Starting to Sew Again, Step 1

I use to sew all the time. I made my clothes, my children's clothes, some of my husband's clothes, my nephew's clothes, things for my family to wear, things for my house, things for other people's houses, holiday clothes, Halloween costumes, presents, and I just sewed to sew. Then I stopped. Not completely, but the flow, the effortlessness, isn't here anymore. I still sew, but it takes a lot of effort to do it. I think it's fixable.

In 2002 my dh lost his job when the bottom fell out of the aircraft industry in Texas. Since them we've moved six times. These aren't just down the street moves. These are clean out the attic, pack the boxes for the big truck that's going to carry you (or at least your possessions) to another state moves. We've never completely unpacked. Hopefully, our lives are settling down and I can turn my thought to other, more delightful pursuits. Before I can completely move back into my happy place I need to find and sort into some kind of working order all of my sewing patterns, fabrics and tools. I've decided that the first step is to get my patterns in order. Soooo...

Hi, I'm Rosemary, and these are my patterns. Well, at least most of them. There's a two drawer file cabinet over to the right that's not in the picture, but it's not completely full. I've been sewing since I was six and I like to keep my patterns. On top of that I like to buy old patterns from thrift stores and garage sales. I do go through all of my patterns and cull them out every couple of years or so, but even with doing that I'm guessing I have around 400. They were organized, mostly, but in the last year I've moved three times, and each time I pulled out patterns that I though I'd be using. It wasn't a good thing to do. They also been packed for several interstate moves by companys packers who do not see any reason why items in numerical order should be kept that way. Once upon a time the pattern envelopes were in page protectors, put in notebooks by type (skirts, pants, children's wear, dresses, etc.) and then organized by company and number. The patterns themselves were in plastic bags and filed, in a filing cabinet by company and number. I could just look through my notebooks, find the pattern I wanted and go to the file and pull it out. Now, I have to look through boxes and boxes of patterns. By the time I've found what I want all my creativity has drained from my body. This seem the best place to start organizing. My husband helped me locate and corral all my patterns into the dining area, where I could spread things out to sort, bag and file. Hopefully I will be back to pattern organization in a few days.