I grew up sewing with my mom. It's one of those skills that sticks with you — not just the technique, but the whole mindset that if you need something, you can probably just make it.

That mindset got a lot more literal when I got into backpacking gear. I wanted to make my own pack. The obvious tools were CAD software or Illustrator — both of which work, technically, but feel like overkill for someone who just wants to draft a pattern, print it, and start cutting fabric. So I built something else instead.

Cut, Sew & Print is a dead-simple, open-source web app for drafting sewing patterns. The whole point is removing the friction between "I have an idea for something I want to make" and "here's a pattern I can print and use."

No subscription. No steep learning curve. No exporting into a second tool just to get a printable file. Just a straightforward pattern-making environment built for people who sew.

Vector drawing — snap-to-grid tools for drawing shape and line vectors, without a CAD program's learning curve.

Seam matching — match seams so assembly actually works when you get to the machine.

Piece, fabric, and notion assignment — group shapes into pieces and assign fabrics and notions (buttons, zippers, clasps) to generate a materials list for the whole pattern.

Smart pattern scaling — print to common paper sizes and the software handles sheet tiling and scaling, so a full-size pattern comes off a home printer correctly.

The make-your-own-gear community runs on shared knowledge. People post patterns, tutorials, and material guides for free because that's how the culture works — you learned from someone who shared, so you share too.

An open-source tool fits that ethos better than a SaaS with a paywall in front of it.

This one wasn't a client project. It was a scratch-your-own-itch build — the best kind. I wanted the tool to exist, it didn't exist the way I wanted it, so I made it.

That's the thing I actually like about being able to build software: the gap between noticing a problem and having something that solves it is however long you decide it is.