Inkscape sewing patterns: a layered PDF from Inkscape
Inkscape's PDF export drops your layers: every size lands on the page at once.
Inkscape keeps layers perfectly in its own SVG. Save as PDF, though, and they don't become PDF layers, so a sewist opening the file in Acrobat Reader or a projector app has nothing to switch off and prints every size together.
Making the other formats by hand doesn't help, because each one goes through the same PDF export. Pages for A4, Letter, A0 and 36 × 48 in all come out flat.
Every format from one Inkscape master
- 1
Set up your layers
Use Layers and Objects to make one top-level layer per size (S, M, L) and shared layers starting with an underscore (_grainlines, _notches, _test). Sublayers are fine. A layer you've hidden is still read: it's part of the drawing.
- 2
Upload your master
Save as Inkscape SVG and upload that. Inkscape's layers are exactly what Sewpress reads, and it writes them into every PDF as real layers. Draw on one page big enough for every piece, at true size.
- 3
Check the scale and layers
Since 0.92, Inkscape uses 96 units per inch, the same as Sewpress. Files made in older versions used 90, which reads as 93.75%. The inspection screen spots that from your test square.
- 4
Build every format
Sewpress places your master once and builds tiled A4 and Letter, A0 and 36 × 48 in sheets and a projector file, each with one layer per size, and measures the test square in every file.
Test builds are free and every page is marked TEST COPY, so you and your testers can print and project the real files; they're kept 30 days. Clean files to sell are $12 a release, or 5 for $39, 20 for $119.
What each format needs, and doing it by hand
Every format also needs each size on its own layer, so sewists print or project only theirs.
Tiled A4 and US Letter
- Pages laid out separately for A4 and for US Letter, since neither fits the other
- An overlap between pages, with alignment marks on the shared edges
- A tile ID on every page and an assembly map on page 1
- The test square on page 1, and print scaling switched off
By hand in Inkscape: A page per tile for each paper size (Inkscape 1.2 and later has multiple pages), and a PDF with no size layers.
A0 and 36 × 48 in copyshop sheets
- Sheets at the real paper size: A0 (841 × 1189 mm) and Arch E (36 × 48 in)
- As few sheets as possible, turned whichever way fits better
- A test square on every sheet
By hand in Inkscape: Pages at A0 and at 36 × 48 in with pieces arranged for each; again, the PDF flattens size layers into one.
A projector file
- Everything on one wide page, A0 landscape or bigger
- Lines two to three times heavier than print lines, including inside groups
- A test square and marks to calibrate the projection
By hand in Inkscape: A copy with every stroke width raised, exported to one page, but without the PDF layers projector sewists rely on.
Questions
- Is there an Inkscape setting that keeps PDF layers?
- Not in Inkscape's own PDF export. Some designers use extensions or scripts that merge single-layer PDFs; Sewpress reads the SVG instead, so there's nothing to merge.
- Can I use plain SVG instead of Inkscape SVG?
- Inkscape SVG is safer: it keeps each layer's name. In plain SVG, Sewpress falls back to group IDs, which are often meaningless.
- My test square reads 93.75 mm. What happened?
- The file was made in Inkscape before 0.92, at 90 units per inch. Choose 90 on the inspection screen, or open and save it in a current Inkscape.