.cochenille.com/garment-designer/.
2. Choose the Windows or Macintosh Basic edition, or an edition with Style Sets 1&2.
3. Pay once: $199.00 for Basic or $249.00 with Style Sets 1&2.
4. After purchase, use the download link, serial number, License ID and password to activate.
5. Install on Windows XP through 11 or a compatible Macintosh system.

Verdict

Choose Garment Designer if you want to create sewing or knitting patterns from standard sizing or detailed body measurements, with editable points and print-ready output. Look elsewhere if size grading is essential; the software does not include it.