I've been sewing with pdf patterns for a few years now and have collected quite a few. Some while ago I discovered the joy of getting patterns printed as A0 and then tracing off. Then of course I had to manage the digital files, the printed A0, and the traced versions. If you're curious, I followed Saremy's (Sew Sew Live) advice and started putting the traced and cut out patterns in clear plastic envelopes in a filing cabinet. This works really well, actually. The A0 are a hot mess. Rolled and in a pop up laundry basket with the name written in marker on the top. Well, until the marker faded and the bin filled up. So then there are some laying across my fabric stash and some down near where I sew and .... you start to get the picture.
Like everyone else I was a bit skeptical of the whole projector sewing process, but after buying a couple big dress patterns I really started to consider. I almost got started at Black Friday last year because I knew I would buy some new patterns and then either use PDFplotting's sale they usually have or project. Finally I just decided to go for it this month and called the necessary purchases my birthday gift to myself (fwiw, my husband hasn't bought be a birthday present for maybe ten years and it's a milestone birthday so I don't feel bad. Really, I didn't need an excuse but it was a motivating factor.)
Yet more background. I hadn't had a personal, non-work laptop for a bit after my old one bit the dust in a non-recoverable way. I sew in the kitchen, on the table where we eat all our meals. I had 2 cutting mats - an 11x17(approx) Olfa I got for a wicked deal on clearance and an 18x24 Fiskars that was old and tired. My first floor ceilings are 9', but directly over my table is a light (of course) and I wasn't keen on a permanent installation.
Epson Ultra Short Throw projector - model not important but preferably newer than ~450 which has a bump on the bottom
Some sort of cart - to put the projector in the corner and roll it over to the side of the table to keep the same settings
New laptop - Windows, not too fancy but not in the "s" program
Software tools
optionally:
larger cutting mat
mount for projector
didn't think about until later, but ended up with:
dust cover (homemade)
USB B cable
batteries for the remote
Picking the Projector
I have the overhead for a miniprojector but didn't want to deal with mounting, etc. That left me with an ultra short throw (UST). These are super expensive new but nobody who sews buys new. Typically they are removed from schools and then sold surplus. There are vendors multiple places who buy them by the pallet and then recondition. Some things to note: you do want a remote, you want a power cord. You want time left on the bulb. The bulbs apparently last 2,500 hours and there's a readout on the device. The cover for the air filters may be missing. They might have a new air filter (or not).
With all that there are still a million for sale on eBay. Kent Todd of mosurplus regularly lists some for sale. Others in the group have purchased from him so I felt confident. You'll see when he posts, he will have various models at different price points. Some will have new bulbs or new filters and some will just say good bulbs. I picked an older model with a good bulb and paid $110 with free shipping. It came very quickly. The remote came via a separate package.
Some people stop here. Don't! Pull it out of the package and plug it in! No time like the present
Picking the Laptop
Everyone will give advice on this. I wanted Costco's warranty. I looked at Consumer Reports (through my local library) and a bunch of other sites to get reliability information. I also looked up all the different selling points and decided what I needed and didn't need. I ended up with a Lenovo for about $700. There's always a sale. There are fancier and cheaper models but this seemed a good middle ground.
Picking the Cart
Honestly, you would think this was the easiest part. At first, I thought from reading that the projector was going to be super heavy - it's not. It's about 13 pounds. I also wanted the cart to be stable, to be able to wheel around, to look like it belonged in the kitchen, and not be too expensive. I was on all the major shopping sites. I finally ended up with this one from Walmart. It was good it was configurable because I've already rearranged the shelves.
Software
Adobe Acrobat Reader (free version).
PDF Stitcher - https://www.pdfstitcher.org/ - great free tool to tile letter size or other sheets, show only the layers you want, etc. Must have!
A driver to use the USB b cord. I read in the guides linked from the Facebook group that it is easier to calibrate with USB B instead of HDMI (or other). I had planned to just stick with HDMI but decided I needed all the help I could get. I went to pull this down from Epson's site but in the end it sort of installed itself the first time I plugged the projector in (it asked permission first).
InkScape
I adjust all the patterns I make for myself. Always a full bicep. Always grade between sizes. Make the pockets bigger :) So that presents a problem. I decided to see if I could do these changes digitally in InkScape, a free open-source editor that's like Illustrator. It is super complicated.
For a general introduction, I went to my public library's site and found InkScape Essential Training through LinkedIn Learning. It's a pretty long course but it goes into a lot of detail and is super helpful.
USB B cable - it's recommended for calibration purposes. I just got it off of Amazon as one of their basics
dust cover (homemade) - after I turned it on for the first time it occurred to me this is a super hot lamp with a big fan and air filter and it's gonna get yucky sitting in the kitchen which could actually kill it. I just measured all the sides and sewed it up. Luckily I made it a bit big because it still (mostly) fits over the mount. This is some canvas from a Walmart 3yd/$8 bundle
larger cutting mat
It also occurred to me when I went to try to calibrate for the first time that it was going to be hard with my two little mats that I move around all the time. I put a big mat on my Amazon wish list but didn't get it for my birthday so went in search of.
It is common knowledge in some circles that things that are pink or intended for women, or for feminized crafts are automatically marked up. So I just went in search of cutting mats anywhere. I ended up with this one: https://www.mybinding.com/dahle-36-x-48-vantage-blue-self-healing-cutting-mat-10694.html in blue. In retrospect, the black may have been better? Also having only 1/2" marks instead of 1" is a bit of a bummer but fine. Anyway $55.71 - same one on Amazon is like 90? I did have to pay tax and shipping. It also comes sort of rolled but that smoothed out very quickly.
It's actually a bit too big for my table. I thought if I was short on time I could leave it under the tablecloth but the corners stick off (oops!).
I store it upright behind the shelf I have for my machines but if that causes problems there is room under the couch (although admittedly a bit dusty)
mount for projector
I looked all over but the mounting points aren't standard. I ended up deciding to build a wooden one. I pretty much regret it :)
I texted my big sister and asked if she was up for a project. She generously agreed. She lives in my parents' old house with my Dad's tools. Also she used to work in a home center and has her own tools.
We got all the parts at Home Depot which pretty much was a mistake. At least for the machine screws. I used the 3 M6 mounting points. Those suckers are like $2.50 each. I ended up needing 2 35mm length and 1 60mm length. I had to pick up the 60mm in my local Ace hardware store and it was only $1.39. I also needed a spacer.
Had to take it partially apart after noticing that we put the side pieces on top of instead of outside the bottom piece. Anyway, it is perfectly functional.
That's all for now. I'll come back later with another post talking about my software process. I'm still working out the kinks.
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