Pattern and Project Organisation

My parents will be so proud to hear that, at heart, I'm an information manager.  After all, that's what we do for a living and that's what they pay me for.  Mum's tendency to draw up itinerary's for our more complex family days together has totally rubbed off on me and even Dad was horrified that not only did I have four packing lists for my last holiday (one for each of my family and a list of what had to make it to the car), but they were, in fact, colour-coded in multiple colours...

So it may not be a big surprise that I manage my sewing projects with a project management app called Trello.  That makes it sound a bit more impressive than it is - Trello really just gives you a place to have a series of structured lists for each project.  I have this blog as one board, my serious experimental/development projects each have their own board and then I have one board keeping track of repairs, works in progress and inspiration/ideas (no prizes for guessing which of these is the longest list).

A couple of Trello lists in my Bra development board (more off to the right)

I'm also in the process of putting all my patterns in a database.  Mostly because if you find yourself in a fabric shop (doesn't happen nearly enough in my opinion), having an idea of what patterns you've already got and what their requirements are is seriously handy.  Also because I'm starting to get so many patterns now that looking through them all to find whether I have one that fits what I'm trying to do is getting tricky.  I've chosen to use Memento Database - a full on database app for android with an amazingly simple user interface given how powerful this app can be.  It can not only do anything MS Access can do, but quicker, easier and a fair bit more besides.  I feel a bit bad that I'm just using it to store pattern data rather than something that can use more of it's functions, but it certainly does the job.

Some say dull: I say data

Or, well...just about.  You see this is where I have to hang my information manager head in shame.  I figured, I'm the user and the developer:  I know what comes on a pattern envelope, I'll knock this database up in no time and it'll be great!  And it is, kinda, but I really should have actually taken out a few pattern envelopes to look at before I set some of the data validation.  It works, but there are definitely some bits I have to squiffy to fit.  It doesn't help that some patterns contain an awful lot of options.  Take this one:

Front - one variation cutout for wedding scrapbook

Back - alllll the details (and in bonus French!)

For those of you unfamiliar with sewing patterns, they come as paper pieces in an envelope.  The front of the envelope gives pretty pictures and/or photos of what they might look like finished (lol!), while the back gives all the details of what you actually need to make it.  This pattern contains three different top patterns plus two different skirt patterns with lining and giant petticoats.  How do you classify that?  And what fabric length do you put down?  The tops don't even need a yard of fabric, but one of the skirts takes almost 5 yards.  And what notions do you put?  The tops need boning, but obviously the skirts don't.  I've taken the lazy way out and noted down the largest quantity's for each pattern (most don't vary anywhere near this much) and the notions for everything on the envelope (since it's generally pretty obvious which ones are for which).

But still....info manager shame.  I should really improve my database or do it over from scratch, but this is good enough for my purposes.

Next task will be trying to find some way to catalogue my fabric stash in some way that conveys all the attributes of each fabric...and, judging by how we're running out of room in the bedroom, that is going to be a very long task.