How to Download Zip Pattern Files to your iPad

If you have one, tablets and iPads are a fabulous way to read pattern instructions while you are sewing a new pattern. Ros at Sew Delicious has a great tutorial to help you save your pattern files to your iPad. It's an awesome way to download your new Perfect Pattern Parcel files. It saves money not printing extra pages and allows you access to large, well lit instructions with pictures.


The trouble is iPads can't download or open zip files. Many indie designers use zip files for their patterns because they include extras, like pattern pieces formatted to be printed at commercial copy centers on large paper. Combined together these files can become quite large and designers zip them up so they can be digitally transported as smaller files.

So how the hell do I get them to my iPad?


Before you attempt to download your pattern files, go to the iTunes store. You want to download the application called iZip By ComcSoft. It is a free app.

Once you've downloaded iZip you can then go to your Pattern Parcel email, or log into your Pattern Parcel account to open your sewing patterns. You should be able to click the links to download the entirety of your Parcel or pick and choose which patterns you want just for now.


The iZip application will open your zipped folder and allow you to choose which pattern file you need for sewing. In the black bar underneath the pattern preview, you can choose "Open with" to open the sewing pattern instructions in either iBooks or Kindle Reader.


And then you're all set to sew! Happy stitches!