What is a PDF Sewing Pattern?

A PDF sewing pattern is a file that you download onto your computer which you either print out yourself or send to a printer to get printed. All Honey & Rose digital PDF sewing patterns include two PDFs:

• A4/US letter size pages that are printed separately across multiple pages and then assembled together (instructions below). The printable area is designed to fit both within A4 and US letter paper sizes.
• A1/A0 large format prints that can be printed at your local copy shop (no assembly required).

How to Print PDF Sewing Patterns

1. When you purchase a PDF sewing pattern, you will be sent an email with a link to download the zip folder for the pattern.

2. Once you have downloaded the zip folder, you will need to unzip/unarchive the folder by double clicking on it. This is a good time to move the whole folder to where you want to file your sewing patterns on your computer by moving it out of your downloads folder. For example, in my Documents folder on my computer I have a folder named Sewing Patterns where I save all of my downloaded patterns.

3. Locate the pattern file ending with 'A4-US.pdf' within the folder and open the file.

4. Honey & Rose pdf sewing patterns include layers within the PDF pattern file allowing you to turn the different sizes on and off (this may not be available on all versions of Adobe Acrobat). If your version does not include this feature, please skip to step. Locate the icon of the stacked papers/layers on the left hand side of the program window and click on this icon. You can also show this from the program menu by following View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Layers.

5. This will show a pane which will show all of the layers. From here you can turn the layers on and off by clicking on the eye icon next to the layer, selecting the one/s you want to print. The 'All Sizes' and 'Artboard Elements' (A4/US Letter only) remain locked and on as these include the pattern piece details and page border notches.

6. When you are ready to print in the menu, go to File > Print. This will bring up a dialogue box for you to choose from a range of print settings. The most important thing to have selected correctly is the page sizing, which depending on your computer or version of Adobe Acrobat, should be set at 'Actual size' or '100%' (may appear different to screen grabs below). Print only the first page initially and measure a test square to make sure it is the correct size before printing the remaining pages of the pattern. All Honey & Rose patterns are designed just in black, so you may choose to print in greyscale.

How to Assemble PDF Sewing Patterns

1. Within the instructions of the sewing pattern is a page with the PDF layout guide for the pages. This is different for every Honey & Rose pattern, and will look something like this.

2. You can either use scissors, a rotary cutter or craft knife to cut off the edges of the paper. Whichever you choose take care when cutting to avoid injury!

3. For the 1st row of the pattern, cut off the right hand side of the paper outside of the border.

4. For the last page of the first row no trimming is needed.

5. For the remaining rows, cut off the right and top sides outside of the border. Except for the last piece of the row where you only need to cut off the top side.