How to enlarge scaled pattern drawings with wrapping paper.
Awhile back MWT made a park bench for our front yard. At one point, he tossed a scaled drawing of parts through the back door and said, “Can you make a pattern for these?” and promptly closed the door, not waiting for a reply. Since I suggested he make the bench in the first place, how could I say no?
But I didn’t feel like making the 40 minute round trip to Rockler for 1-inch graph paper. In considering the supplies I had on hand, it occurred to me that the back of Hallmark wrapping paper has a one inch grid pattern on the back for ease of cutting. Bingo. I pulled out some Christmas wrap, turned it over and got to work expanding the pieces in the pattern to size.
To enlarge a pattern like this, you recreate the shape of the pattern by using the lines in the small squares as a guide and drawing them onto the larger 1″ squares. You’ll want to start copying at the corner of the larger paper and work outward as the pattern indicates. This technique not only works for woodworking patterns but for any kind of pattern. Even sewing patterns like this.
