reduce | Sewhooked

Hello, friends!

It’s rare that I share a post on both Fandom in Stitches & Sewhooked, but today is one of those days!

By popular request, I’ve updated the Enlarge/Reduce information for rescaling your patterns. Originally, I created a chart using our most common sizes with our most commonly requested adjustments. It’s been almost 9 years since I shared that original post and the variety of sizes available through Fandom in Stitches has changed immensely!

This is not new information by any stretch of the imagination, but I did try to simplify it as much as possible and save it in a format you can come back to over and over. I’m not a math person, but I am married to one, so we had a consultation to make sure I was sharing this correctly!

For the full tutorial, including other helpful print hints, check out my post on how to Enlarge & Reduce patterns.

Most of all, happy stitching!

Where did my retired patterns go? Read all about that here.

Posts on this blog may contain affiliate links to help cover the cost of my website. I thank you for your generous support. ♥

Edited to add: This tutorial was written in 2014. It may not work with all versions of Adobe Reader. You can also use the chart below to enlarge patterns on printers that include that feature. Thanks!

Today, I’m sharing a rare mirror post with my fandom site, Fandom In Stitches, but this is more than worth posting twice.

I read and answer a lot (and by a lot, I mean tons!) of email for both Sewhooked and Fandom in Stitches and the question I answer most often is this: How do I resize a quilt block pattern?

The easiest way to ENLARGE or REDUCE a quilt block pattern is to print it as a poster using Adobe Reader and the chart below.

If I don’t have the size you need, I’ve got you covered! Here’s the formula used to get the size you need:

enlrage formula sewhooked


ENLARGE OR REDUCE PATTERNS USING THIS SCALE
			Pattern Size Needed
	4″	5″	6″	7″	8″	9″	10″	11″	12″
Pattern Size
4″	100%	125%	150%	175%	200%	225%	250%	275%	300%
5″	80%	100%	120%	140%	160%	180%	200%	220%	240%
6″	67%	83%	100%	117%	133%	150%	167%	183%	200%
7″	52%	71%	88%	100%	114%	128%	143%	152%	171%
8″	50%	62%	75%	87%	100%	112%	125%	137%	150%
9″	44%	55%	66%	77%	88%	100%	111%	122%	133%
10″	40%	50%	60%	70%	80%	90%	100%	110%	120%
11″	36%	45%	54%	63%	72%	81%	90%	100%	109%
12″	34%	42%	50%	59%	67%	78%	84%	93%	100%

Follow these steps and use the chart below to make it even easier:

Download the PDF quilt block pattern file.
Open pattern in Adobe Reader.
Open the Print dialog (shown below) by clicking the printer icon.
Choose which Pages to Print. In the example “All” is chosen, but if there is an instruction page, skip that and just enlarge the pattern pages. It may be least confusing to enlarge one page at a time.
Under Paper Sizing & Handling, choose Poster (see image).
Determine the starting Pattern Size and the chart below to determine what percentage to enlarge to Pattern Size Needed. For example, to print a 5″ pattern at 10″, Tile Scale (see below) will need to be 200%.
Print these instructions for easy reference.