Burda Style For people who sew

This How To has instructions on how to tile a self-made pattern and upload into a PDF that can be downloaded by other members.

Technique Materials

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat Professional, a Scanner, Ruler, Tape, Pen • I have done this using the above software. If you don’t have it, try downloading the free thirty day trial available on the Adobe website, or a different program in your computer.

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• Add to my toolkit
• Print Page
• Get Instructions (PDF, 5 MB)

25 Comments

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  Aug 26, 2009, 03.49 PMby jessyratfink

  This is awesome! Thanks so much for documenting this. I’m making my first pattern today!
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  Jul 15, 2009, 02.13 PMby MetropolitanFrock

  Eureka!!!! I’ve been waiting for 3 months for an architect friend of mine to help me with making a pdf pattern of my design. I was so happy to find out that it was here all along.
  From now on, Bstyle will be my first source for help with technical sewing issues. Thanks ladies!
• 

  May 8, 2009, 09.57 PMby loveliette

  Hi!

  Thank you for this tutorial. I’ve been searching for ways to preserve my vintage sewing patterns digitally and haven’t been able to find much online. Hopefully this will do the trick!

  Thanks again
• 

  Apr 4, 2009, 08.39 AMby Aleah

  Thanks a lot, wonderful instructions! I haven’t got a scanner anymore (I broke it, eh) but I am very familiar with Photoshop, so I should be able to create a pattern by using it. Once again thanks.
• 

  Jan 5, 2009, 07.11 PMby NsOmNiAc

  Open Source Sewing = Open Source software to create patterns and here you have some. ENJOY!

  The first which is an Open Source alternative to Adobe Photoshop
  The Gimp
  http://gimp.org/

  This works on Linux and Windows all the way up to Windows Vista. If you would like me to kinda do this same thing under The Gimp, I will attempt to recreate it for you and possibly some templates too.

  The other alternative which is good for Vector Illustrations is Inkscape this also works under both Windows and Linux. This is comparable to the Adobe Illustrator product.
  Inkscape
  http://www.inkscape.org/

  Both of these programs like the patterns on Burdastyle are Open Source and can be used freely and shared with other people freely.

  Please let me know if you have any questions I’ll help when I can and I’ll make myself a note to try create this tutorial in both software packages.
  Sincerely,
  N
• 

  Jul 12, 2008, 05.16 AMby suseyxx

  Hi there
  I need help
  I tryed to print a pattern and I got this message
  (unable to print job is printer available) I can print other thing as normal I think it is a problem with it being PDF
  any ideas anyone cheers Suseyxx
• 

  May 14, 2008, 02.07 AMby sew-mad

  the tutorial is great, but what to do if you don’t own a scanner? (really, I don’t have one!)
  I can print directly from my technical drawing software into a pdf-file (with alignment marks etc) in us letter or a4 size, but i can’t crop everything into smaller tiles and then make the pdf.

  anyone knows if I can upload a pattern that doesn’t have that 16.82/25.47 cm tiles but a “normal” paper size with alignment marks???
  I tried to export everything from the tech software into photoshop, but it doesn’t work as well, so my only chance is the direct pdf-making.
  suggestions anyone?
• 

  Jan 10, 2008, 10.50 AMby jocole

  i’m so excited to try this out, i’ve been thinking of making my patterns available online (even before i found out about burdastyle) and i can’t wait!! hopefully i’ll have a pattern to upload soon enough. thanks for the how to!!
• 

  Sep 4, 2007, 07.08 AMby Lilo

  Yes, I was asking about the patterns I am allowed to upload. Thanks for your answer, I thought so. I’m still not at the stage of making my own design, I use patterns from Burda Magazine mostly or other purchased patterns. So no uploads from me so far…
• 

  Aug 31, 2007, 05.33 PMby nayantara

  Hey Lilo-
  Are you asking if you are allowed to upload patterns? You can upload anything that is your design (your patterns). I wouldn’t suggest uploading anything that is under someone else’s copyright.
  As for the software programs, if they are free (or available at a cost which you pay) and available on-line as open source, then there should be no problem!
• 

  Aug 31, 2007, 03.50 AMby Lilo

  Are we actually allowed to do this? I’m thinking about the copyright rules ‘n all that. I mean I could try to, but I don’t want any trouble…

  Gimp is fine (and free!) but not-so-very-user-friendly; it’s very versatile once you figured it out.
• 

  Aug 23, 2007, 10.41 PMby dilemmax

  You could also PrimoPDF. It’s a virtual printer that let’s you print anything to a pdf file. It also let’s you append multiple pages into one pdf.
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  Aug 20, 2007, 09.26 AMby crearsouille

  The Gimp is a free graphic program that is not very different from Photoshop. It is not so easy to use if you have to learn it from scratch by yourself. With a bit of Photoshop knowledge, it is OK.
• 

  Aug 20, 2007, 05.19 AMby sabine

  Well, it looks like my original comment went missing.

  Here’s a desktop publishing program, for making PDFs (also free) http://www.scribus.net/

  Here’s a graphics program (free, don’t you love it)
  http://www.gimp.org/
• 

  Aug 20, 2007, 05.17 AMby sabine

  Actually, even better than OpenOffice.org might be Scribus, since it’s a desktop publishing program (it’s open source and free).
  
  
  
  For graphics, there’s the GIMP which is similar to Adobe Photoshop, but has no support for CMYK (only important for professinal printing).
• 

  Aug 18, 2007, 10.53 AMby MarmotaB

  
  Zora, as Sabine and me wrote, you can use Open Office at least for creating the PDF file. I’m pretty sure there must be a good freeware graphic program as well, so you could alter the process… I like this How To because it tells me those things I wouldn’t be able to find out by myself, like the size of the tile and how to transfer the pattern to multiple papers to use for the process… experimenting with it in the programs I have is what I like to do. :-)
  
  Does anyone know a good free graphic program?
  
  Do I have to make more size versions of the pattern, if I ever upload one? It’s something I’ve never done as well, and unlike with my size, I cannot test if the pattern is right…
  
• 

  Aug 18, 2007, 10.09 AMby zora

  Unlike the others I am not very happy with this tutorial. Both Photoshop and Acrobat Professional are pretty expensive software and I wished you could come up with a way to upload patterns using free software. I look forward to patterns uploaded by other members but I won’t be able to contribute patterns as long as we don’t find a cheaper way.
• 

  Aug 18, 2007, 09.05 AMby olar

  Oooooh, this is great…
• 

  Aug 18, 2007, 08.09 AMby lauriana

  Thanks Nayantara! That was indeed the how-to we were waiting for. I’m really happy it can be done using photoshop. Now, I’ll just have to work out multi-size versions of my own patterns (never done that before, so it’ll be quite the challenge)
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  Aug 18, 2007, 07.05 AMby MarmotaB

  P.S. When resizing it in Photoshop – that means, you get a page with blank margins and the frame/pattern tile in the middle. The cropping and resizing back is there to make sure you have the right size of it.
  I guess Op.Off. Draw wouldn’t be able to make PDF with more pages…
  
  Maybe it should work with other graphic programs as well, I just haven’t tried it, with some it would probably be much more difficult to get the right size.
• 

  Aug 18, 2007, 07.01 AMby MarmotaB

  OK, here’s how I think it should work with Photoshop and OpenOffice Write (or maybe also Op.Off. Draw, I haven’t tried it with that one yet):
  When you have scans of your tiles, crop them in Photoshop just at the frame, so the frame is at the edges of the picture. Than resize to the size of A4/Letter. Use the second option of resizing, the one that just adds to or crops the picture. (I have it in Czech, so I don’t know how’s that option called in English…) Save. Open Write. Set it to no margins. Insert the picture and make sure it fills the whole page. Make as many pages this way as needed. Export to PDF and it should work… I created that tile frame with similar method, exported to PDF and made a test print and it worked.
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  Aug 18, 2007, 05.17 AMby MarmotaB

  Yes, when I asked my father, who’s our family’s computer expert, he also thought about Open Office… we just have to install it to the computer I’m working on. And then I’ll try how it works and let you know. :-)
• 

  Aug 18, 2007, 05.00 AMby admin

  You could try it with OpenOffice.org, it has an export to PDF option… Or the free try-out of PDF-Factory.

  That said, thanks a ton for this step-by-step! I was wondering how to do it the last days ;)
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  Aug 17, 2007, 01.20 PMby MarmotaB

  Thanks so much for this! It’s perfectly understandable! I don’t have anything to share right now, but I hope I will one day. :-)
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  Aug 17, 2007, 11.58 AMby Stephanie

  Great Directions Nayantara!
  Now that I have the ‘know how’ you may just see one of my original patterns pop up on BurdaStyle! Thanks for the Tutorial.
  By the Way when will we be seeing the BurdaStyle Grocery Bag???