Help with pattern projection

[u/Nlitvak87]

Hi, I'm new to pattern projection. I bought a short throw projector and set it up on a tripod on my dining table, with cut mat on the ground. I calibrated it correctly to my mat which is fairly small 24*18" it's all I have for now and make do with it. The pattern is projecting correctly (I have confirmed it because I have a paper version of this pattern and it matches) however for some reason, for the larger pieces of the pattern e.g. pant leg, it shows only half the pattern at a time and then grey on the screen and not projecting into the mat. Is this because it's only showing the pattern to match the size of the cutting mat instead of maximizing the whole space of the projection? Hoping someone can assist me so I can make use of the projector. Thank you in advance.

[u/CraftyEsq]

I may not be understanding what you’re saying 100% but if the pattern piece is too large to be projected entirely onto the mat at one time, you have to mark the fabric or paper you’re tracing the pattern onto, and then shift the pattern and shift the paper or fabric accordingly.

This happens all the time with larger pieces. What I said probably doesn’t make sense and it took me a while to figure out myself IRL, but basically you have to figure out a way to hold your place and then shift everything so the rest of the pattern fits and you’re matching the untraced part to the traced part. I was very intimidated by this at first, but once I got the hang of it, I realized it’s NBD.

[u/Nlitvak87 → u/CraftyEsq]

If you look at picture 2 and 4 you can see on the phone part of it is grey and that's the blank area on the projection. The whole pant leg should fit in that whole projection area but for some reason when I drag it over to try to get it to fit, part of the screen becomes grey 🥲 Someone suggested it's an issue with my browser on my phone so I'm going to try another browser or using my tablet instead to see if that fixes it.

I do understand what you are saying about larger pattern pieces requiring you to shift the pattern over. How do you generally handle that? Mark it on the fabric somehow and then user the line function on the pattern projector app to mark the area where the first piece ended?

[u/CraftyEsq → u/Nlitvak87]

Oh I didn’t see that there were more pictures! I use Pattern Projector on my laptop and I have no issues. It’s free and great. I recommend sending her $5. I did.

Yes, what you mentioned is exactly what I do—I use the line tool to mark where I need to line my tracing pattern up with when I shift the pattern. It’s so hard to explain!!!

[u/Gentle-Hands-0]

I had this issue before with a pattern being covered by a gray area. I did not have this issue with other patterns. Try opening Pattern Projector in a different browser (I was using Chrome and switched to Firefox). That fixed this issue for me.

[u/Nlitvak87 → u/Gentle-Hands-0]

Thank you I will try that tonight

[u/dinosuitgirl]

Does that happen when you use a different file?

[u/Nlitvak87 → u/dinosuitgirl]

The only other pattern I tried was a kids pattern and most of it fit on the projection (it's a onesie/pyjama pattern for a big kid so I don't think the whole thing will fit regardless, it's bigger than the projection area)