Draft. This page describes how Sewpress really works today, but it hasn't had a lawyer's review yet. Questions: write to us at the address at the bottom.

Notch snipping an old sheet of paper into small pieces with tailor's scissors

Who can see your files

Your pattern is your work and your income. Here's exactly who can open it, in plain words.

You

Your master file and every PDF we build live in your private workspace. Only people signed in to that workspace can see or download them: today, that's just you.

Our build workers (software, not people)

To make your files, a program reads your master file, builds each format and measures the test square. It runs on our job servers and keeps nothing once the job finishes.

Sewpress staff: only when you say so

We can't open your files unless you let us. If you need help with one, switch on support access in Settings: it lasts 7 days, you can switch it off at any time, and every file we open shows in your activity log.

To keep the service running, a small number of Sewpress staff can see what isn't in the files themselves: your email, pattern and file names and sizes, build errors and your credits. Anything we change for you, like re-running a build or adding credits, also shows in your activity log.

Nobody else

  • No public links. Every download link is made for you when you click, and stops working after at most 15 minutes.
  • We never show an uploaded file on our website. Masters only ever download; the previews you see are images we made from the built PDFs.
  • We don't sell, share or train AI on your patterns.

When we delete them

  • Master files: 24 hours after upload, unless you choose to keep them longer (up to 30 days) in Settings.
  • Built PDFs and previews: kept for you until you delete the release or pattern.
  • Deleting a pattern, a release or your whole account removes the files from storage straight away, and the records from our database. Your activity log shows it.
  • Our database provider keeps a restore history for up to 7 days, after which deleted records are gone from it too.

The longer version is in our privacy policy, and the companies that help us run Sewpress are on the sub-processor list. Questions: hello@sewpress.com.

Last updated 31 October 2026.