My storage solution for Lutterloh patterns

I've been cleaning up my sewing room this week and decided that my semi-permanent storage for my Lutterloh patterns just wasn't working anymore. I thought I would share with you my more permanent solution.

Since I draw my Lutterloh on butcher paper the finished patterns just don't fold up as small as the tissue paper ones you buy at the store. I had been folding my patterns with the largest pieces on the bottom so when they were folded most of the pieces would be inside the larger ones. This was working fine until I discovered that I needed to put away another six patterns and they just weren't going to fit into the few envelopes where I had been stuffing my other Lutterloh patterns.

Now that I have switched over to using Lutterloh almost exclusively I decided that my filing drawer for patterns had to be purged. This left plenty of room for my Lutterloh patterns which I folded neatly into their own individual 9" x 12" envelopes from the office supply store. I figured since I already copy my patterns to prevent them from damage then why not copy the fashion photo as well to paste onto the outside of my storage envelope? Here is a photo of one of my pattern envelopes complete with sizing notes.

You'll see at the top I added information about the supplement number and year the pattern was published. Below that I've noted the size it was drawn. We all know that from season to season our weight and thus our measurements can fluctuate. If you have the size the pattern is drawn marked on the envelope then you can see at a glance whether or not these measurements are close to your current size or perhaps you need to draw a new one. Since I've made up this pattern once already I know how much fabric I used so I noted that at the bottom under the fashion photo.

Sometimes you're in a hurry and don't feel like messing around with adding the information in your photo software. In this case I just print the fashion photo and hand write the pertinent information in later as pictured above. From this photo I only made up the skirt pattern so I only marked my bust and hip measurements at the top. There was no need to mark my high bust because I didn't use it. I circled the numbers for just the skirt pattern to tell me that's the only pattern in the envelope, I didn't draw the top patterns.


Notice that I didn't note my fabric requirement at the bottom. From my earlier post "Make it work" you may remember that I made my skirt from a remnant left from another project. If I were to buy fabric specifically to make another skirt from this pattern I would need to measure my fabric requirement from a new full width of fabric.

My Lutterloh patterns fit in my pattern filing drawer much better this way now. I can file them in categories such as skirts, pants and dresses and waste a lot less time trying to find a pattern I've already drawn. For now I'm just pretty happy to get these patterns put away and off my table. If you can think of any information that could be included on the outside of the envelopes or even a better filing system altogether I would certainly welcome your comments.