FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Of course you can! Please don’t hesitate to reach out for sewing support, I do however kindly request you review all of the instructions first as often the answer to the question is not far ahead! I strongly recommend reading through the entire instructions before printing patterns and starting, I try to be super comprehensive and there is a lot of advice as I go – the builds are often too involved for me to load the top end of the instructions with all of the advice. If you still find yourself stuck, fear not! I can usually provide more guidance and resources to help you through a tricky spot. I do my best to check messages once per day, but I am trialing establishing some ‘weekend’ days so please bear with me. Please DO NOT message me on my social media platforms for support. I am not able to monitor DMs on social media for support due to the unmanageable amount of notifications I now get. If you need assistance with your purchase, you can reach me by using the contact form on this site, or via Etsy.

I get this question quite a lot and it is unfortunately not something I can advise on. I am not even able to recount how long it took me to produce my sample, because the sewing/making work is done in-between drafting, grading, instruction writing and beyond. Plus I have severe time blindness with my ADHD so estimating time for literally anything is a nightmare task for me. The only advice I can really give is that if you don't have enough sewing experience behind you to be able to have a rough mental idea of the scope of a project just from looking at my sewn example, to assume that speed building it may be too much for you. Even with equal levels of experience, some people work much quicker than others so there is no way to give solid time estimates. If you're unsure whether you can make a project in a certain deadline and you are worried about crunching it out, I would encourage you to consider choosing a project with a smaller scope or with elements that align with your skill set, or being open to extending your deadline. A pretty good general rule if you are a less experienced sewer is - if it looks intense, it probably is. Please don't crunch out things as detailed as Genshin designs in small time frames unless you have lots of experience and know what you're getting into. Don't burn yourself out for the sake of a costume, take your time and enjoy the process!

Most of my newer patterns have min/max fabric charts included and I try to add them into the listing photos. These will give you an idea of what the outer sizes of each size bracket included will need if using 150cm wide fabric and is presented in metres. This should give you a good starting point to cost up your build before committing to a pattern, but if you want to get a super accurate estimate for your fabric, I recommend printing out your pattern and laying it out on the floor within the width of your chosen fabric – especially if you are mixing things up with your fabrics or are looking at more expensive cuts. If you have further questions about fabric, please reach out. To locate the fabric estimates, open up your download folder and you will find the charts in JPEG format in either the root folder or a dedicated 'fabric estimates' folder.

Most of my patterns are designed for woven fabrics. Knit and stretch patterns will note what type and amount of stretch is required. Each pattern has a page of in-depth fabric recommendations in the instructions to run you through what I have used and what I recommend.

Generally, I do not make fabric estimate charts for every single pattern size and fabric width permutation. This is due to my need to do this manually as I do not have expensive industry software that can assist in this area and fabric estimate charts are HUGE jobs. As such, I provide the outer sizes of each size range, and depending on the scope of the pattern, I may also include a middle range size. This should give you a pretty good estimate for the minimum and maximum about of fabric you can expect to need. A handful of my much older patterns do not include fabric estimates. These patterns were made before I had the resources to make charts like I do now, and are deceptively difficult and time consuming to go back to. I hope to one day get back and add them to all of my patterns, but some are potentially not possible due to the old formatting I worked with. For these patterns I suggest printing and taping together the patterns so that you can arrange them on the floor with rulers/tape measures to gage fabric requirements. Indigo Patterns has come a long way, far beyond what I expected when those patterns were made, so please excuse there not being as many of the quality of life luxuries that I am able to include with all newer patterns.

Each pattern has a supply list included in the instructions, directly after the fabric recommendations. I try to be as comprehensive as I can, but for cosplay projects, there is often a lot of personal preference involved when it comes to hardware, structure and embellishments. My list will be a good starting point for you, but ultimately you may have you own personal preferences. These supply lists do not always include things that go beyond the scope of the patter - eg. if the character has fancy boot covers, accessories, hats etc. that are not part of my sewing pattern, I do not include a supply list for those elements.

For this webstore: Once your purchase is completed you will be taken to an order confirmation page that will have a link to take you to your downloadable file. You will also receive a confirmation email with the same link, and if you have a customer account with our site, you can access your file under 'My Orders'. ​ This link is valid for 30 days and can be resent upon request. All of my patterns are delivered as a PDF file which contains a link to a Dropbox folder - This way, you can re-access the files whenever you need and any potential future updates will appear automatically in your files. Some of my patterns are quite large due to the complexity of the pattern and number of sizes, so this allows for easy browsing and downloading/printing only what you need. For my Etsy store: After receiving the email for your purchase/payment, Etsy will send you an email with download links for your purchase. Please be aware that Etsy's phone app does not facilitate downloads, so you will need to download your files through a web browser. Make sure you are logged into your account on you browser for the link to be valid! Alternatively, you can find your download links under 'purchases' in your account. Some patterns will have a single pdf with a Dropbox link inside like my webstore does, but some may still have zip folders for the patterns - make sure you download all of the folders for each pattern to access all of the pattern files.

If you require a new download link for your purchase through this webstore, you can request it by contacting me nd providing your order number. The new link will be valid for 30 days. On Etsy, I am unable to re-send link emails but your download links will be permanently available in your account under 'purchases'. The one downside to this is that Etsy does not allow me to send out updates easily, so if you require an update or are having issues with your downloads, you will need to send me a message on Etsy with your order number so that I can assist you!

If you are unable to access your drop box folder via the link in the pattern PDF, please contact me and I can resend links or troubleshoot the issues you are encountering. Drop box links are 'view only' which means that you can view and download the files as needed, but you do not need a Dropbox account to access them. If you are being prompted to join Dropbox, please let me know and I will send new access links.

I strongly recommend using the free version of Adobe Acrobat Viewer. Recently, it has become apparent that web browser based pdf viewers (eg Chrome, Edge) and in particular Microsoft programs, have difficulties with printing documents precisely to scale even when the correct settings are selected. This is due to your printer driver settings being overridden by the programs/operating system. This is a rather infuriating development for pdf pattern sellers, but from my experience, Acrobat seems to be the most reliable program for printing to scale and also viewing your documents.

BOTH! So long as you follow the printing instructions, my patterns can be printed on both A4 AND Letter format paper, which should cover most if not all home printers. When your pattern prints out, it will have a border of 'nothing' around the edges with your pattern contained in a rectangle. You can trim off the rectangle and tape each page together as per the layout provided on the title page.

I feel you. Printers are the worst, full stop. Recent updates and changes to windows especially have caused some issues with printing due to Microsoft forcing some of its own default settings, which is an unfortunate development for digital pattern sellers. For best results printing your patterns, kick MS programs like Edge to the curb and make sure you have Adobe Acrobat’s free version installed. Select ‘print to actual size’ or ‘print at 100%’ in your print settings box and print page number 2 to get the first page of the sewing pattern – this has a truing square that can be measured to check the scale. If it is off, check your settings. it is incredibly important that the square measures true. Depending on your operating system, you may need to uninstall all of your printer drivers and reinstall them, windows updates sometimes cause your printer drivers to be over-ridden by the windows printer drivers, which do not print to scale. Ask me how I know..... If you have glitches or other issues, please reach out and I can help to identify the problem and send through fixes fairly quickly if needed!

Some do, yes! This is something I have recently started adding by default to all of my new patterns now that I have swapped to using Dropbox links and don't have to worry about file size caps. I have already gone back through a handful of older patterns to add A0 files and intend to eventually add them to every pattern that it's possible for, but this is a MAMMOTH task and will be chipped away at over time. If you would like A0 files for a specific pattern, you are welcome to request them. Depending on my current workload and the size of the pattern will determine the turnaround for custom A0 pdf documents.

No, unfortunately I do not. Borderless printing involves printing the pattern from edge to edge of the entire sheet of paper so that you can tape them side to side without trimming a border, Unfortunately though printers are, to put it lightly, unreliable gremlins and I do not trust them. My personal experiences with printing borderless patterns on anything from budget to artisan printers has been incredibly bad. All it takes is one tiny misalignment in the printing to completely ruin an entire page of your pattern, and potentially the accuracy of the pattern. I cannot count how frequently my 'borderless printing' enabled printers, even the fancy ones, printed things slightly crooked, off centre, or completely misaligned. Due to my own issues with borderless printing, and the fact that not all printers have this feature, I do not make print files that stretch all the way to the very edges of the page. Providing trimmable pages not only avoids the above issues but it also makes it possible to print on both A4 and Letter paper.

My patterns are based on UK sizing, though it is VERY important to remember that sizing is not standardised across the industry and is instead, very often unique to each pattern cutter. For a detailed overview of my size charts, their ranges, and my ease standards you can find information in the 'sizing and printing instructions' pdf included with your pattern. I give advice on choosing a size - though some patterns also have additional notes in their sewing instructions in regards to sizing if they have a unique cut or special considerations. When this full sit goes live, I will also have the information in that PDF available to access as part of some 'getting started' guides. Not all patterns have the same size range, this varies depending on when I made the pattern and the specific pattern in question. I always strive to grade as many sizes as I can in every pattern, but the complexity of the pattern may determine the limitations of that design.

As with commissions, unfortunately this is out of my current scope. All of my patterns mark the bust/chest, waist and hip lines where it is possible, to make measuring and adjusting easier. Some patterns with unique fits, seams or elements may have specific sizing advice in the instructions if I felt it would be important to note before cutting your pattern. I am more than happy to offer custom sizing and fitting advice, please get in touch and give me as much information as you can up front, including your body measurements (centimetres or inches are fine), the fabrics you intend to use if you know, what size you have cut if you are already tinkering and any other relevant information that will help me size you up! I will do my best to assist and provide resources where I think it will be helpful for you. Though I have had requests for it, I do not offer custom grading through CLO3D's 'auto grade' as this function is unfortunately horribly unreliable and does not produce well-fitting patterns at all. Sadly, the technology for auto-grading isn't yet at a high enough standard to 'quickly' grade patterns to custom measurements (or standard measurements for that matter), so I manually grade all of my patterns and am not willing to use this type of technology for my patterns. Thank you for your understanding!

My sewing patterns include ALL of the listed sizes for that pattern, you do not need to purchase sizes individually, nor do you need to select a size when ordering. In your pattern folders you will find separate documents for each garment size, so you can print just the size/s you need. This is particularly handy for cosplay patterns, as they have the tendency to contain a lot of embellishments and details when compared to fashion patterns, and this can be messy and overwhelming to cut when nesting all of the sizes in one print file.

I strive to add plus sizes to as many of my patterns as I possibly can! Generally speaking for most patterns, to achieve my full size chart through to a size UK30 in feminine designs, I need to completely redraft the master patterns to achieve good quality plus sizes. Grading has limitations and having broad size ranges really needs that extra leg work to guarantee a good fit! There are a few reasons however, why a particular pattern may not have extended sizing available: Good things take time - when I first started out I did not have the resources to draft good quality plus sizing. It is an unfortunate and unacceptable reality that resources for plus drafting are less accessible, so acquiring things that made it possible for me to develop quality blocks (like more experience with plus sizing, anatomical plus size dress forms and drafting resources) took a little bit of extra time and savings, plus a lot of research. Patterns that were drafted before I developed my plus master block set may not have plus sizes due to the less than perfect resources I had at the time. I won't release sizes if I'm not 100% confident in them! Many of these patterns are too far behind to go back to, but I have added some retroactively. The pattern gave me too much grief to draft once to put myself through it twice - Cosplay pattern drafting can be quite tricky, especially when compared to fashion patterns. Sometimes, re-drafting the pattern to make a second master is too much (either technically or in scope) and I have to make a hard decision on whether I am capable of doing that or not for a specific design. For patterns that I cannot draft twice, I will make all attempts to push the grade up as far as it will go before the sizes begin to show issues. Generally, the hard limit for these patterns is a size 24, which I can usually true up and have quality patterns up to this limit, fairly reliably. Occasionally the size 18 is as far as things will go, but also on very rare occasions for certain styles I can be very naughty and push them even beyond the 24. Re-drafting a second master is really important for reliable sizing, but sometimes it pushes me beyond what is possible as a one-woman-army. Masculine fit patterns - I do not currently have great resources for expanding size ranges for patterns cut from men's blocks. While I push the patterns as far as I can for both smaller and larger sizes, the size 48 is generally a pretty hard limit and beyond that gets dicey. I don't however, have great resources for drafting a second, larger master pattern for masculine fit designs, but perhaps I may with time as I did with the feminine patterns. I personally believe that quality plus sizing is incredibly important, and it is something I strive to have wherever possible. Inclusivity at the ground level, i.e. with crafting resources, will have a butterfly affect in making cosplay and fashion in general more diverse and accessible, which will make a wider variety of people visible in these communities. It is however, really important to me that this not be an after thought, I don't ever want to stretch a pattern beyond grading limits or push myself to breaking point for the sake of having more sizes at the expense of quality. If a pattern you would like to make does not extend to an accessible size range for you, you are welcome to message me to inquire about whether more sizes are possible or how you may be able to modify the pattern to work for you. Please understand though, that there are not many patterns left that I haven't pushed to their limit, or are so old that more grading isn't possible. As a side note - not all independent patternmakers have the resources or scope to be able to offer plus sizing. Please be understanding with them if they are honest about not being equipped to offer plus sizes at this time, good inclusivity requires quality work over half-baked work and adding more (quality) sizes isn't always simple for an individual pattern cutter. As for commercial pattern companies who have larger workforces and industry resources? Give them hell and demand better inclusivity. Plus sizes 'not having as large of a market' is not only a straight faced lie, but a poor excuse in this day and age.

Absolutely not I'm afraid! Unless you plan on using the pattern at a different scale for something like a doll or soft toy (which isn't my department unfortunately and I don't really have advice on that specifically), printing at anything other than 100% scale will warp the pattern. When grading, patterns do not get bigger in all directions evenly. By printing the pattern larger, you will not just be making the circumference measurements bigger, you will be making everything bigger. This can create issues with truing, especially with things like sleeves, as well as making parts of the pattern larger in areas that don't need it, or don't need it that much. If you intend to do this anyway, just know that you will likely come across a number of fitting issues and it is not the way I recommend resizing patterns. I cannot guarantee how usable the pattern will be when rescaled in this way.