Organizing Patterns (folder method)..

Hello and Happy Sunday. I've spent the day organizing my patterns, a la mimi g's way (who by the way is having a fabulous giveaway of a Janome sewing machine right now). I've followed her blog for years, since I first discovered her in 2009 or 2010 when I searched dress forms and she had a tutorial on how to make one from a plain white tee and duct tape. I would check out her blogs, from blogspot to wordpress back to blogspot, very regularly, looking for inspiration and waiting for the sewing bug to bite, which it did finally- thanks Mimi.

Anyway, she organized her patterns by putting them in manila envelopes, with the numbers on the outside and put the pattern envelopes in clear plastic page protectors in a 3-ring binder. Which by the way makes it real easy to flip through and see what you got, especially when separated by categories. So I am in the process of anticipating what I will need, and organizing them before I get started. There is nothing worse than starting an exciting new project only to not have what you need and by the time you get it, you lose motivation. Also, I am having a hard time finding someone to repair/refurb an old sewing machine I have and new ones are sew (get it) expensive. So in the meantime, I prepare.

                The purple one was first, an 1" binder, which surprisingly was too small. So I went back out and got the 2" one and that one is well on the way to being packed. (Sorry, I don't know how to get rid of the wrong date and time on the pics I take- guess I gotta get the kid to do it...)

              The larger Vogue patterns get the full sheet, with the info on the back. The smaller ones have the info on the side, with both front and back of the sheet protector being used. Keeping it uniform, all the pics to the right came later, after the first flip through.

Patterns are in alpha-numerical order.

              And the pattern sizes that were cut out are in the upper left corner, because there are a couple (read 4) different sizes cut out. This will also prevent me getting excited about making a piece only to get it out of the envelope and have it be the wrong size.

              And if you look carefully, the size is on the pattern cover as well. No need to wait till I get to the drawer to find out, and risk disappointment.

And that's what I accomplished today. I had a lot more patterns than I thought I had. Next is carving out a corner of the spare (read catch-all) room for my sewing center. One step at a time, right.....


Angie