Saturday, November 12, 2011

Organization - pattern storage

I love to organize my floss, supplies, fabric and all the other items in my craft room. Some of those other items are my embroidery patterns - I have a lot of embroidery patterns.  With the recent addition of Victorian Christmas, I have 21 big B embroidery pattern packets!


Each of these packets has numerous pattern pages and that works out to a lot of individual motifs - I did a count recently, and from 21 different packets, I have 802 individual motifs!  Most of the time, when I am getting ready to start a new embroidery project, I bring up the pdf file on my computer, look through the pages and then print the page, cut out what I want and transfer it to my project.  But I also like to have all of the motifs cut out and ready to use.  So with each pattern, I print all the pages and cut each motif out:


Then I put the indivdual motifs in this big scrapbook folder:


This has worked really well but now I have a much better solution!  I recently received two very nice birthday presents, this fantastic Brother P-Touch labeler that I Love!:


And a nice clear view binder.  I really enjoy using these clear-view binders and I have several of them already - I like to customize them with pretty paper and use them as garden journals and to organize my recipes.  I think this new one will work really well for organizing embroidery patterns too!


I printed out labels for all my pattern packets:


and attached the labels to sheet protectors.  Sheet protectors are just clear envelopes with an open top and three punched holes so that you can put them in your binder.  I am going to have one for each pattern packet:


And then store them in the binder!


I will be able to easily see which motifs I want to use and that makes it so easy to lay out the pattern pieces when planning a project!


I will update you as soon as I get some nice artwork for the outside of the notebook!

7 comments:

Denise :) said...

This is smart organizing. I am good about organizing my fabrics, quilt and sewing patterns, spool threads and rulers and other notions, but I've not organized my embroidery patterns and floss. Thanks for the inspiration! :)

John'aLee said...

What a great post. You are most inspiring!

Digna said...

Oh, I cannot organize my patterns and fabrics. It is imposible for me. Well done.

Kim said...

Denise - Thank you. I am glad to have my patterns organized. I am still working on some solutions for my floss - especially the pearl cotton floss!
John'aLee - Thank you!
Digna - Thanks - :) I know what you mean - I have to keep re-organizing all the time! I make a huge mess when I am planning a project or selecting colors.

Ü said...

Hello Kim, I loved your blog, it is very beautiful! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I'm learning a lot from him. kisses
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Anonymous said...

I do appreciate you figuring this out for us!! Thanks Kim!!!

Kim said...

Hello Itariela Martino :) Thank you!
Miss Paula - Thanks!