Let’s Get Organized, Organized! {A guest post}

Hi everyone! First, I want to thank Alissa for allowing me to be her guest poster today. I love reading her blog and seeing what she’s created. My name is Kristina and I have a blog & shop called Sew Curly. I like to create things that make a mom’s life easier and are friendly to the environment. This is party of a series I’ve been working on called the: Beginner Sewing Series. I hope you’ll check it out.

Today I want to talk about how I organize my sewing patterns. Until recently, I kept all my sewing patterns in a big pile. I had put them in a folder I was planning on using to collect the girls’ spring artwork. It was all just kind of shoved in there and messy, which made it hard to find anything.

As I was looking for a pattern the other day I realized I needed a new system. I did a lot of thinking and what made the most sense to me was to file them away in the same way I used to file away my learning centers when I was teaching. So off to Target I went and I bought 2 packs of 10 x 13 envelopes.

Now, I never really liked to work with patterns. I used to find them difficult to follow, but as I sew more and more, I find myself using them more. I think I am getting better at reading and using them. Don’t get me wrong, I still prefer designing my own, but there are a lot of really great patterns out there and using them can save me time.

Here is a list of the materials I needed to organize my patterns:

On the top, left hand side of the pattern, I write the brand name of the pattern, the pattern number, and the size of the pattern I have traced. This way I can always guarantee I have the right pieces for the item I am working on.

I fold the larger pieces up so they are able to fit into the large envelope and stack them onto each other.

On the outside of the envelope I write basically the same thing as I write on the pattern: The brand name of the pattern company, the pattern number, a brief description of the pattern, which view of the item I am making, and the size (which I hadn’t listed here yet).

Because I want to keep the original pattern in the original packaging, I make a copy of the front of the pattern and tape it onto the envelope. I use packing tape and tape every edge of the paper. This way it doesn’t get caught on something and rip off.

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