Join paths and objects | Inkscape tutorial: merge elements together

Published: 09 September 2020
on channel: Techie Sewing

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Joining paths and nodes can be very frustrating for a beginner: Union doesn't seem to work, that button that is supposed to merge nodes (Inkscape tool panel has it) has no effect. I'll show you a specific bit of knowledge that resolves the problem, at least with merging two paths together.
Adding seam allowance to pattern pieces (part 2) requires a whole path and this video shows how to make a broken path whole. Part 1 covered the simple cases of whole paths and colourblocking lines. In this video I show how to deal with split paths that come in several pieces. We glue them :) Well, Inkscape calls it joining nodes.

𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞:   / discord
𝐌𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞:   / martagvozdinskaya   (early access+bonus content)
𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartaInk...

Written instructions:
I use free Woodstock Swing Tee by Hey June because it has pattern pieces in numerable number of paths. If you have a pattern where every dash is a path this tutorial won't apply. Or would take hours. In that case I'd trace it with Bezier curves (   • Vectorize sewing pattern in Inkscape {Bezi...  ).
I don't ungroup. Instead I switch to Node tool (N) and click a size line I need. Only a piece of it is selected. Then hold Shift and click at the portion of the size line nearby.
You should see two paths selected and all their nodes visible. Side note: node size can be adjusted in Preferences. I set mine to maximum and find them much easier to work with.
We are interested in two nodes in the center, end nodes of each path sitting close together. We want them to become one node and paths to be glued into one.
You can select nodes by clicking and then holding Shift and clicking more but I pull a rectangle around them to select them both. Only select these too. Start pulling from the white space, not a node or a path.
With two nodes selected, click a toolbar button called 'Join selected nodes'. Or you can press Shift J as I do most of this tutorial duration as it's faster and easier on my hands. This is one of shortcuts that won't show in the tooltip or in the Preferences. There is however Keyboard and Mouse Reference under Help menu that shows them all (currently https://inkscape.org/doc/keys100.html). Another thing I use often, "Break path at selected nodes", is Shift B.
While joining the nodes Inkscape would try its best to keep the shape of the path the same. I find it usually works well so mostly don't interfere. If you hover a mouse pointer over one of these selected nodes it wouldn't shift this one and would move the other one to it instead. I didn't do that in the tutorial and not sure if using it would be better for this task.
Two nodes and two paths are now joined, one resulting path selected. Repeat the process: with Shift click at the line nearby, select nodes, join them. If you are using a keyboard shortcut you can even hold Shift all that time until you need to scroll the view down.
Sometimes border nodes are a bit farther from each other but usually join just fine.
I repeat the process until all except the foldline is joined. It's hard to see so I change the stroke color to see better. A pattern piece can have a common foldline for all sizes or separate ones. Here the foldline was longer than my size line, so I moved the top point of it. I selected the node and used arrow keys to move it. You can also use a mouse of course.
After that I joined the last two nodes and this join actually shifted the foldline. Maybe it wasn't the foldline of this size after all. So I moved this node back until it snapped and the foldline became vertical again.
Then I filled the shape with colour to see if my path is truly whole or not. It's also easier to see seam allowance.
To add actual seam allowance I duplicated the shape, filled the copy with a different colour and moved it under (there is a button of the toolbar that is visible with Select tool active; pressing PageDown does the same; and there is Object/Lower).
Path/Outset with a copy still selected would make it bigger and it would peek from under the top shape. Now you can see both sewing line and seam allowance line.
In the video I forgot to remove the seam allowance from the foldline. For this and for setting up the amount of Outset watch the first video (Add seam allowance in Inkscape):    • Add seam allowance to pattern pieces in In...
There may be part three where I'd compare this method and direct tracing and show how to transfer notches. Personally I think that with using keyboard this gluing method is fast enough if the number of pieces is manageable.

I use Inkscape, a free vector editor for Linux, Windows and Mac.
More pattern alterations in Inkscape:    • Inkscape sewing tutorials

Music: El Gavilan - Quincas Moreira and Like Lee - The Mini Vandals.

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