FAQs

When we (Lisa from Paprika Patterns and Erin from Tuesday Stitches) were pregnant, we both noticed that stylish maternity patterns were hard to find. We set out to remedy this by creating Maternity Sewing – a single location to find curated maternity, nursing, and postpartum friendly patterns from a variety of designers. The more that we’ve worked on Maternity Sewing, the more our mission has expanded. We want to help you dress yourself, but more importantly, we want to help you feel confident in your body.

Read more about what MaternitySewing offers or learn more about Erin & Lisa.

Erin (of Tuesday Stitches) looks at Every Day as another chance to play Dress Up. She loves bright colors, flowers and things that sparkle.

Lisa (of Paprika Patterns) loves clothes with comfort at their core with design elements that make her feel unique and edgy.

Learn more about Erin & Lisa.

We stock patterns from a variety of established independent home sewing pattern designers so you know you can trust the quality of what you buy.

Read more about our various designers.

Suggest a new designer or pattern.

We know that we are lucky. There was no doubt for either of us that we would have ready access to maternal healthcare while we were pregnant. Unfortunately, that isn’t true for so many women in our world. We pledge to donate 5% of our profits to Every Mother Counts to improve maternal medical access throughout the world. We encourage our customers to make additional donations.

Why yes, we do! You can buy a gift certificate in any denomination and have it emailed to you or a friend. Buy a gift certificate here.

A .pdf pattern is a digital version of a sewing pattern that you can open on your computer and print at home. Any computer can open print .pdf files. We recommend using Adobe Reader (a free program) to open and print the pattern files.

At the moment we do not offer physical copies of the patterns we sell, only digital (.pdf) version.

However, we are working on making it possible for us to sell physical copies in the future.

Because we offer patterns from a variety of different designers, we don’t have a set size range. Each designer uses her own size chart.

To ensure that the pattern you would like is available in your size, each pattern listing includes an image of the size chart for that specific pattern. Additionally, in our store you can filter patterns to only show those available in your size.

Learn more about size selection.

Because we offer patterns from a variety of different designers, we don’t have a set cup size. Each designer uses her own pattern block which means that different patterns may be drafted for different cup sizes.

To ensure that the pattern you would like is available in your size, each pattern listing will tell you what cup sizes are included in the pattern. Additionally, in our store you can filter patterns to only show those available in your cup size.

Learn more about cup size selection.

Because we offer patterns from a variety of different designers, different patterns may have different seam allowances.

We list the pattern’s seam allowance in each pattern listing in our shop so you can easily find it for future use.

Click here to access your account page or click the “My Account” link at the bottom of any page.

From your account dashboard you can view your recent orders, manage your shipping and billing addresses and edit your password and account details.

Your wishlist is a convenient way to view and share all the patterns that you are interested in. Once you have decided which wishlisted patterns you would like to buy, add some (or all!) of them to your cart to purchase them.

Your wishlist differs from your shopping cart in that you can share your wishlist with others! On your wishlist page, click the icons next to “Share Your Wishlist” to share it on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or email the list.

Each individual pattern listing has the option for you to add it to your wishlist by clicking the “Add to Wishlist” button.

Click here to view your wishlist.

While in our pattern shop, the link to your wishlist appears on the right sidebar underneath your shopping cart.

Your patterns will be automatically emailed to you after you have purchased them. If you don’t receive an email within 30 minutes, check your email spam folder as it may have been trapped there.

You can also access your patterns from your account page.

You can sew your pattern for yourself or as a gift for a friend as many times as you would like. However, you cannot share the .pdf sewing pattern. Digital patterns are protected by copyright laws that prevent their unauthorized distribution.

Some designers allow you to sew their designs, by yourself, one at a time, for retail purposes. Others do not. Please contact us or individual pattern designers with any questions about retailing garments made from their patterns.

Please respect the independent designers and small business owners that we represent. If we learn that you have been sharing patterns purchased on Maternity Sewing in an unauthorized manner, we reserve the right to cancel your account.

Most commonly, if you’re having problems with downloading an order that you’ve made it’s because of the settings in your browser. Make sure that you’re not in safe browsing mode and that you allow cookies for our site. If that doesn’t work, try downloading your purchase with a different browser (for example, if you’re using Internet Explorer, try using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox instead).

If you get an error telling you “bad encrypt dictionary” it is likely because your .pdf reader is not up to date. We recommend using Adobe Reader – it’s free to download and is the current standard for reading .pdfs. Make sure that your Adobe Reader is fully updated and then try opening your .pdf again.

We currently use Paypal. You can log in to Paypal and use your Paypal account to pay for your purchase or you can use it without logging in to pay with any major credit card.

We also carry gift certificates that can be emailed to you or a friend and used like cash in our shop.

We are a Washington State LLC so we are required to collect sales tax from you if you live in Washington State. We also must collect VAT from you if you live in the E.U.

There are no returns or refunds on purchases of digital patterns. All sales are final.

If you believe there is a problem with the file you purchased, please contact us.

Upon purchase of a gift certificate you will automatically be emailed a gift certificate code. Enter that code into the “Coupons” field upon checkout.

If you can’t find the email containing your coupon code you can also find it in your My Account page.

If there’s a pattern or designer that you would like to see in our shop, let the designer know! You can point them to our Pattern Suggestions page for more information about what we need from them in order to carry their patterns in our shop.

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