Where to find free fashion design templates

Computer-aided design has made life easier for designers and prospective designers. Fashion design programs enable you to have fun, by creating your own clothing, changing colours and textures to your taste. This article will help you find free fashion design templates.

Edraw Max and Virtual Fashion

Many fashion design software programs allow you to create an avatar according to your own sizes, display your creations three-dimensionally, and translate the design to a pattern for your convenience.
Edraw Max
Edraw Max is a 2D vector-based fashion dress program, with a large variety of templates. The program comes with ten models, and a choice of a variety of skin tones, and hair colours. You can use hundreds of clothing, and dress templates to mix and match styles and re-colour the clothing to your taste. With the drawing tools, you can create your own designs. Edraw Max is a fun program to try out, if you are a beginner fashion designer. A free download is available from their site.
Virtual Fashion
It comes with a draping simulation that enables the clothing to adapt to the model's body and pose, according to the type of fabrics you chose. You can customise your model, by changing skin colour, poses and even applying make-up. The program features a photo studio, which enables you to take photos of the model from different angles, by using several lighting effects. Unfortunately, this program is a bit-dated and only works on Windows 2000 or XP. The original supporting website has stopped working, but it is still possible to download the trial program and have fun.

Etelestia and Optitex

Etelestia
Etelestia is an online fashion training program, that teaches you how to design clothing and make your own patterns. The program comes with the step-by-step instructions for making personalised patterns for women, children and men. The software includes several fashion drawing aids, and enables you to create line or freehand drawings. Download the free trial to see if this program is what you were looking for. Optitex It provides both two-dimensional pattern designs, and three-dimensional garment design software. Several packages are available from their website. The software features 3D models, and virtual clothing to suit any model as well as pattern design options. Several high-end online clothing stores, such as Nike, Muta Sport, Brides.com and Spoom, feature Optitex' technologies to display their clothing range. A fun free online service, provided by Optitex, is to create an avatar, according to your exact sizes, and try on different clothing. This way, you will see what suits you best.

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