Does anyone else feel overwhelmed by the sewing resources they’ve collected? Books, magazines, tv shows, blogs, vlogs, webpages … it’s impossible to keep track!
When we moved last summer I ditched (not to the landfill – all were donated!) about a hundred magazines plus a couple of boxes of books and instructional info from sewing events. My reasoning was that most of the things I referred to were online – so why take up real estate with a bookcase full of stuff I never used!
But I’ve found that I waste a lot of time searching through pages bookmarked on three different computers, or searching for post-its that are inevitably stuffed into a drawer or stuck to a pattern envelope. I was losing valuable time looking for the same information over and over. Compounding the search time was my bad habit of going down rabbit holes – so what would start with an intention to spend a couple of minutes quickly looking at a tutorial would wind up as at least 45-minutes online staring at a screen with my mouth open.
For my own benefit, I decided to record everything in one place – here in my blog. I’ve added a page – My Sewing Resource List – and that’s where I’ll record links to resources that I want to keep track of. Specifically, I’m noting tutorials, guides, informational blogs, and retail stores. This is going to be a living document so it will be updated as I find new resources. If you have resources that you love, please share with me – especially tutorials and learning guides. The retail list includes stores where I spend my money … 🛍
I’m also starting to keep track of free patterns and will be adding to that list. I’ll note if I have used the pattern and my results. If a pattern is a dud, I’ll definitely make a note!
Click on the links on the bar above ⬆to access either of these lists. And let me know if this is helpful to you!
Janine Sews 
Great idea, Janine! If I had a blog, I would do the same! I know exactly what you mean about looking for info on something specific, “just 5 minutes” and it leading you on a grand search — all informative, but there went your sewing time! And wow, do I have too many tabs on all my books and magazines (that are not indexed anywhere…).
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Just think how much time we had before we got little screens 😂
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You could synch bookmarks between computers if you used a good browser (like firefox) with a single account. And bookmarks can be sorted in folders, the titles made explicit by keywords..
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That’s a great tip!
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It will take moving before I give up my books and magazines. Even then, I’ll put up a fight. I can curl up with them for some pre-bed time reading, take them to the sewing machine, etc. I’ve found from bitter experience that things on the internet are not forever. People take their blogs private, links break, blogs get hacked and trashed, internet goes out, etc. I save good tutorials to files on my computer.
That said, it is a good idea to make a resource list in one spot separate from the browser’s bookmarks/favorites list. Sometimes that gets far too big and I cleaned it out forgetting some sites not updated for a long time had some great tutorials.
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If we hadn’t moved so many times over the years I probably would have kept everything. But your comment has just reminded me that I can scan and save documents to my computer & then add to my blog. Thanks for the lightbulb moment!
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Brilliant idea, seems I am always looking for something and it drives me nuts!
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I’m right there with you!
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I did go through a stack of magazines (Australian Stitches I think) and tagged the articles I wanted to keep, scanned them into pdfs and saved on my computer. I have also copied tips/techniques an put them in a binder for quick reference (this includes class materials).
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Great tips. Thank you for sharing!
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