PrintSew Review
I ordered a printable pattern from McCalls, and, upon not receiving a download link immediately after ordering, like, you know, every other digital purchase ever, knew I’d made a terrible mistake. Further reading of the FAQ and other reviews seemed to confirm my suspicions.
I made my purchase at 8:59am and, as expected, immediately received email confirmation from MCalls. And then I waited half an hour, until 9:30am on the dot, before receiving download info from PrintSew. Seriously? I could have gone to the fabric store and back in half an hour! AND impulse-bought more fabric and maybe even gotten a coffee!
The email contained login info to the PrintSew website. My userID and password were right there in plain text. And, I mean, I’m not super concerned about my PrintSew account being compromised, but still. Bad form.
Between 9:30 and around 10am I tried to install the dumb software on my Mac. The PrintSew website was frustratingly slow, and, once I finally downloaded the dumb software, my Mac would have none of it. FINE. I’ll install it on my stupid Windows computer, which I hate, but I keep because, apparently, the sewing software industry hates Mac.
Around 10am I start the still-painfully slow process of logging in, downloading, and installing. I get a warning that “Locklizard” is trying to install software. Locklizard? WTF is Locklizard? Research research research… Locklizard is, apparently, the DRM PDF viewer used by PrintSew. Hey PrintSew, maybe let a girl know what she’s installing? It might save some headache in the future. But clearly you have no interest in my current headache status.
10:30ish. It’s printing! Finally! All 54 pages, because there’s no easy way to determine which pages I actually need. Lucky thing it’s a small garment. I can’t imagine how many pages I’d use for a big formal dress!
11:05am: it’s printed, the 10 pages I need have been identified, and the two pieces I need have been assembled. Total time spent on acquiring this dumb pattern: 2 hours, 5 minutes, I definitely could have gone to the fabric store and back in this time. Plus impulse-bought fabric and coffee. And breakfast. And fixed my hair prior to leaving. And played with my dog. And killed some time on Facebook.
But, after all the install hassle, and the fact that I can only view patterns on my Windows machine, and the limitation that patterns expire after one year and you can only print a pattern three times, during that year it’s not terrible. It came together easily, the pages are well labeled with nice helpful squares for lining pages up, and nice bold lines. The number “11” was split across two pages and hard to find, but that’s my only real complaint with the pattern layout.
Would I use it again? Maybe. Probably. It would be nice to have an unlimited-printing license and for better Mac support. But if I need a pattern in the middle of the night it’s a good option.
Originally posted August 28, 2017 on a different platform
