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Hello everyone!

Happy Thursday! This post has been prompted by a comment on my recent Indie Pattern Month Round up post. As it happens Lori B who blogs over at Frivolous at Last asked a very interesting question which I started to answer but it quickly became too long so I thought I would write a post about it.

Lori asked:

Congratulations, Hila, and well deserved!
You mentioned your sewing queue — I’m curious, how do you keep track of your queue? Written list? Pins on pinterest? A stack of patterns on your sewing table? I have trouble with this…I keep getting distracted by shiny (read: new) patterns and forgetting about all the plans I had. I love the queue feature in Ravelry for knitting but I wish there was something similar out there for sewing. What’s your advice?

So how do I keep track of my sewing queue?

Let me start by prefacing that I too have the squirrel syndrome and its been a process of learning to keep the momentum going on a project until its done. I am still learning – most times I am keeping to a plan but sometimes I get an idea that simply must be fulfilled. For example I was browsing Pinterest 3 nights ago and saw a pin of patterned pencil skirts. My brain went “I. Must. Have. This.” And I have drafted my pencil skirt sloper which I will be cutting out tomorrow and I should have patterned pencil skirt No. 1 by next week. It was not on the queue ;-). But seriously though how awesome would this be to see in your closet?

Alright back to the good stuff………..I used to use a written list in a Moleskine notebook but it was too big to carry around with me. Plus my kids get into my stuff a lot and sometimes I couldnt find a pen or pencil (or the pencil tip has been chewed off!). Then I discovered the Memo+ app on my phone which was a lot simpler. I have my phone with me all the time so it made sense that whenever I got a free moment I could look at what I want to sew.

When I decide that I want to sew something soon-ish I just add it to the list. Right now there are 38 things on the list. Items that I have started to sew will have a line on them. Completed items get removed and a new item takes their place. Something is considered started when I have cut the fabric. t is considered finished when the last fastening has been sewn on. Here is a screen grab of half of my list (its so long it doesn’t fit onto the screen)

However it doesn’t end there. I also need to manage the process of making the items. Because I tend to have more than one garment on the go its important that I remember what I am doing where. Sometimes I need to back off a project because ideas are starting to form about how I could add a design feature and it helps to work on something else while my mind mulls over the other project IYSWIM. BUT I need to plan all this because my life is so busy and hectic that I have to make the most of the little sewing time I have to carve out for myself.

So in conjunction with Memo+ I also use Trello app which is Kanban style system. Its brilliant for me! (I love Kanban and I use it to manage the kids chores as well). It took my efficiency to a whole new level. I have a sewing plan board with a card for each project I am working on. (A project enters the Trello board when its been cut). Then each card has a list of broad steps to completion. I don’t go more than 2 days without updating the lists. I also add comments if there were any fit issues etc.

Here is screen shot of my Spring 2015 sewing board

Here is an example of another Granville Shirt I am making showing the checklistWhen its been blogged it will get archived unless there is a comment requiring it to stay available either because I plan on making another similar one so I can just copy it.

I also love Pinterest but I use it mostly for inspiration. My favourite boards are For the love of skirts. I am really loving drafting skirts and this board has a lot of styles I want to draft.. 
I also like Clothes I think I can make board which helps me decide what to start on next.

So I hope that answers the question somewhat.  How do you manage your sewing queue? Or does your queue manage you?

Thanks for stopping by and happy sewing all!