Printable PDF sewing patterns have truly transformed the sewing experience! Gone are the days of purchasing all of your patterns in a store or ordering from a catalog and waiting for them to arrive in the mail. You can now find a pattern you love and begin cutting and sewing it together in under an hour.
If you happen to be one of those crafters who hasn’t yet printed and assembled a PDF pattern, don’t worry! I’m here to guide you. Stick with me to learn how to assemble your PDF pattern and dive into your sewing project!
1. Save the Pattern File
So you’ve just purchased and downloaded that perfect sewing pattern. There it sits in your downloads folder and you are itching to get started. The first thing you should do with this new pattern file is to SAVE THE PATTERN.
Don’t let it linger in your downloads folder, where it might get lost or deleted during a computer cleanup. Move or save the file to a designated folder where you can easily access it later if you need to reprint it.
2. Print a Test Page and Check the Print Size
Most patterns will have a 1″ square or some other way to check the pattern scale. This step is crucial to ensure your pattern prints at the right size. Before printing all of the pattern pages, print just this page at 100%.
Measure the square with a ruler. If the box doesn’t match the specified size, double-check your printer settings and try printing it again. If it measures correctly, you can go ahead and print the rest of the pattern at 100%.
3. Trim Away Margins
Your PDF pattern should print with a box in the center and the pattern pieces inside the box. Around this box will be a white border that is the margin.
Carefully trim along the black line of the box on the left and bottom sides, leaving the margin intact on the right side and top of each page.
4. Arrange the Pattern into Rows
The PDF pattern should give you the page arrangement for the pattern pages. Make sure you assemble your pattern rows as instructed in your pattern. This pattern prints on 12 pages, to be assembled 4 pages wide by 3 pages high.
5. Assemble the Pattern Rows
The pattern will also have some kind of markings to align pattern pages. It should be pretty easy to figure out how the pages go together.
Begin with the first and second pages in the top row, matching the markings, and then use tape or glue to hold them in place.
Next, do the same for the third and fourth pages in the top row, and continue this method for the remaining rows. You’ll end up with all the pages neatly arranged into rows.
6. Join the Rows Together
Now, align the pattern markings on the first and second rows and secure them with tape or glue. I recommend starting from the center for the best results. After that, align the bottom row with the others and attach it as well.
7. Final Steps
Congratulations, your pattern is fully assembled! You have a couple of options now: you can either cut out each pattern piece directly from the assembled PDF papers or trace the pieces and cut them from the tracing. This is especially useful if your pattern has multiple sizes or if you want to make adjustments without altering the original.
Now, go ahead and cut out your pattern pieces and dive into your sewing project!
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Thanks for stopping by!
❤ Sally