Evernote Pattern Catalog
bethh on Sep 3rd 2010
The Mr and I are still tired.
Not sure why. Don’t know if we’re not sleeping, or if that trip took more out of us than I thought. It doesn’t help that we have had some appointment or other–4 one day–every single day. The day after we got home there was a wedding to attend and a funeral the day after that.
At any rate, I can’t sew and my joie de vivre is just not up to snuff. I’m catching up on blogs and getting plenty of inspiration, but there just isn’t any energy to drag myself upstairs to the sewing room in the evenings. I still have my 1952 dress cut and waiting, and some piqué wanting to become a matching jacket. The serger even has the right thread installed.
But it just ain’t hap’nin right now. Maybe this weekend I’ll get a chance to recover some. (I’m not counting on it, but maybe.) Meanwhile I’ve been exercising Evernote to help me keep up with my burgeoning pattern collection. (When we can’t sew, we sewing people buy sewing stuff…)
I first heard of Evernote reading Teri’s blog, and signed up earlier this year when I needed a better way to keep up with things. It was so useful that I soon upgraded to the Pro version to take advantage of the additional benefits that upgrading brings.
Before Evernote, I had been listing the patterns I wanted to pick up at the next sale on a slip of paper in my wallet. That worked fairly well, but sometimes I failed to capture the number of the latest needful pattern that I saw on Pattern Review. Or worse, the slip would be in my wallet… across the room … so I would start another slip.
Then there were two or more un-cross-referenced slips with pattern numbers. Some scratched off to indicate that those were now in a box upstairs, some not.
You get the chaotic picture, I’m sure.
One day I realized that my Droid could give me a sync’d list that I could refer to anytime I found myself at a sale. All I had to do was put those needful patterns in Evernote, and tag them with “McCall’s” or “Simplicity” and “Buy!” At the pattern counter, I would open my Droid’s Evernote app and search by the name of the company and “Buy” to get my list.
When I started changing my “Buy” tags to “Inventory,” my Evernote Pattern Catalog was born.
Here’s how I do it. (If you’ve got a better way, I’d love to hear it!)
First, I see the pattern I want and copy the envelope photo into Evernote from the manufacturer’s website. Then I add a link to the pattern and tag it with company name, Buy, kind of garments included, and designer (if I care). Lately I’ve been adding the line drawings, too, because those are generally more useful than the photographs. When I buy the pattern, I change the “Buy” tag to “Inventory” so that I don’t try to buy it again later.
I should add the purchase date, I suppose. I could also include photos of the garments I’ve made from the pattern, along with alteration notes and my impressions.
That may happen at some point, but for now, I’m enjoying being able to peruse my pattern collection without leaving my seat.
Tags: Evernote
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