comments roundup and ugly pattern confessional

So I'm guessing by the number of comments to the last post that quite a few of you have problems with pattern storage! In answer to some questions that came up in the comments:

Anna - I answered on your blog, but I'll repeat it here. I don't trace my patterns, even my vintage ones (shock! horror!) because generally I use the pattern only once or twice, I only do a small amount of pattern adjustments, and if it's a multi sized pattern I just fold along the size I want, tucking the excess under and ironing it flat (sometimes clipping the curves to do it). But I have read on other people's blogs who are more diligent or do more pattern adjustments use cheap interfacing to trace onto. Anyone else got any tips?

Carol - I don't have the scanned patterns saved in any searchable database, just sorted in different folders depending on what they are (dresses, suits, kids, skirts, etc). But a searchable database sounds like a good idea, and an even better idea for my fabric had I photographed and measured each piece.

Katherine - I wondered how you could bear to sell any of your patterns, but now you admit to having 5000 I can see how!

Livebird - you lucky girl having a $5 sale and thank you for your kind offer, but I must. stop. buying patterns when I have so many projects already lined up.

marLou and Reethi - same for you both, stop tempting me people!

Neighbourhood gal - I'm using B2 sized envelopes, they fit an A4 sheet of paper folded in half once. But just for you I tested it out with the A4 sized envelopes, and you would get two rows of them laying on their long side, with a bit of space left over for some smaller envelopes.

Jean - I have my patterns spaced out now since they're ordered by pattern company, but until recently I did have them all crammed in the one chest of drawers, so I'd say you could fit around 700 or so of the standard patterns (not the big Vogue ones though) in the one cabinet. And I'm working on the appearance of them, stay tuned for a sewing room reveal.

And Audrey, you are so right about finding things you may not want to know about - check out this ugly pattern I found in the stash, that I have no idea where it came from, I know that I will definitely not sew it and yet I still didn't trash it (proof of my hoarding):




please, someone out there, confess if you made this or a similar pattern in the decade that style forgot!

how to store an out of control pattern collection

After not buying any sewing patterns for a long time, a few (ok maybe a lot) sewing patterns have followed me home lately from various sources - the free ones I scored from the lovely Kaye, a whole bunch I bought for 50c from the Salvos on Dale St in Brookvale (northern beaches ladies get yourself there pronto, they had heaps of patterns the other day) and I bought this Vogue one from brand new from Spotlight today:

Isn't it gorgeous? I only bought it because they were having a $15 Vogue pattern sale - patterns are certainly much much dearer here in Australia than they are in the US. If we had 99c pattern sales here I think I would firstly faint from over excitement, and then have a bigger problem storing my patterns than I already do!

Anyway, since patterns are so expensive, although most of mine are vintage patterns collected from various sources, I hold on to them and never get rid of any, even really ridiculously ugly ones. I like to think of them as a fashion history sourcebook. At last count I have about 700 (gulp!) ranging from the 1940s onwards, although I seem to have the most from the 60s and 70s. Which of course poses a big problem of where to put them and how to find them.

A long time ago I did a post on using the Ikea Aneboda chest of drawers to store sewing patterns in. In fact it may be how some of you found my blog in the first place, because after Erin over at A Dress A Day linked to my post my traffic went way up. This is what the drawers look like:

The Aneboda fits sewing patterns in perfectly, although if you shove too many into like I did, the weight gets too much the flimsy masonite board bottom of the drawers, and they'll bow outwards like this:

I got my handy husband to screw in some timber supports across the bottom like this, using some L-shaped brackets so that the screws aren't visible from the front:

And now the draws are back to normal and are strong enough to hold the patterns in. But I had run out of room for any more patterns so I trotted off to Ikea to buy a second set of drawers, and now I have a draw for each pattern company. I whacked a few labels on the draw fronts and now I know where every one is. The drawers are the perfect depth for the big Vogue pattern envelopes to stand up:

and are the right width for smaller pattern envelopes like my Simplicity patterns to fit five rows across.

Perfect! The only annoying thing is that the light beech colour drawers I bought in the first place aren't available anymore, only white, which offends my matchy matchy tendencies....

Each pattern is stored in numerical order, according to the pattern company. I also have scanned the envelope front of each one and have it saved to a USB key, so I can quite easily browse through the patterns without having to physically flick through each one. Plus I can look at them anywhere since it's on a USB key, and I quite often spend a lunch hour at work daydreaming of which patterns I'd like to make.

For BWOF patterns I scan the magazine pages that have all the styles on the one page (both line drawings and photos), and for the patterns that I have traced, I print out a picture of the technical drawing downloaded from the Burda site, glue it onto an envelope front and they also go into a pattern drawer too. Too easy!

So my pattern drawers, combined with my giant wall of fabric really makes me feel like I have my own little fabric shop happening!

Anyway I hope this gives you some hints for getting your stash under control - now that I have them packed in so neatly they take up hardly any room at all. And there's room for more......

Taming the pattern collection

Like many dedicated sewers I have a lot of sewing patterns. And I mean a lot. At present count 587 individual pattern envelopes, plus those in the Burda magazines and the vintage Australian Home Journal magazines (a sort of mid century Australian version of Burda). And I cannot bring myself to destash in any way, even the fugliest patterns I know I'll never use, but who knows if some distant future relative of mine won't think it's a goldmine they way we love vintage patterns now.

I’ve tried a number of systems to keep track of them. Firstly I had them all in square archive boxes, grouped together by type of pattern (dresses, skirts, shirts etc) but this was complicated by those wardrobe patterns with multiple patterns in the one, still having to rummage through the boxes and the six boxes required to house them when stacked on top of each other reached the ceiling. So the next phase was to scan all the patterns one time when I was home sick with the flu for two weeks, which meant I didn’t have to rummage through the boxes to see what patterns I had but still meant they physically took up a lot of space.

Then I stumbled across an unassuming but oh so helpful piece of furniture from Ikea of all places: the Aneboda chest of drawers. Three drawers, deep enough for patterns to stand on end, even the big Vogue envelopes, and wide enough to fit five rows of standard pattern envelopes across.













I managed to fit all 587 pattern envelopes in the chest of drawers and there’s room for more (oh don’t worry I’ll fill it in time and will have to get a sister for it). It takes up so little room, but fits them in so efficiently and neatly, all the patterns are lined up nicely like little soldiers ready to take on the fabric stash. I have them ordered by pattern company in numerical order (the whole top drawer are Simplicity patterns alone!). So now I can browse through the scanned patterns to see what I have and which I want to use, and easily find what I’m looking for.


Over at Ikea Hacker someone customized their Aneboda by covering up the semi opaque plastic fronts with coloured paper, but I like being able to see the patterns in there, all those lovely ladies on the covers begging me silently with their eyes to be the next chosen one.

Anyway, Ikea is all over the world and it’s more than likely that there is one near you. Give the Aneboda a go, it may just change your world (or at least clean up your sewing room). And the best thing? My husband congratulated me on coming to my senses and throwing out some patterns. Ha ha ha, little does he know!