The Fabric Alchemist

My sewing pattern disorganization dilemmas have been resolved!

I do a lot of pattern drafting and pattern alterations, so for any one garment or costume there are at least 2-3 versions of each pattern piece as I try to adjust the fit. I usually just stack these until I finish the project. When I have more than one concurrent project, the piles of white tissue paper can get overwhelming. They take up space, the piles look alike, and the noise of tissue paper attracts the cat. (I have too many puncture holes in my patterns…)

I finally got sick of moving the multiple piles of patterns between my ironing board and cutting table as I tried to cut and sew a couple different projects. In desperation I got out my laundry rack to hang patterns on. This turned out to be a pretty good solution, until I needed to do laundry and hand dry some delicate shirts. The drying rack also had the problem of taking up valuable floor space…and the lower rungs put patterns within reach of the kitty (see above).

When I saw this beauty online, I think I danced a jig. It expands and contracts for semi-easy retrieval and minimal storage.

I installed it last night (with supervision and drill-support from Greg) and have hung up my patterns-in-waiting. I’ll let you know how this mounted drying rack works. It is plastic and the dowels feel a little flimsy, but I am just hanging tissue paper.