Tutorial: PDF Pattern Assembly

There has been so many new pattern releases recently and a bigger and bigger percentage of these patterns we use are being offered as PDF Patterns. These are the patterns that are downloaded on your computer, that you print out on your home printer. The pages are tiled and taped or glued together to form large pattern sheets.

I thought it might be nice to share how I put these together. I've been working with PDFs more and more recently and have developed a pretty speedy way of getting them together fast, ready to sew.

 First up you need some tools. Nothing complicated just:

• Some Tape - I buy cheap small dispensers like this because they are easy to cut.
• Scissors - Not your fabric ones but some normal paper ones
• Ruler - All will be revealed
• Pattern weight of some kind - I have these ribbon ones made from washers but tins or cutlery would work just fine!

Step 1:

 Each piece of A4 has a black line on all four edges marking the edge of the pattern. To speed up my process, I fold instead of cut these lines, using my ruler to make sure I fold the line accurately.

Step 2:

 Each of these lines is marked with a letter and a number. Match the corresponding combinations and put those pages together. I like to fold the left piece and leave the right unfolded so I have a support behind my tape. This is where the pattern weight comes in really handy. I like to put one or two on the line, so when I get my tape I don't nudge it out of place.

Step 3:

 Grab some tape and apply it to the line. You will want to use tape on the pattern pieces themselves, but I don't bother about the bits of paper around the pattern piece.

Step 4:

 Step 4 just illustrates what I mean. We are going to cut the pattern pieces out of the large sheet, why tape the bits your going to waste?

 Step 5:

Cut it all out! Cut out your pieces in your corresponding size. This can usually be found on the PDF you downloaded. This is what my pattern looks like from the back. Nice and sturdy, ready to use!
Have you got any tips or tricks for cutting your PDF Patterns?