Are you a designer, looking for some of the best graphic design software? Or do you have a clothing business and want to learn about software for designing t-shirts and hoodies? I’ve written this post specifically with you in mind. In fact, it includes tips which will help all those exploring fashion typography tools and free fashion clothing design programs.
Do you want to create your own fashion clothing line but don’t know how to create a design for t-shirts, dresses, and other apparel items? If so, then this article will be of great help. I will share with you some free graphic design software that are used by many professional clothing designers out there.
Digital Fashion Pro
The cool thing that sets Digital Fashion Pro apart from the crowd is that it teaches you fashion design basics. It offers a starter course and a starter kit for learning fashion design. It even has features designed to help you launch your own clothing business!
And, of course, it includes many design and illustration tools as well. You can use this software to create 2D sketches using many helpful shaping,s typing, and color tools. The program also contains customizable clothing templates and pose-able models to help you zero in on just the right design.
The latest version has three levels available for purchase, from the individual user model at $399 to the advanced industry edition at $824. You do have to purchase the software and wait for it to ship to you before downloading it to your computer.
Browzwear
Browzwear focuses on cutting-edge 3D clothing design. Using 3D design has many benefits, including the ability to test the fit of a design before production. This Singapore-based design company leads the way in design trends.
The company offers several different software packages, including VStitcher and Lotta. Lotta focuses more on the basics of concept design. VStitcher gives you a more comprehensive ability to craft concepts, use true-motion fit, and even draft sewing patterns!
The downside to this awesome software is that it isn’t practical for a single user. You can get a free demo of this software, but you have to request a quote for pricing. Typically, large companies buy this program and select a certain number of users, paying more for every additional user.
C-Design Fashion
C-Design Fashion simplifies the lifecycle of your clothing production. It helps you share and disperse the design as part of the product creation process.
This program offers a centralized way to share information about your designs, such as sizing charts. It also allows you to create artistic variations such as color schemes. Plus, it offers easy ways to upload your digital designs from other software such as Adobe Illustrator.
Better yet, this software can work in both a small and large business setting. It offers realistic pricing plans starting as low as $49/month!
CLO 3D
CLO 3D provides an intuitive, interactive 3D CAD solution for garment design. It also offers key features like 2D sewing pattern creation. Its main focus lies in the realm of 3D, though, giving you a wide range of options for sizing, color schemes, and styles.
You can perform fancy 3D design tricks like adding folds and layers to a 3D design or making it look like the garment is in motion!
This product does offer a 30-day free trial to give you a chance to determine if it suits your needs. After that, it costs $50/month.
Corel Draw
Corel Draw gives you an alternative to Adobe Illustrator. If you just need a strong graphic design tool, you may want to consider this software! It offers a variety of apps and a full software suite. The suite covers everything from vector illustration to collaboration, photo editing, and typography.
Depending on the products you select, this option may cost less than AI. The program also offers advanced design tools you won’t find elsewhere, as well as a community of artistic users to collaborate with!
As you can see, some of these features have more relevance to fashion design than others, but you can select from a variety of pricing models. The illustration software costs $249 a year.
Valentina
Initiated in 2013 by Roman Telezhinsky (Ukraine) and Susan Spencer (USA), Valentina is a pattern drafting software popular among small designers, cutters, individual tailors, and many other in the garment industry.
Valentina, a fashion design tool, combines modern technologies with traditional pattern designing. As a result, it is easy to create a viable and affordable product design that meets customer needs.
With this free fashion design software for beginners, users can understand colours, patterns, styles, and other features.
Valentina Features
- 50+ pattern-making options
- Patterns based on a mathematical formula
- Instruction-based drawing tools
- Simple to download, test, and create patterns
- Automation when rebuilding patterns
- Smart design templates
- Easy Synchronization
- Support Forum
Subscription Model: Valentina is a free and open-source fashion design software.
Valentina Compatible Platforms: There are download options for Windows, Mac OS, FreeBSD, Mageia 6+ (.rpm), Fedora (.rpm), OpenSUSE (.rpm), Debian (.deb), Ubuntu PPA (.deb), AppImage package (.AppImage).
Price to Upgrade: None
Blender
Blender fashion design tool is used by both individual designers and fashion design studios. This 3D creation suite makes creating, sculpting, and editing models easier.
Rendering cycles include shading, lighting, motion blur, volumes geometry, and more. Freestyle cycle makes it easy to draw various line styles to make shapes. It integrates with multiple pipeline tools. Its first version was released in 1994.
Features of Blender
- Multiple modes like Object Mode, Edit Mode, Weight Paint, and more
- Simulation
- Rendering
- Rigging
- Compositing
- Modelling
- Animation (2D)
- Motion tracking
- Video editing
- Conformal & angle-based unwrapping
- Pre-visualize offline in real-time
- Areas like crypto matters, mantaflow and more
Subscription Model: Blender is free and open-source fashion design software.
Blender Compatible Platforms: Blender runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, Haiku.
Price to Upgrade: None
Tailornova
Tailornova is a fashion design tool that enables users to create unlimited designs quickly and easily. This merchandise and clothing design software is popular among fashion students, fashion merchandisers, apparel brands, clothing boutiques, indie designers and others.
Users can just click the patterns and sketches of their choice to get started. With a 3D simulation facility and fit customization, it is easy to make changes according to requirements.
Tailornova Features
- Ease adjustment
- Sewing instructions
- Intermixable templates
- Templates in 10 different lengths
- Automated pattern measurements
- Pre-determined ease settings
- Vector 2D flat sketches
- Custom-fit pattern
- 3D Fit Model to replicate different body shapes
- Garment simulation
- PDF patterns and print out
- Ecommerce Integration
Subscription Model: Tailornova has a free plan. It is patent-pending software.
Compatible Platforms: Tailornova is web-based software and can run on any device internet connection.
Price to Upgrade: You can upgrade to Tailornova paid plan at a monthly price of INR 2161.04. Annual billing plans offer discounted rates.
Browzwear
Browzwear 3D fashion design software is well suited to designers, creative developers, marketers, and production teams. The clothing designs are more accurate as per specifications, and the finished goods can be marketed quickly.
There are minimum iterations, which decrease the cost. This merchandise and garment design software is used by brands like Adidas, Puma, Nike, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, etc.
Browzwear Features
- Realistic 3D images
- 2D CAD
- Flexible and powerful dashboard
- Fabric Analyzer (automatic)
- True-to-life 3D simulation
- Advanced consulting & integrated service for automated workflows
- New styles and designs with Lotta
- Vstitcher for designs
- Collaborate and merchandize with Stylezone
- Smart Design option to design for manufacturing
Subscription Model: Browzwear has an open platform. VNTANA and Browzwear’s 3D Collaboration Platform is free for freelance designers.
Compatible Platforms: Browzwear works on Mac and Windows.
Price to Upgrade: License is available on request.
Conclusion:
There are a lot of free clothing design software packages out there today. A lot! Most of them still cost money and because there are so many programs and apps available, it can be difficult to know which one is best. If you’ve spent any amount of time researching clothing design software, you’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed. There are so many options available, and each one maintains they’re the best free clothing design software.