::Sewing:: Organising Sewing Patterns

PDF Patterns
I'm a big fan of PDF patterns. Living in Australia and shipping for printed patterns can be a killer (although there are some really great Aussie pattern retailers popping up about the place).

I like the instantaneity of having a pattern at my fingertips as soon as I buy it, after some cutting, gluing and taping of course (speaking of which Miss P's post about this is brilliant). I also like the idea of being able to print the pattern again if I need to. It's also a great medium to allow new indie pattern producers into the market.

At the moment I have some in a display folders, some being hung from trouser hangers (idea from here) and some just rolled up.

This is a photo take in the middle of organising my patterns.
Originally there were 5 trouser hangers hanging from the cupboard doors.

I've been meaning to get some sort of system for organising my PDF patterns, but it was this post that inspired me to finally get into gear and do something about my pattern situation.

I popped down to my local Officeworks and bought a pack of C4 envelopes. I spent ages trying to decide which envelopes to get. I'm glad I got these ones because they are a nice large size but they still bit into the IKEA Expedit shelf I have in my sewing room.

I folded my PDF patterns and shoved them into the envelopes. There was no danger of them coming apart when I folded them because they have masking tape on the joins, as per  Miss P's post :)
Some of the patterns I hadn't cut apart. and they were quite large so I had to cut them into more manageable bits.

Instead of gluing the covers on like in the post that inspired this wave of organisation. I print the instructions double sided so I just stapled the top of the page to the envelope.

That way I can flip the page to look at the back.

Printed Patterns & Tracings
I'm mostly a pattern tracer. I've had occasions where I was sure I had traced a pattern and adjusted it, but haven't been able to find it. I'm able to find the original pattern - I keep them all together, but with my PDF patterns all over place I'm just never sure where I have put the tracing.
I'm a visual person so I need a way of storing the pattern and the tracings together. The answer is ziplock bags.

I just pop the original pattern in there....

...and put the tracings behind.

I still have to sort through the patterns that I have in my display folder. At least I've sorted out the patterns that were hanging about (boom tiss!).

Are you a fan of PDF patterns? 
Are you a pattern tracer or a pattern cutter? 
How do you store your patterns?
Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you :)

Until next time,