Hi Linda,
unfortunately this is a pretty quiet team, but i'm a new pattern seller here and I have an idea that might help. My patterns are for doll clothes, so I don't have the same problem with large pattern pieces. none of my patterns require more than 3 pieces of paper to be tiled together - super convenient for the 8.5x11 pdf format.
I think it might be helpful to offer a pdf version and a pre-printed and mailed version at two different price points. some customers may appreciate the convenience of faster arrival and the savings offered by piecing the pdf pattern together themselves.
now for the printed patterns, could you overlap the pattern pieces to save space on the large format printing? this is the way many pattern magazines fit multiple patterns on a single printed sheet. when you use these kind of patterns, you trace the pieces you need onto tissue paper and then you have the uncut pattern page for use in the future. Many of the best pattern magazines are from europe, so i'd bet your european customers are familiar with this method already. I've been getting in the habit of doing this with commercial patterns so that i have the other sizes included for future use (a big concern with childrens' clothing). you could have the patterns printed on demand so that you have less invested in pyhsical inventory, and state that patterns are printed to order and there is a 2-week turnaround time. its pretty common on etsy to have items that are made to order and won't ship for a few weeks after the order is placed.
i hope this helps. i don't have a ton of experience yet, but my shop has been been pretty busy in my first couple months and i'm really starting to get a feel for the market. good luck to you!
