Easy Digitization of Paper Patterns in Adobe Illustrator!

[@sophiemori1975]

Thanks Ralph. You are so generous in providing this content for free.

[@PatternLabLondon]

My pleasure!

[@PatternLabLondon]

Always a pleasure! You could always visit our site and buy a made-to-measure pattern if you wanted to give something back 😉. No pressure though 😅.

[@stankythecat6735]

I have a suggestion …. Your iPhone can detect when it’s parallel to the ground. You can draw a 1 inch square on the pattern for scale , take the pic of patten with your phone parallel to the floor … import it into illustrator and live trace it. You can do an entire garment in one photo.

[@PatternLabLondon]

That sounds like a great idea. HAs anyone tried it? I'd love to see the result. I'll think about making a tutorial for it. Thanks for the idea.

[@stankythecat6735]

@@PatternLabLondon I use it all the time. I’m a tailor working in the film industry, it works like a dream. Been using illustrator for ages to make patterns, it blows peoples minds

[@nadia.lewis.]

@@stankythecat6735 Amazing and thank you! What film town are you in? I'm in Vancouver. :)

[@samanthagabrielle3225]

Wow I think you just saved me a ton of money I was about to pay people on Fiverr to do this for me and my patterns are for hair bows!! So freakin small but someone wanted to charge me $100?! 😣

[@stankythecat6735]

@@samanthagabrielle3225 no no no ! It’s so easy to do it with the I phone . I would also some times use a ruler in the photograph. It’s so easy to resize it in illustrator. I’m glad it helped you ! Don’t let people rip you off

[@doreenarroyo3089]

I'm so grateful you posted these instructions. Been looking for some guidance in this matter, but to no avail. A big THANK YOU!!! I have illustrator and Inkscape but tried drawing directly on the program. Had many issues with fitting. I've been doing paper patterns for more than 30 years and wanted to digitalize some of my handbag patterns, I asked some youtubers how they do it. They just told me they use Illustrator, without further comments.

[@PatternLabLondon]

I'm glad we could help and the tutorials we're useful! We have loads of tutorials about digital pattern making in Adobe Illustrator. Check out the full list here: patternlab.london/home/courses/

[@Bc-wq7rv]

Thank you! Many people on Projectors for Sewing fb group are asking about digitizing their paper patterns to project them. This is very useful. Will see how the two processes work together 🤗👏👏…

[@PatternLabLondon]

I'm glad I could help! Good luck with the project!

[@caamcreative]

One additional tip: if your scanner has a difficult time detecting the edges of your pattern pieces, highlight or use a marker to darken the edges prior to scanning.

[@PatternLabLondon]

That' a great tip, thank you!

[@exvicemissbumbum]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Your tutorials are absolutely perfect!

[@PatternLabLondon]

Glad you like them!

[@Selene-cl9gy]

Great tutorial! Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for sharing.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Thanks! I’m happy it was helpful!

[@personalbysasti]

Just saw this video. Thank you very much! very detail, this is exactly what I'm looking for. I will give it a try!

[@PatternLabLondon]

You're so very welcome. Good luck with your project!

[@noname-tj3rp]

Pop a different coloured paper in the corner when scanning each piece e.g yellow for the bodice. Then when its scanned onto the computer you can use the colours to help you find its matching piece quicker

[@PatternLabLondon]

Great suggestion! Thanks for your comment!

[@PepaCarro]

Eres una gran persona y un gran profesional, gracias por compartir tu conocimiento. Tus tutoriales son geniales.

[@a2barts]

Magic 🤩 amazing tutorial!! Thank you for all the clear guidance

[@PatternLabLondon]

You are so welcome!

[@dharmannana9826]

Great tutorial. It helps me alot understanding on how to use illustrator for making pattern. I'll use this tutorial as my guide for my Upholstery project.

[@PatternLabLondon]

That's a great use for Adobe Illustrator and proves that it works for all pattern making needs. Enjoy!

[@mamusik8401]

2024 here! and this content is amazing! Thanks for sharing

[@PatternLabLondon]

Always a pleasure. Enjoy!

[@LisaAdams.75]

Thank you so much for all you are doing :)

[@PatternLabLondon]

No worries, glad you are enjoying it!

[@mikeadams9559]

Thanks so much! I watched your video a few weeks ago, but when I marked my paper pattern for scanning (on a big copier at my local library here in the USA) I did not use your colored grid method to help align the pieces. Big mistake! I'd forgotten your method and used circles with crosses through them--old school registration marks--but they weren't frequent enough. Oy! I had to scan multiple times in order to make sure I caught my marks. Oh, well. Live and learn. But, I did have good success using the 11x17 size (I think that's A3, or so) capturing a large men's long-sleeve t-shirt pattern. I scanned in B+W from the original which was black gel ink on kraft (medium-brown) paper, and I can see the lines well, despite the lack of contrast. I'll follow your suggestions more carefully in the future! Now, onto importing in Adobe Illustrator. Thanks again from the Left Coast of North America!

[@PatternLabLondon]

Nice feedback! Hopefully others can learn from the same issue. Thanks for sharing and glad you got it fixed in the end. Good luck with your project!

[@patriciabarnes3582]

Thanks for amazing tutorial! Quite interesting!

[@UsmanKhan-vf1lm]

Thank you for sharing your pattern it's amazing 🙂🙂

[@PatternLabLondon]

Thank you! 😊

[@alterramoda5821]

If you have a projector, you can draw a rectangle of known dimension on a piece of dotted paper and hang it on a wall. Then draw a rectangle of the same dimension in illustrator, autocad, gerber etc.. Project your workspace matching the rectangle on your computer to the one on the wall via zooming, keying until they match exactly. now any patterns placed on the wall within your rectangle will be 1:1. Simply tape patterns within the rectangle and trace the patterns out in your application of choice! I use the rectangle's straight lines for CF, CB GRAIN etc... instead of tracing them so my pieces are automatically square in the computer. This method gives you the benefit of comparing the patterns with your digitized pieces and lets you edit/alter your 'digitized' patterns more accurately.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Nice concept and a great tip. Thank you for sharing!

[@ninasvetlovics7046]

This is wonderful, thank you.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@nativelike5168]

TIP: 7:14 just click the down arrow on the right to go directly to the folder you want to save the file to.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Thanks for the tip!

[@silversagapatterns]

Amazing content, the best tutorials on You Tube. Thank you!

[@PatternLabLondon]

Thank you! Maybe one day we’ll get nominated for something on KZbin 🤣🤣

[@escherita]

Excellent tutorial, thanks! I bought a hideously overpriced Issey Miyake pattern today on eBay and I'm going to try to digitize. I'm very excited about these techniques. I may share the digitized version if that's ok.

[@stankythecat6735]

I bought a Tom Ford men’s suit and a Tom Ford Women’s suit… tore them apart , copied the patterns. They are amazing ! I used the photo trick to digitize them in Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator can do seam allowances and grading.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Hi MC, Good luck digitising the pattern, however, I would not share the pattern online unless you get written permission from the designer/ company first. You might get in a bit of trouble. That being said, we're more than happy for you to share your own designs/ patterns/ work that has been made using our tutorials.

[@escherita]

@@PatternLabLondon yes I understand . At this point I may move on to projector, and skip the pdf and printing part, but for now I'll just use tracing paper lol

[@Aryamoony]

Is n it more useful to use adobe scan on mobile phone and have some marking points to not distort the pattern on the photo?

[@PatternLabLondon]

If you can scan using a mobile phone and it is reliable or accurate then go for it. However, i image the distance the phone is from the pattern and the tilt of the phone will cause inaccuracies. Please let us all know how it goes and how accurate the scanned pattern is.

[@aussielass5621]

I might try this with coloured paper

[@PatternLabLondon]

Sounds fab, go for it!

[@Hlaing-NatureFairy]

Thank you so much.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Always welcome

[@fionamehmet1863]

Awesome! Thank you, this is really helpful. I'm totally new to digitizing patterns - how do you make the vector image real life size? Not sure if thats a silly question or not haha

[@PatternLabLondon]

The pattern pieces that you scan into Adobe Illustrator will be full size unless you accidentally resize them. Simply trace them in Adobe illustrator and then adapt your pattern or print it, full size, using this tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mna9mYNqfdmNgs0

[@Eazisew_studio]

hello , First, I want to thank you for this tutorial, it's really helpful . I tried to digitise my patterns using your method but when I import my pdf scanned images, they become bigger on illustration. Would you have any suggestion to open pdf scanned image in their exact size on illustrator ? thank you so much

[@PatternLabLondon]

Hmmm. That is odd. Possibly mark a scale on your pattern before scanning it. Mark a 10cm square with 1cm markings, you could always resize the image in Adobe illustrator to match the 1cm markings. It's not amazingly precise but it might help. Let us know how it goes?!

[@KetiTeacher]

How do you send this pattern to someone with pattern design system? When I converted to DXF in illustrator, factory in China couldn't open in their ET system. Or opened and scale was 10 times more and notches missing.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Transferring from Ai or SVG to DXF can be tricky. I've not tried it myself, but if someone has a DXF pattern, I can experiment and get the scale and export options right. You can email me at info(@)patternlab.london

[@nancywickman4902]

This was so helpful. I've been wanting to digitise my doll clothing patterns. But what is the Windows equivalent of the Option key?

[@nancywickman4902]

Found it. It's the Alt key.

[@PatternLabLondon]

It's the Alt key.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Ha ha, just saw this. Thank you!

[@user-pl4yq1oc1y]

This is amazing, thank you! I've actually been looking for this but this is the best one by far. Are you aware of any free software alternatives (broke beginner so dont want to splurge on Adobe just yet haha)?

[@PatternLabLondon]

You can use Inkscape. I’ve not used it myself but there a few of our followers that have and apparently it’s quite good. I would definitely recommend Adobe illustrator though. All of our free digital pattern making tutorials are based on Adobe, meaning… if you wanted to follow along then you’d need Adobe. Good luck!

[@user-pl4yq1oc1y]

@@PatternLabLondon thank you so much!

[@MiSaLiAnW]

i would be interested if photoshop panoramafunction would be able to put them together the right way.

[@PatternLabLondon]

That would be fantastic. Anything to help the process. I’m not sure if that would create an accurate pattern though. Really happy to hear ideas on how it might work though!

[@BygoneWardrobes]

I'm not sure which settings are wrong, but when I'm tracing the lines of my scanned pattern, they dissapear from inside the drawn line? Could someone please tell me how I can fix this problem?

[@PatternLabLondon]

Can you explain what you mean by "they disappear from inside the drawn line"? With a bit more insight I might be able to help.

[@shortgirltallguy6484]

THANK YOU SO MUCH

[@PatternLabLondon]

You're welcome!

[@Learnitdoit1]

Thank you so much

[@PatternLabLondon]

You're most welcome

[@goldy2210]

Thank you!

[@PatternLabLondon]

You're welcome!

[@marianakapeller4699]

help please am new in sewing and i can not make my own patterns i buy them from etsy but i cant scann them because the scanner is only for small pappers, what patterns scanning machine do you suggest i can purchase?

[@PatternLabLondon]

The best solution is to buy an A3 flatbed scanner. The larger the scanner the less scanning you will need to do, especially for large patterns.

[@rinapermata7282]

is there a way to change a pdf pattern with adobe illustrator?

[@PatternLabLondon]

In what way do you want to change it? Do you mean edit the PDF pattern? Yes it's absolutely possible but the PDF Pattern must be editable. In other words it shouldn't be password protected. Simply open it in Adobe Illustrator and start editing.

[@veejayfloresca]

thank you

[@PatternLabLondon]

You're very welcome, enjoy!

[@118lab]

Could I use a photograph I don't have a scanner.

[@PatternLabLondon]

That would not be very easy to do. There is soo much potential for error. You'd have to set the camera up on a tripod, directly above the work surface. You'd also need to ensure the camera remained absolutely still at all times. You'd also need to make sure the camera lense wasn't tilted, that it was exactly parallel with the surface, to make sure the pattern wasn't being warped by the angle of the shot. You'd then need to take multiple shots of the pattern, scale each image to the correct size and then piece it together. I mean... It could be done, but there is soo much room for error.

[@kikitouregen7273]

New fashion designer with no scanner. Do you offer the service of digitising paper sewing patterns into PDF? I sent you an email via your website and still await replies.

[@PatternLabLondon]

Hi Gen. Sorry for not replying to your email. I've not received it yet but I tested positive with Covid on Monday and only now just coming back to reality. Unfortunately, we do not offer that service. You should speak to a pattern grading company. They have the ability to digitise your patterns, however, it would probably cost more than buying an A3 scanner. Good luck with your project!

[@INSPIRASIMODEDANGAYA86]

Keren 👍👍👍👍

[@PatternLabLondon]

Thanks!

[@Huly-Kcr]

Türkiyeden yazıyorum. Videonuzu türkçe altyazı ile izlemek isterdim. :(

[@PatternLabLondon]

I’m very sorry we don’t have subtitles for turkey as yet.

[@maliwanartthasinleka3468]

thank you may i send you pdf bressing new idea for your soul

[@PatternLabLondon]

Go ahead!

[@sewstyle]

Thank you so much!

[@PatternLabLondon]

You're welcome!