We are passionate about the paper we use to print your patterns, and here’s why.
Storage. After 4 years of sewing, Heather is running out of space to store patterns. Having had many printed on 75-90gsm paper, they fit into A4 envelopes but take up a reasonable amount of space. The 20gsm paper we use takes up considerably less space per pattern, enabling you to have more in your stash
Tissue fitting. When you hold a tissue pattern to your body, it is far easier to bend it to your curves. This enables you to see where your own waist, hip, bust point etc sits compared to the pattern just by holding it against your body, letting you make adjustments to it far more easily than using heavier paper. The ‘Love to Sew’ podcast episode 36 with Melissa Watson talks about the Palmer/Pletsch tissue fitting method and the Palmer/Pletsch fitting book. Our Lightweight Sewing paper is ideal for this fitting method
Environment. Paper comes from trees. Whilst our paper is not recycled, the fact that it is so lightweight means that more patterns can be printed from the same volume of trees. A tonne of 90gsm paper can print 12,025 Scout Tees (it’s a single A0 pattern from Grainline Studio) whereas a tonne of our 20gsm paper can print 56,960 Scout Tees. If you were to print the Scout on A4 paper, it would take 18 sheets If you print on 75gsm paper, you would only get 11,876 (9,897 at 90gsm) Scout Tees from a tonne because of the overlapping margins. So sticking together A4 sheets is not only time consuming, but 18% of the paper is lost due to the overlaps.
Pinning. With delicate office worker hands and a touch of arthritis, Heather prefers to pin lightweight paper to fabrics, finding heavier paper much harder to get pins through. It sits flatter against the fabric too, and works well with pattern weights as well (in Heather’s opinion)
Pattern placement. Because our paper is transparent, you can see through the pattern pieces and move them around the fabric, avoiding (or purposefully putting) flowers directly on your boobs!
Lightweight Sewing paper isn’t for everyone, but for those who prefer the feel of a traditional printed pattern, we may be just what you’re looking for.
If you enjoy sticking your A4s together (weirdo’s, but we know you’re out there!), we can sell you blank sheets of paper to trace your patterns onto. It sticks well as it’s not siliconised like baking paper (been there, come back to multiple unstuck pattern pieces) and is 900mm wide so you probably won’t need to piece together bits of pattern. Blank paper is sold as cut sheets of A0, but can be continuous, just let us know if you’d prefer that. It’s folded in the same way as a normal pattern.
This paper can be ironed too( on a low temperature ). We look forward to printing your patterns!
