Taking Stock of Craft Supplies-Patterns
Craft supplies, like patterns, don’t exist in your house if you can’t find them. I learned that from my dad as a girl. It makes you think about keeping stock of your stock.
Over the past who knows how many years, I have amassed a large collection of knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, sewing and quilting patterns. Those include books on the same. I had so many books I didn’t have anywhere to put them all. The books I couldn’t use I wound up selling, giving away or sometimes throwing away.
Now, since I have scaled down from the days of ‘take every book you can get your hands on’ to focused, particular subject books, space hasn’t been the issue. My issue has become, “where did I put that pattern?”
So, I have come up with this plan. It is by no means new and inventive but it is cheap and works great for me. I don’t need organizational equipment and furniture from Ikea to get the job done.
When I was on Ravelry, before the mass exodus of 2019, I would print every pattern that I bought or downloaded for free. That turned out to be a super idea because I could just make my exit when I wanted and didn’t have to worry about losing access to patterns.
After I printed them, I would try to put them in clear page protectors and then organized in three ring binders. It got to be a problem when I would run out of either supply but kept buying patterns. I would run out of different binders and then started putting every kind of pattern in any binder I had.
So, with the advent of the craft supply diet, I am able to get through these binders, organize them and not worry about needing any more or having patterns I cannot find to use.
When I plan a project, I use pocket folders with the three hole binder clips. I can put the particular pattern or two in there, in the page protectors along with the needles it calls for in the pockets. I write the name of the pattern on the front in marker.
As I work on the project, all my notes, yarn labels and swatches are all in one place. Then if I ever want to make it again, I can see exactly what I did the last time. AND the pocket folders usually fit in the project bag or basket protecting the pattern.
This system has been in use for years and years but it has never been ideal. The first couple of years, using one or two binders for all the different ‘craft patterns’ I never knew what I had. Those are the black binders. No labels because it was full of everything I had.
Today, the binder issue will no longer be a problem. Because I am not buying new patterns this year, I will have an index to each binder and know exactly what I have to work with.
Sewing patterns are a different animal. They need a file box or cabinet depending on how many you have accumulated. I have been sewing since 1981 so I have accumulated more than anyone should probably have. It’s fine. I’m sharing with the girls now.😏
My husband put together this tall table with a $6 door we bought at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore and two tall file cabinets. The cabinets we got from the barn and then I don’t know where before that. But I know we didn’t pay for them. These are full of all the patterns I use for sewing and each drawer has a different category with a certain size range.
That system works just fine for me. It beats pulling out a ton of boxes that have all kinds of patterns every time you want to sew. A major improvement to be sure.
It will be a lot of fun going through the old watching it become new again. The opportunity to thin the stock also presents itself as the sorting and organizing moves forward.
How do you store your craft patterns? Do you find yourself overwhelmed looking for a pattern to start a new project? Let me know in the comments how you deal with the situation.
