Discover CLO 3D, Fashion Design Software, with Ruby Gertz | Episode 105

Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"

In this episode of 'Sewing with Threads,' host Carol Frazier interviews Ruby Gertz, a fashion design educator and founder of Slow Fashion Academ

Key takeaways

• CLO 3D allows users to create realistic digital garments that simulate real-world drape and fit without physical sewing.
• The software helps reduce material waste by enabling designers to test and refine patterns virtually before cutting fabric.

Main topics

• Introduction to CLO 3D software
• Digital garment design and virtual fitting

Notable quotes

"You can get a much better read on the fit of their garment sooner in the process."

Conclusion

Ruby Gertz emphasizes that CLO 3D is not just a tool for professionals but a transformative resource

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Heirloom details have returned to the fashion landscape. Delicate lace insertion and edging, pin tucks, and other fine stitching are popular on clothes for children and grown-ups alike. You can learn to create these beautiful effects by machine with Martha Pullen, a renowned expert known for her lively and in-depth teaching style. Threads is offering three on-demand video classes with Martha that cover a range of classic sewing techniques. You'll learn about the materials needed, and the steps to follow for perfect results. Plus, Martha provides a close-up look at exquisite garments from her collection of Victorian and Edwardian clothing. You'll be inspired to try sewing heirloom quality pieces for yourself. To sign up and find other on-demand classes, go to courses.threadsmagazine.com. Speaker 3 (0:53) Welcome to Sewing with Threads, the monthly podcast with the staff of Threads Magazine. I'm your host, Carol Frazier, and my guest today is Ruby Gertz. Ruby is a pattern maker, designer, and educator with over a decade of professional experience in the fashion and costume design industries. She founded Slow Fashion Academy in 2023 for hobbyists and aspiring designers in her Philadelphia community. Ruby earned a BFA from Pratt Institute and a master's in education from Widener University. She's now a visiting assistant professor in the fashion design program at Thomas Jefferson University. Speaker 3 (1:29) Ruby believes everyone can benefit from learning to sew and that sewing as a practice of self-love can be transformative and healing. Speaker 2 (1:37) Welcome, Ruby. Speaker 3 (1:38) Hi, Carol. Thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted that you're here. I've been keeping an eye on you through various social media and things like that, and I've been wanting to talk to you for a while, so I'm really glad we could find time to speak with each other. I know you just returned from PatternCon in Atlanta with Tricia Camacho and the whole gang that was down there. And you're a student and a teacher. And I'd love to start out by hearing your impressions of that whole event. Speaker 1 (2:03) Awesome. Yeah. So I just got back on Sunday evening. This event was one weekend, first weekend in August. This was the second year that they put this event on. This is also the second year that I was involved as a teacher. I have so many positive things to say about the experience. I think Trisha does such an incredible job of bringing together so many like-minded individuals from our industry who, you know, not only are like amazing teachers and amazing students, but there's really this nice thread of like self-love and like body neutrality throughout the whole event. You know, I think so many. sewists, you know, get into pattern making or tangentially dabble in pattern making because they want to learn how to fit their clothing better. They want to understand how the pattern shapes, you know, can be manipulated so that they look, you know, appropriate on your own proportions, which aren't always in line, you know, with standard sizes. So, so many of the workshops and classes that were offered kind of focused on that goal. And I taught two classes. So I taught a class. The first one was called digitize your paper patterns. So this was more of a. a lecture, you know, on how to take all those paper patterns that may be sitting in a filing cabinet somewhere or, you know, bins under your cutting table and how to archive them so that, you know, if you ever lose your patterns, you know, in a flood or a fire or you just want to get rid of them to reduce bulk, right, you can have a digital copy. I also taught a class called Drape a Bodice on Your Body where we... paired up and people got to experiment with draping, but like directly on the human body. So instead of using a dress form, we're actually pinning into our clothes and marking, you know, with pen over our fabric to kind of figure out, you know, where our neckline is, where our armhole is, where our darts want to be. And this was an amazing class. I was honestly. a little nervous going in because I teach a similar workshop in my studio and I usually cap it at eight. And, you know, because this is like a large convention, I had like 45 students and I was like, how are we going to do this? Like, this is very overwhelming. But I just got to say the students were amazing. And, you know, I sort of from the get go, I said, there's just no way I'm going to be able to give everybody the individualized attention that I normally do in this class. So I'm going to need you to work together. I'm going to need you to work independently, use your own judgment. you can. And I will say everybody knocked it out of the park. I was so, so proud of them. Most people finished, you know, draping the bodices within the, within the time allotted. And the results were really, really cool. And I got lots of compliments from people afterwards saying like, oh my gosh, this process totally helped me understand like how and why the patterns are shaped like that. And it was just, it was just a really, really cool thing to be a part of. So. I also got to take two classes. I took a class called cross-gender pattern making with Jasmine Chandler, which was about how to take, you know, a pattern that's designed for, you know, we would say like male bodies or female bodies and like convert it to somebody with different proportions. So, you know, if you're trying to make like a menswear shirt, for example, but you have a larger bust or chest, you know, how can you alter that pattern to fit you better while still kind of keeping the original intended shape of the garment? So that was fascinating. That's, you know, I don't typically do much flat pattern making. I'm more of a draper personally. So to kind of hear about this method kind of from this very technical flat perspective was like, wow. And then the second class I took was a cosplay case study of an Anne Boleyn costume with Sumali Eaton, who was also my roommate for the event. And Sumali is an amazing costumer and just a really inspiring, fun. person to listen to. So she walked us through her whole creative process of crafting this garment, this costume that she'd been, you know, dreaming about for her whole life. It was very much, you know, it was about the craftsmanship, but it was also about giving yourself permission to do these kind of creative projects that you want to do, but maybe aren't quote unquote practical. So that was, that was really fun and inspiring as well. So yeah, huge fan of PatternCon. Can't wait for next year. And I hope some more folks will consider, consider joining us. Speaker 3 (6:29) Oh, I hope so, too. I mean, I love to hear your report of it. We've spoken with Trish about it, too, and her intention behind setting it up and having, you know, two years worth now under her belt. So I think that's always a good sign that it fills up twice in a row and it should keep on going. I really hope I can get there someday, too. I feel like I need it at this point. I love the whole idea of the Anne Boleyn costume, even just. Doing something that, as you say, it's maybe not practical, but it really feeds your soul somehow and is a culmination of some kind of big idea that you've had maybe for a long time. I think a lot of us just sort of whip out some kind of clothes that we've made and wear them, and that's always good. But occasionally the big sort of dream project is worthwhile doing. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Speaker 2 (7:19) you know that the real reason that I invited you here Speaker 3 (7:22) to be my guest is that you are an expert on Cloth3D. And this is software that I've been intrigued with for a really long time. And all I really know about it, if somebody were to ask me on an elevator what it is, I would say it's digital pattern making software. But I lurk around on their website occasionally, and I know it is not just drafting patterns. on online or, you know, on your computer. It's so much more. And I am really curious to pick your brain about what it is, what it offers to people who sew for different reasons, you know, who can mostly benefit from it and what's fun about it too. And also, is it easy to learn to use? All good questions. My first question is, do you have to know something about pattern making to start with it? Speaker 1 (8:15) Yeah, so that's a great question. I think maybe I'll just talk a little bit about how I learned it, if that's helpful to kind of some context. So I do have a bachelor's in fashion design and I have been working in the industry for over a decade. And a couple of years ago, I started taking on more freelance pattern making projects. So working with emerging small brands or, you know, companies who needed patterns drafted for various things. And so I started to realize that I, you know, I was doing this all in Adobe Illustrator and I started to realize that was quite inefficient. And I'd been wanting to learn Clo for some time. So I started integrating this into my own freelance work about two years ago. So you introduced me as an expert. I don't know if I would claim that title. Honestly, it's something where there are people out there who have way, way, way more advanced skill sets than I do. It is a program where, you know, you can really be a lifelong learner. And there's like. you know, infinite ways to use it. And so, you know, I've been using it for my own purposes, you know, kind of mastering certain areas of the program, but it's very robust. So I'll talk a little bit more about like all the features and what it can do, you know, as we get into it. But in terms of, you know, do you have to know pattern making in order to use this program? I always tell my students that Cloth3D is just a tool in your toolkit. So it's not really going to be a substitute for the actual knowledge of, you know, how to draft patterns and, you know, what the pattern shapes should look like, how to fit, you know, what changes you might want to make to your pattern in order for it to fit better. It's a wonderful visualization tool. So the way it works is that you actually have two windows side by side. So typically, you know, pattern drafting software is just 2D. You know, think of a program, you know, like Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, where you're drawing the lines, right? So we have that, but we also have a 3D window where you can virtually sew up your garment and apply gravity. and fit your garment in three dimensions, which I think is incredible. So, you know, I think it can be a great tool for learning pattern making. If you're learning pattern making alongside Clo, it really helps you understand, like, why is the sleeve shaped like that? Why is the crotch curve shaped like that? How do those 2D shapes? interact with the body in 3D. However, you know, I think there's also this misconception that close 3D like is AI or it's like automated somehow, and it's really not. So you are still doing the work of creating the patterns, sewing the pattern, fitting the pattern. It's just giving you a lot of additional visualization tools, if that makes sense. Speaker 3 (10:56) Yes, I was thinking of it in terms of something that you probably never worked with, or maybe you did. There used to be pattern drafting software, and there probably still is, called like Wild Ginger. There were a few other ones where you would type in your measurements and say, I want this type of address. You could choose from a menu, I think, and then it would create the pattern for you, and it would just draft it for you in the size that you gave. And then you'd have to always make adjustments to it because you never... It never really came out exactly right. But does this have any of those functionalities? Can you do that kind of thing if you wanted to? A little bit. Speaker 1 (11:33) So there is a feature called the Clue Pattern Drafter. They're still developing it. So right now, you know, I think it can do trousers, T-shirts and skirt blocks, but it doesn't do much more than that. That being said, you can import patterns from other programs. PDF or a DXF or an Adobe Illustrator file. And you can essentially trace those patterns off in Clo and use them as a foundation to build your garment. So I usually encourage people, like, if you have patterns that you like that you know fit you well, or maybe you've already flat drafted, you know, your basic blocks or your slopers, you know, scan those into Clo and use those, you know, instead of starting from scratch. But yeah, I think the The functionality is a little bit different than more than those like 2D programs where there's kind of like a pre-built catalog. They do have what's called Connect, which is like their online marketplace. So you can actually sell your patterns. You can buy patterns that other users have created. And you can also buy or sorry, they're free. You can also download for free some blocks that Clo has developed. However, they aren't multi-sized. They're usually