Hello,
My name is Tanja and I am pattern hoarder.
I can't stop buying patterns and I love it!
My very first pattern that I bought was a Simplicity New Look 6301. I was terrified. You may ask yourself why? Because I will always remember my mom's Burda magazines with those "so called crazy maze "patterns, that I remember how difficult was for me to just look at it. From the moment I bought my first Singer sewing machine and my first Simplicity pattern, I fell in love.
This is when my pattern addiction started. And I love it. Crazy isn't it.
So let's talk about storing your patterns. I have been looking for different ideas how to organize all these patterns that I can't stop buying. Especially if there is a good sale, I can't control myself and I have to buy at least few. So I had to find better and easier way how to store/organize all these.
I used many resources on line that one could find, and I want to share it with all of you. This idea came from many Pintrest, YouTube suggestions, my personally fave was how to organize patterns by MimiG.
So here is what you will need:
- Large plastic folder (2 inch)
- Plastic sheet covers
- Yellow 6x9 envelopes
- Black sharpie
- Empty boxes or filing cabinet
1. I separate pattern envelopes from instructions/pattern and place pattern envelopes in plastic cover sheets and then in large plastic folder.
I keep these in specific order: Dresses, Jackets, Tops, Skirts, Pants and everything else
To me this is easier to focus which garment I want to make for my next project
2. Each instruction with pattern is stored in yellow 6x9 envelope. I recommend this size if you have filing cabinet. As of right I am using 9x12 envelopes as this is what I had in my stash, but also I don't have filing cabinet, so I don't have to worry about not being able to fit it in the cabinet. These large 9x12 do fit nicely in the box.
3. Each yellow envelope is marked with black sharpie. I will write pattern number and maker. These are stored in boxes in numerical order. For an easy find.
4. PDF patterns are also stored same way. I will keep first page of garment in plastic sheets in the folder, for easy viewing. And PDF patterns/instructions are stored using same process. As PDF patterns don't have numbers, I just stored them in the box and tape the front page of the garment to the envelope so it is easy to find.