Fall Sewing Organization with Trello

I’ve been going down a rabbit hole listening to the Love to Sew podcast (which if you have somehow missed this, get to it! It’s amazing!) Helen is constantly talking about organizing her sewing and stash on Trello and IT IS MY NEW OBSESSION.

Trello is a project management app available on several platforms and the web. Helen has already written guides for using it to organize her fabric and pattern stashes (eeeerrr… collections) and as a fellow list making nerd, I say GOALS.

I’m not on that level of organization yet but I did put together a collection of my fall/winter sewing and knitting plans. They aren't new plans, just newly organized plans. Seeing it laid out visually and in an easily scrollable format makes it so much easier to keep notes, images, and other digital materials all in one place. Taking a few minutes to work on sewing plans is my favorite work break and it makes the little time I have in my sewing room that much better.

Trello allows you to organize cards that are assembled into lists. I separated my plans into Knitting, Sewing, and Completed (I put some projects that were already done just so I have all my fall/winter projects represented for reference. Also starting a list with some check boxes already filled is the kind of cheating I can get behind.)

I used to use a notebook in Evernote to do something like this but Trello’s lists make a much more intuitive visual grid that makes projects much easier to find for me. I also use Evernote for work everyday, so its nice to have a separate platform for fun things.

The card system also is much more organized. You can attach inspiration images, pattern schematics, and even the PDF pattern itself so that everything just lives there, ready to go, in one place. You can add any notes (I always forget the size I picked, especially a problem for knitting if I didn’t mark it somewhere, so this will be super handy!)

The checklist function is my favorite though. This is the list for the coat I’m working on. Tailoring has a lot of little steps and details that I tend to forget or do in the improper order if I’m adding them to a pattern that didn’t include these steps originally (which is most of them!) I think I’m going to make some more detailed stock lists to use for coats and blazers that I can import them into new cards so I don’t have to reinvent the process each time like I tend to now. 

You can see my boards here. Right now, I'm using the others to collect ideas to revisit when I plan future projects. I also like the idea of adding patterns and fabrics at some point (maybe even a little bit of a capsule wardrobe record for planning purposes?! I may have a list making problem.)