Hello everyone! My name is Andrea Graham and I am so excited to be a guest blogger here at Ellie and Mac! So let me start off by introducing myself. I have been sewing for 6 years and I am self taught. I started off by making cloth diapers for my son and I enjoyed it. Soon after i got interested in making clothes and I fell in love. Once my daughter was born I got to explore a whole different side of sewing. I enjoy sewing and it's always fun to find new techniques and patterns to try.
Now let's get to why we are here. I know one of my addiction (besides fabric of course) is patterns and it can get complicated finding ways to store them. So I will be going over some storage solutions that I love to use and some other ways I think will keep you happy. Let's start with PDF patterns, most pattern shops have most if not all their patterns in PDF format and that makes it easier for us as a customer to get them. At first storing them on my computer/phone was working because I always had them with me but then when I discover so many shops had so many patterns that I just had to have my phone and computer was just not enough space so I started to look at other options. My first options was external drives, now I know those things can get expensive but let me tell you that it is definitely worth the money. I got this one on a Black Friday sale and i still have room with all my pictures and patterns on it.
Now with this method there are some pros and cons. First the pros, The hard drive is amazing to have and if something was to happen to your computer this will not get affected. For me this is also the place where all only things related to sewing goes. Now a con for me is that I don't have instant access to it. I am a girl on the go most of the time and I would like to keep my load light so even though this is small I do forget to grab it sometimes and I am without my patterns :( . So I had to find a way that I could keep my patterns with me at all times. My favorite storage place is Dropbox! I love Dropbox because of its access points and it is free!! I have it on my phone, computer, and my iPad. It is very easy for me to use and I know I will have my patterns with me. Of course it comes with cons. The first one is the space is limited but you can have the paid version and it'll give you more space. Second you have to have internet to make sure that all the different points link up and sync with each other. Third, I use my Dropbox for almost everything including my day job so it get full quick😞😞 but I just love Dropbox. I also hear about google drive and other platform but I have not yet used them even though I may have to with so much patterns that I have, lol.
Now when I go into my Dropbox it used to be so chaotic and I just couldn't have it like this! So I have my files separated by designer and I go a step further and separate by who the pattern is for. I love that I can just think of what I want and just open my Dropbox and know exactly where to go.
Now if only I can get my fabric just as organized as my PDF patterns. Lol
Thank you for reading my post and I hope this help you with you patterns as much as it helped me.
