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48. Organize Your Sewing Patterns

If you are a sewing aficionado you probably have accumulated several patterns. They are expensive and it is hard to purge knowing how much you paid for them. They will clutter up your sewing space quickly unless you periodically go through and purge.
Gather all of the patterns you own into one space. Carefully review each one and determine if you want to keep or recycle. Be honest with yourself, will you ever use that pattern again? Is the fashion out of date? Has your family outgrown the sizes?
You have several options to recycling the patterns you have chosen to discard.
-Since they are made of paper, you can place them in your recycle bin
- Try selling them online at
www.ebay.com
www.rustyzipper.com
www.momspatterns.com
www.debsrecycledsewingpatterns.com
www.craigslist.com
- Donate them to:
your local high school or college theater department
sewing classes
museums
thrifts shops and vintage clothing stores.
Organize the remaining patterns into categories that will be easy for you to locate later. "Costumes", "Household", "Women's Fashions", "Men's Fashions", "Baby". Pick categories that work best for you. Store into plastic containers and then label the outside of the containers with your chosen categories. You can then store the containers on a shelf or under your bed depending on your space restrictions.