Tag: Sewing Patterns

Today is the first post in a series about storing your PDF sewing patterns once their printed. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing different ways you can store your patterns. We’ll give you some ideas on storing them when they’re still rolled, and once you’ve cut them out.

If you’ve got the space, perhaps hanging your sewing patterns is for you?

I hang the sewing patterns that I use a lot so that I don’t have to unfold them before using them.

If I’ve made a pattern and didn’t have much success with it, then that’s when I’ll consider folding them and putting them away in a longer-term storage.

If you’re wondering how to store your sewing patterns, these are a few different ways that I keep your patterns hanging!

Pattern Hooks

You can hang your PDF patterns like fashion students and businesses hang their patterns- with these pattern hooks! You can buy them (or all metal versions) from Direct Sewing NZ, Sewingtime NZ, the Sewing Depot in NZ.

Cons: They’re not all that cheap, so you could perhaps use them if you were only looking to hang a few T’n’T (Tried and True) patterns that you use all the time. You’ll need to have a way to make holes in the patterns to hang them from- this can be a point of weakness when dealing with paper. You can pop down a piece of sticky-tape and cut the hole for the hook in the middle, to reinforce the area around the hole.
Pros: Since they’re intended for hanging heavy brown paper patterns from, they are strong!

Single Coat Hangers

You can skip putting a hole in your pattern pieces by using one of these mysterious coat hangers with only 1 clip. I haven’t found a definitive name for this type of coat hanger, but you can order them quite cheaply on Wish.

Pros: I like how the rubber is extra grippy on the pattern pieces and helps to avoid dropping the smaller pattern pieces that are sometimes hard to manage.
Cons: Difficult to find!

Foldback clips

Foldback clips, or bulldog clips are a great way to keep your patterns together for hanging. I started using them because I seemed to have them in various sizes, in spite of never actually purchasing any!

I’ve hung by foldback clip from a garment rack here using a book ring (like these from Warehouse Stationary). I don’t actually recommend these because the rings are quite difficult for me to take off the rack. I much prefer using metal S hooks, like these pot hangers from Wish, these Wellington made hooks from Frances Nation, and this mixed pack from Look Sharp.

Pros: Easy to find and relatively inexpensive
Cons: quite difficult to unclip if you’re using the book rings to secure them

Coat Hangers

Most of my patterns are stored on these coat hangers which actually came from fabric samples from the local upholstery store. They’re basically metal coat hanger tops with plastic bars.

In order to hang my patterns on there, I do cut little holes in my pattern pieces so that I can thread the pieces onto the coat hanger.

Cons: These are a pretty niche item since I’m not sure that there’s anywhere that you can buy them!
Pros: These are my favourite option!

Want to get printing?

Email your PDF pattern files through to Chchsews@gmail.com to get started. A0 printing is $6 per sheet and A4 from $.15 per page