A pattern that simply matches body shape without having the right kind of allowances for movement will be restrictive and pretty fragile. It's an interesting thought and worth looking into, though you have to remember that fabric patterns have been developed to move as Shylaah said upthread. Do you happen to have any 'low poly models' of a person laying around? Can you really do things easily like set a waist/bust circumference, change the neck-waist length, etc? I haven't used Pepakura Designer myself, but now I am curious Never thought to try to use Pepakura Designer. I was looking at the apps that take an iPhone or Web Cam scan and create a 3D model. This is a timely post, because just yesterday I was looking for ways to make a digital 3D version of myself. Like a custom dress form for a particular piece. Pep it up, then drape the fabric on the Pep. Worked great, but a Pep would be even better for something like that.

I made this Cheerio's Bee head for Halloween a couple years ago, and the way I created the pattern for that was to cover the foam with Packing Tape, then draw seam lines while it was on the head, then cut the tape off and use that as my pattern pieces.

It could be especially useful for making patterns for things like furry heads (yeah, I said it!). You probably wouldn't get 100% accurate pattern pieces, but it could certainly help with the initial stages of 'how the hell does this fit together'? Not sure how well it would work for skin tight suits like superman, but I can totally see this helping with the shaping for looser garments. I think much like taking a paper pep and changing it to suit EVA foam, you would have to do the same when translating to fabric. (especially non-stretch fabrics) Al you'd need to do is create a 3D model of the costume, unfold and scale it and we could take pattern grading to a whole new level.ĭoes anyone have the time/skills to run any experiments on this? I feel like it has the potential to bring pattern making into the 21st century. The same could be done with almost any fabric costume. Print it out and tape it up, lay it over some blue spandex, and BOOM, perfectly sized Superman costume. Then cut off the head and hands, load it into the Pepakura program, and unfold it as if it's foam. Here's where the idea started: You could create a low poly model of a person, scaling it to fit your proportions. What if you could apply the same techniques to create patterns for fabric costumes? We all know that Pepakura is great for converting 3D shapes into planar surfaces.but why just use it for paper, foam, or cardboard. Here's an idea I've been kicking around in the back of my head for a while now, I just know I don't have the time or skills to try it out properly, so I decided to offer it up here to see what you guys made of it.

Pepakura patterns nightwing