I recently got into sewing (mostly clothes, but also toolbags and tailoring), but let’s not go into that for now. Sewing is something that humanity has been doing for thousands of years, so what’s new and what can make it different? Apparently, there is something.

Traditional Sewing Pattern Process

Years ago, most sewing patterns were distributed as large pieces of paper with (if you were lucky) multiple sizes. The process involved carefully laying out the original pattern and painstakingly copying it onto transparent paper by drawing lines over your preferred size. Then you would cut out the transparent paper pieces and copy them onto crafting (more dense) paper, cutting that out again. Only then would you pin those cut-outs to fabric, cut the pieces, and proceed with sewing your designs. This meant lots of paper, time spent copying and cutting, and any mistake would send you back to square one.

Years of progress improved this only slightly. These days, the same sewing patterns are distributed as PDF files to be printed, carefully assembled by taping pages into one giant sheet, and—you guessed it—going through the same transparent paper and crafting paper process again. Boring!

The Modern Solution: Ultra-Short-Throw Projectors

When I started looking into this, it really felt like the process could be improved somehow—it is 2025, after all, right? Apparently, in recent years there’s a new method for getting the same thing done using Ultra-Short-Throw projectors.

Basically, you purchase a decommissioned office projector (normally good ones cost several thousand dollars when new, but sell for less than a hundred after being decommissioned from office use), making sure it has the very important Ultra-Short-Throw feature—meaning it can project an image at a very short distance. Then you use the amazing free and open-source Pattern Projector web app to project the same PDF directly onto the fabric. No paper, no waste.

So I did exactly that. After purchasing a second-hand Epson EB-1400Wi that was several years old but had barely a few hundred hours on its bulb, I excitedly started using it for sewing (and also watching movies, because why not?)

The Challenge: Interactive Mode Toolbars

Here’s the rub: these projectors were created to be interactive, where a teacher would project and also draw on the whiteboard using special “markers” in a so-called “Whiteboard/Annotation Mode.” Any image, including ones coming from HDMI input, would display toolbars for changing colors or line thickness for the markers. In the default configuration, these toolbars remain on the screen all the time, which is not at all useful when projecting a sewing pattern or watching a movie. It took me quite some time to figure out how to get rid of them, and the menu system is notoriously difficult to comprehend, which led to writing this how-to.

Configuration Steps

Now, here’s the actual how-to part:

Reset the Projector

If you want to use it for sewing, start by resetting to avoid keystone correction or any other optical correction:

• Go to the last item in “Menu” and select “Reset all”

Disable Pen Toolbars

Color toolbar:

• “Menu” → “Extended” → “Easy Interactive Function”
• Navigate to “General Section” item “Pen Mode” and set it to “PC Interactive”
• This will permanently remove any extra interactive toolbars in “HDMI Input” mode

Small button (mouse/pen) in the bottom right corner:

• “Menu” → “Extended” → “Display”
• Set “Pen Toolbar Tab” to “Hide for Set Time”

Set Projection Direction

For projecting upwards:

• “Menu” → “Extended” → “Projection”
• Set it to “Front” for watching movies when the projector sits in front of the screen
• Set it to “Front/Upside down” for sewing

Wireless Connection with Miracast

Another useful tip: for HDMI input, you don’t actually need a long cable running to your PC. Instead, you can use a Miracast dongle (mine is the AIMIBO 4K Miracast Dongle from Amazon.co.uk). Plug it into the HDMI port on the projector while powering it from one of the USB sockets (there are two, but only one provides sufficient power), and connect from your phone, tablet, or laptop using Miracast.

For my tablet and phone on Android, Miracast support comes built-in. For my laptop, I use the gnome-network-displays package.

Audio Sync Tip

One more tip: when casting a movie, there’s always a lag between audio and video streams, which can be fixed by adding a delay in VLC player. I find values between -200 to -400 ms work best in most cases.