How do you organize your patterns?

[Philipp Eichhorn]

Hey guys,

for a. embroidery-noob, do you have any advice / best practices for how to organize a growing number of pattern files? 

So far I am making one folder for each "theme" (winter, summer, birds, ...), but that takes a lot of organizing to keep up.

Any ideas?

[Lisa Zisha]

I say keep with the themes. I've also separated out items that need additional work such as appliques or frames into their own folder. My folder setup is like this;

 

                         Above 4in< Alphabets, Appliques, Butterflies, Animal Misc, Scrolls, Holidays, Hobbies, Words

Embroidery<

                         Below 4in< Alphabets, Appliques, Butterflies, Animal Misc, Scrolls, Holidays, Hobbies, Words

Etc!

Basically I try to think about how I will use them so it's like Hoop sizes needed above or below 4in), then things like Holiday- Valentine, etc so I'll know where all the hearts are.

I'll also eventually set apart styles that have less maintenance to embroider, such as black or red work designs that I don't have to trim thread from. So consider what you'll need together or separate. There is also a folder of 'limited use' designs that I keep separate because if I sell items with those designs I'll need to add a link back to the site I got them from per the license agreement.

[Philipp Eichhorn]

Yeah, that's probably the way to go for now.

I have done some more Googeling and found a number of organizer programs which are supposed to help with this, they are fairly expensive though (an average of above $150).

Besides embroidery I also study computer science and image recognition and would like to apply some of that knowledge by giving back to the community. Do you think it makes sense to have an online embroidery organizer?

Biggest advantages would be:

- Search for 'cat' and get all cat related files, without having to organize / rename your files first
- Backup of your designs (because its online)

Any thoughts on this?

[Philipp Eichhorn]

Anybody? 

[SheriW]

I also do my designs in themes. 

I printout the design in color with any stitch info ans then into a page protector,

then into a looseleaf binder. From tiny steps of Animals, or Plants, they have grown

like fungus into Animals Domestic like dogs cats and then a Wildlife theme from ants to zebras.

For Plants, I use garden scenes, garden tools, etc, then I use alphabetical botanical names for plants ans flowers. I did separate Trees and Leaves out also. 

 

i use my computer to the same category layout. I also agree about adding a note to each file that this design can also be used for planes, or children,etc depending on the content. But I try to keep my designs very simply organized, easy to open with all the info sheets, color charts and my notes about the stitch outs. 

Its easy to back up which we have a external hd, but I also back up onto usbs. 

I love my binders filled with pages and pages... of designs I can look at and plan. If I was more adept with the computer or my software PENext-10, I could print out templates, but I quickly scrawl a blob to approximate the shape, but keep the design to the size indicated. 

 

Hope some of this helps. I have had to redo this many times before I found a system that makes me happy, and is organized. 

Look at categories from different emb companies- that helped me also. lol.

 

If they can get it organized, they would be a good pattern to follow. 

Oh yeah, keep to the individual designs file number and name. just a hint!

 

[Philipp Eichhorn]

Nice idea! I bet a whole folder of designs to look at is actually really beautiful! Drawing the shape of the design is also very creative, nice 

Seems like there are a lot of different systems out there and everybody has their own style, that's cool.

Without wanting to be too spammy, I really do want to have a better search ability for my design collection. As a result I have setup a page at  for people who would also be interested in that. Feedback is highly welcome