Free Printable Combination French Curve

I was using my printable French curves while working on a sewing pattern, and I found it useful to use two different sizes of curves. I kept losing one and having to search through the layers of pattern pieces on my table to find the curve I needed. Finally it occurred to me that I could combine the two sizes into one, so I at least would only have one tool to lose.

I put three of my curves together, traced them onto a clear plastic sheet I’d saved from some packaging, and came up with this:

I figured other people would also find this tool useful, so I put together a pdf of similar combination French curves. There are four pages to the pdf. The first two pages are for two curves marked in inches (they are mirror images). Pages 3–4 are for curves marked in centimeters. As before, I left off adding numbers, so you can label them where you like after you print them.

Since these curves are larger, they won’t fit on one piece of paper, so you will have to trim off one of the borders and tape or glue the sheets together.

To print to scale, make sure to print from Adobe Acrobat Reader or another dedicated pdf reader, not a web browser. Choose the option for printing “actual size” or “100%” or “no scaling” (the wording will vary depending on which software you are using). You can also print them at a scale of 50% for half scale or to another scale if you are doing small scale exercises. The inner curves are actually half scale versions of the outer curves, by the way.

To make a curve with labels on both sides, I printed out a set of mirror image curves onto heavy paper, cut them out, and glued them back to back. I labeled them so that the numbers were in the same spot on the front and the back.