Getting started on Windows

You will first need to set up your development system either using Windows Subsystem for Linux or directly in Windows. Then, you can setup and start the FreeSewing development environment.

Setting up a development environment using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Visual Studio Code (VSCode)

If you already have a working WSL environment and VSCode Remote configured you can follow the getting started on Linux guide or skip ahead to Setting up the FreeSewing development environment (WSL). If not, the following process is very similar but has some differences to avoid quirks specific to this environment.

Windows Subsystem for Linux allows you to run a Linux distribution as a development environment, with enough functionality to develop a FreeSewing pattern. While this approach offers some advantages this is not strictly necessary to develop patterns on Windows. If you would prefer a simpler setup process refer to Setting up a development environment in Windows.

Installing and using an IDE is optional, you can skip that step or use a different editor if you’d like. This guide suggests VSCode as it is freely available on multiple platforms and provides enough functionality to build the FreeSewing project.

Install WSL

Follow the Windows Subsystem for Linux Installation Guide for Windows 10 (requires a recent version of Windows 10).

Install NVM

Open a new WSL terminal from the shortcuts created or by searching for “WSL Terminal” in the start menu. Install NVM by following the NVM setup guide. Once installed you will need to activate NVM by either following the instructions printed to the screen or opening a new terminal.

Install Node.js (and optionally Yarn)

Now that you have NVM installed, you can install Node.js. The latest version can be installed using nvm install default. You can also install a specific version using nvm install v18.17.0. For the purposes of debugging it can be useful to have the same version of Node.js installed as the main project uses, which you can then activate using nvm use <version>. You can determine what version the FreeSewing project uses by checking freesewing/freesewing/.nvmrc.

Node.js comes with the Node Package Manager (npm) by default which can be used to set up the project. The default package manager uses a fairly simplistic approach to dependency resolution which can make builds take a long time. Yarn is an alternative package manager which makes builds faster, especially for monolithic projects like FreeSewing. If you’d like to install yarn run npm install yarn --global (optional, but recommended).

Install and configure Git (recommended)

The create-freesewing-pattern script will attempt to create a git repository as part of the setup. It’s not strictly required to have git installed in the WSL environment but you will get errors during the project setup process if it isn’t installed or configured correctly. As such it’s recommended to have git installed on the WSL environment even if you’re going to be using a GUI client from the windows side.

sudo apt install git
git config --global user.email "<the email address you use for your git account>"
git config --global user.name "<your display name for your git account>"

Install VSCode (optional)

Download and install VSCode.

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Install VSCode Remote

In order to be able to use VSCode’s IDE features (such as the built in terminal) and also make use of the Node.js installation we set up in the previous steps you will need to install VSCode Remote so that VSCode can make use of the Linux environment. Follow the getting started guide for VSCode Remote (If you’ve been following this guide you have already done steps 1 and 2, you will only need to install the remote development extension)

Setting up a development environment in Windows.

Install NVM

While Node.js can be installed directly on Windows, we strongly recommend using a version manager such as Node Version Manager for Windows. That link will take you to the latest release which provides an installer you can download and run. Once nvm-windows is installed you will be able to continue with the rest of this process.

Install Node.js (and optionally Yarn)

Open a Powershell terminal or command prompt. Run nvm ls available to show versions that can be installed. Choose the appropriate version (you should use the same version as the freesewing project or latest LTS version) then run nvm install 18.17.0 and nvm use 18.17.0 (where 18.17.0 is the full version string of the version you wish to use) to activate the newly installed version. You will receive a prompt for elevated permissions and will need to accept it in order to activate the new version of Node.js.

Node.js comes with the Node Package Manager (npm) by default which can be used to set up the project. The default package manager uses a fairly simplistic approach to dependency resolution which can make builds take a long time. Yarn is an alternative package manager which makes builds faster, especially for monolithic projects like FreeSewing. If you’d like to install yarn run (npm install yarn -g) (optional).

Setting up the FreeSewing development environment

In VSCode or in a terminal, navigate to the folder you wish to contain your new patterns (e.g. D:\Documents\my-freesewing-patterns). Inside this directory run npx @freesewing/new-design.

After you’ve answered some questions, it will take a while to set everything up. When it’s done, you will have a new folder with the development environment inside.

Start the development environment

You will have a new folder that has the name you picked for your design. If you chose test, you will have a folder named test. If you chose banana, you’ll have a folder named banana. (Within this new folder, the design subfolder holds your design’s configuration file and source code. You can ignore all other subfolders and files; they are part of the development environment.)

To start the development environment, navigate to the folder that was created and run yarn dev (or npm run dev if you’re using npm as a package manager).

Then open your browser and go to http://localhost:8000