Have you spent time organizing your sewing patterns?
For someone who sews as much as I do, it was high time that I got myself in order. After spending countless dollars on pattern sales, my storage situation was an absolute wreck: patterns were being shoved into pull drawers and being damaged constantly. If I needed to find a specific pattern, it was time consuming with no discernible organization. I knew it had to stop.
Materials I talked about in my video:
- Tjena IKEA boxes (I bought the large and medium boxes)
- My Planner Life Printable Divider Tabs
- Paper Scissors
- Xacto Knife
- Cutting Mat
- Nonslip Ruler
- Manila envelopes
- Scotch Tape
- Google Photos App (iPhone, Android)
My video goes into a step-by-step breakdown of where my collection was being stored, to how I built their new boxes, and how I created dividers to make everything easier to find. The whole process, start to finish, took me an entire day due to the size of my collection, but the transformation to my sewing area and to my workflow has been improved dramatically.
Organizing your sewing patterns digitally can change EVERYTHING.
The beauty of living in the digital age, is that now you can also organize and keep track of your entire collection in the snap of a photo. There are definitely a lot of tools out there that can make this easier, and in my video I go into using Google Photos to make it work.
Taking the time to set up Google Photos has all ready made a world of difference, especially if you have a huge stockpile of paper and PDF printed patterns. Being able to find them at a glance to check yardage and notions shaves a lot of time. Add to that, the ability to quickly check if you all ready own a pattern at home when you’re out hitting some sales. If the inspiration strikes, I can pull up a pattern and be inspired immediately and in seconds, be on my way to picking out some new fabric.
This video was a lot of fun to shoot because it was so practical! There’s still quite a lot of organization I have to do when it comes to my growing sewing stash, but I’ll be taking you on that journey moving forward.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links :)
How to Walk a Sewing Pattern, Video Tutorial
Critical Sewing First Steps
How to Redraft a Facing, Video Tutorial
Intro to Dart Rotation, a Quick Sewing Overview
I have been using the SEW AWESOME app on my tablet for over a year now. It allows me to store not only my patterns but also inventory of other sewing items. I recommend updating from the free version to the paid version ($1.99) to get a few extra features. My days of buying duplicates are over. The developers add extra features to the paid version from time to time. I originally downloaded it just for the organizing of my patterns. Now I use all of the available features. Check it out.
Thanks so much for the tip on this app! Just saw that it’s only available for Android, not iOS (I’m an Apple girl, through and through!) but I’ll keep an eye out if it ever becomes available for iPhone :)
This is a very timely post as I’ve just released the Sewing Pattern Buddy app for Android!
I too had patterns coming out of my ears and no way of organising them, so I wrote an app so I could have all the details of all my patterns available no matter where I was!
I’m going to start working on an iPhone version but since I’ll have to learn a whole load of new stuff it won’t be available for a little while, but I thought your readers might like to know there is now an Android app just for us sewers!
Here’s a link to my webpage which tells you all about it and there’s videos too! ;-) http://kwirkykiwi.com/sewing-pattern-buddy/
Oh wow- what a lovely app! I went ahead and checked out the website and watched several of the videos and everything looks fantastic! Perhaps later on down the road the app will have cloud integration or pull from some sort of pattern library as to avoid having to store so much data on the phone. For me, I only have about 100 patterns, but I know people who own HUNDREDS of them!
Definitely reach out when the iPhone version is available- I would love the check it out and support a fellow sewer!
Thanks for your comment :)
Yes, I will definitely let you know when an iPhone version is available!
And I am currently working on cloud integration as I knew that would be pretty important, but I released the app now so people could enter their patterns and start using it.
Creating an online pattern library has been my dream for awhile, I’d love to set it up – maybe one day! ;-)
p.s. I think you should make more tiki dresses/outfits – you look fantastic in them! :-)
Sorry to be responding so late!
Cloud integration for such a big library would be a godsend! That was one of the reasons I never created an album on my phone for the patterns and I’m pretty sure there is at least one other pattern organization app out there that also stores the photos locally. Unfortunately, when the physical library gets huge, it doesn’t become practical to save the photos directly onto the phone!
And thank you so much for the compliment- it’s been a minute since I’ve sewn a tiki outfit and I think it’s time to do so again 😉
You have a serious pattern collection! I thought mine was impressive but I bow down to your mighty treasure trove! Well done for organising! I’m not ready for that quite yet, and I totally have them tucked secretly round my room wherever there is a small space!
Hahaha thank you, Christina! My pattern collection has only been possible with insane pattern sales and a huge rolling list on my phone of To Buy patterns. Hopefully I can make them all some day, but my collecting bug just won’t quit!
You’re a doll. Thank you for inspiring me with your use of my divider tabs. So Creative!! Happy Sewing. x
Thanks so much for your comment! The divider tabs were a life saver and I was so glad I was able to find them through Pinterest!