sewing notebooks – The G. G. Files

A couple of years ago, I wrote about my obsession with finding the perfect sewing journal. You know the kind: a place where you can write about sewing plans, sketch designs, keep fabric swatches, muse about how well (or not so well) a project progressed. And, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that in my non-sewing/designing life, I’m a writer. In the early part of my career, I was a health and medical writer and then moved onto corporate communication so most of my early magazine articles and books fall into those categories. Lately, however, I’ve been writing women’s fiction but that’s a story for another day. What this means is that journals are very important to me.

I keep a journal for every long-form writing project. In fact, I’ve just bought a new one as I begin a new project. But what does all this have to do with sewing and sewing journals?

Here’s the new one with a sketch from Alfred Sung. It just happens to evoke some of what this book will be all about!

I’m a big fan of Moleskine notebooks – the kind the likes of Ernest Hemingway used to keep notes on new novels but they aren’t really amenable to the kinds of things I need to keep in my sewing notebook. And I’ve tried lots:

Well, after the last time I posted about my search for the holy grail of sewing journals, someone suggested I create one. It’s taken several years, but I’ve finally done it. I’ve created a journal that might be able to take the place of several journals that I use regularly.

I decided that I would make it available for others if they want to try it out. But before you consider trying it (and telling me what you think) here’s me telling you about it…

The coil-bound version is the better of the two in my view but it’s more expensive especially for those of us in Canada since I wasn’t able to have it distributed on Amazon with that binding. It’s only available from Lulu.com. (They do list it in Canadian dollars which is a bit daunting and they do ship to Canada and other countries.) So, I made a less expensive one available with a non-coil binding available on Amazon worldwide. On the upside, it’s cheaper; on the downside, it doesn’t stay open quite as well as the coil-bound one.

Anyway, if anyone out there decides to try it out, I’d eventually like to get your feedback. What other kinds of things would make it perfect for you?

My Ultimate Sewing Journal – Coil-bound

My Ultimate Sewing JOurnal – Perfect-Bound

notebook-clipart In another life, I’m actually a writer. I’ve written magazine articles, corporate materials, online courses materials, blog pieces of various sorts and even a dozen or so books. Throughout my writing career I’ve always been obsessed with notebooks – and this obsession has spilled over into my sewing mania. I have a sewing notebook (or three) but have yet to figure out precisely the right one for me on an on-going basis. For me to be able to do this I need to do two things: first, I need to research what’s available and what other sewers use (for ideas), and second, I need to figure out exactly what I’ll use the notebooks (journals) for. Maybe I should start there.

My current sewing notebooks: unsatisfactory!

For me as a writer, those notebooks /journals are largely for capturing ideas. They’re a kind of creative repository that I can access any time. I turn to them whenever I have an idea or a part of an idea or an idea of an idea. Later I turn to them when I have no ideas at all and need to be prodded into coming up with something new. Then I use individual notebooks to capture ideas for individual projects. I have a lot of notebooks!

This is what the inside of the notebook for my current book-length writing project looks like at present.

Years ago in another lifetime when I was a university professor, I designed and taught a course on creativity in communications. One of the books I recommended for my students was The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life by the exceptionally creative Twyla Tharp, American choreographer extraordinaire. (If you’re unfamiliar with her work, just go to Mr. Google. You’ll see that you’re not all that unfamiliar!) Ms. Tharp uses quite a different approach to gathering her creative ideas for projects. Rather than notebooks or journals, she uses boxes. Here’s what she says about her boxes: creative-habit

“Everyone has his or her own organizing system. Mine is a box, the kind you buy at Office Depot for transferring files…I start every dance with a box. I write the project name on the box, and as the piece progresses I fill it up with every item that went into the making of the dance…notebooks, clippings, CDs, videotapes, books, photographs, pieces of art that may have inspired me…The box makes me feel connected to a project…even when I’ve back-burnered it…”[1]

As I thought about how sewers could use her approach, I could see so many things in that box: fabric scraps, sketches, photos of inspirational looks from the web, inspirational buttons, samples of trims, copies of artwork, the DVD of a movie that caught my eye and whose wardrobe I loved… well, you get the picture. I love the idea of this kind of a creativity box, but I don’t really have space to store so many boxes, so I’m back to square one in my search for the perfect journal/notebook.

My favourite kind of notebook is a Moleskine™ – the brand Hemingway used to make his notes. They actually make some specialty notebooks such as a travel journal, but they don’t make one for sewers. But some sewers among us do, and others have suggestiosn about how to use a three-ring notebook. Here’s some of what I found in my research on what others do.

Many sewers’ notebook ideas are designed for us to remember the details of a project: http://www.sewmamasew.com/2013/03/make-a-sewing-journal/ provides a downloadable pdf worksheet for which you will also need a three-ring binder.
Some use notebooks for organizing projects (this sewer uses Moleskines) http://createsharelove.typepad.com/blog/2014/10/my-projects-notebook.html
110 creations Notebook for project planning: This one is a specially produced, wire-bound, “a sewist’s notebook” with room for 110 projects http://www.110creations.com/p/about-book.html
Sew-Crafty sewing journal says: “Our journal has been designed to help you record your sewing achievements and projects.” http://www.sewcraftyonline.co.uk/product/sew-crafty-sewing-journal/ This one spears to me to be a nicely covered sewing notebook with blank pages inside.
There are other three-ring notebook ideas. Sewing Project Notebook: http://sewing.patternreview.com/review/review/859
And another…Sewing journal pages download: http://escapadesinsewing.blogspot.ca/2013/05/sewing-journal-pages-pdf-download.html This is quite good if you like the three-ring approach.
I like the “Colette Sewing Planner” https://www.colettepatterns.com/catalog/colette-sewing-planner but it still isn’t perfect for me. “Supplies I have”, ”supplies I need” list spaces are a good idea. Some resources such a page on needle sizes and their uses. Nice. But a kind of reference-cum-notebook. A hybrid if you will.

But the writer in me (who has a separate notebook for each book-length writing project and a couple of generic ones!), needs a notebook to fulfil a host of objectives. The first one is to keep a record of ideas that flit across my brain unbidden usually when I’m supposed to be doing something else. The second is to record project details – for example, when I do test pieces before actually sewing a seam finish or when selecting stitch length and thread – so that as the project progresses, I can refer back (only an issue for those of us engaged in slow sewing I reckon! Everyone else just remembers for a few hours!). I also need a notebook for creative organization and for the sheer joy of going back to re-visit (so it has to be more than a place to record).

I recently stumbled on a neat online challenge: “SWAP 2017” aka “Sewing with a Plan.” Such an interesting idea. The rules include the following:

“Eleven garments divided between Upper, Lower and Over pieces. These are tops and dresses; bottoms; and layers, all defined later. There are minimums and maximums in each category, to provide balance and variety. You decide the final distribution.

Upper: Minimum 3, maximum 5.
Lower: Minimum 3, maximum 5.
Over: Minimum 2, maximum 5. No more than ½ may be outerwear.

You decide how many of each, within the numbers above, to total 11 garments.

Your twist: Each garment in a category must work with at least half of the garments in each of the other two categories. Example 5 Upper, 3 Lower, and 3 Over. Each upper would need to work with 2 Lower and 2 Over garments.”[2]

It occurs to me that if you want to enter this sewing challenge, you will indeed need some kind of a notebook to plan, which further leads me to believe that planning each sewing project is a good thing – at least for me. So a journal or notebook for me needs to be both a creative repository as well as a kind of sewing diary or log to return to either to enjoy revisiting a project, or to use the past experience for a future project. Of course I could research and find an electronic notebook or app for this purpose, but that’s for another time!

Am I any closer to the Holy Grail of sewing notebooks? Closer perhaps, but not there yet!

(PS you evidently have to be a member at Artisan’s Square to enter the 2017 SWAP – but you could just to the challenge for yourself – I might just do that in the new year!)