I agree the ruler is un-necessary...anyway when I pp I have never cut fabric to a specitfic size just bigger than the pattern and I audition it to make sure it is the right size. I have plucked out many stitches when I didn't do this.
I love pp. I use sandwich paper you get from a resturant(sp off my thinker is not thinking..lol) supplier and then cu tit down to fit in my printer to print off patterns, it comes off really well and not expensive either.