Category: General

I just spotted some in my local Target. I spied some at the grocery store. (the grocery store?!?)  What do I look forward to each year? It’s pattern paper season!

Oh, I know what you’re thinking.  That looks a lot like holiday wrapping paper.  And, well, it is.  But it’s also the most affordable and, during the right season, most abundantly available. pattern making paper.

Commercially made pattern paper is thick and has an inch square grid formed with either dots or lines.  It’s QUITE expensive, and often too narrow for my projects.  Check out this version of gridded pattern paper over on Amazon that is $13 for only 5 yards of paper!   That’s  only enough to make a pattern for a single full-length dress or one full skirt. In fashion school, this is the paper we used, and frankly, I really loved the grid – but not the expense.

Holiday Wrapping Paper

Many years ago, I discovered that some holiday wrap manufacturers started printed an 1″ grid on the back of their papers. I stood in the Target, (yes, I clearly remember the spot,) and had one of those light-bulb igniting, eureka moments.  The clouds parted, a beam of light struck my face, right through the roof and ceiling of that Target. I knew my life was forever changed.  I picked up my first roll of pattern paper.  It was 25 yard, 48″ wide and two dollars!  Time has passed and prices have increased but every year I replenish my stock with much more affordable holiday wrapping pattern paper.

Features to look for in Holiday Wrapping Paper

Of course, not all holiday papers are created equal.  Not every style has the grid on the back.  Not all finishes and designs are universally easy to work with.  So here is my list of features that I look for when shopping for the perfect pattern paper.

Grid Marks are Essential – The first feature to look for is the most essential – the grid.  These cost the paper company a bit more to make, so these exist on the more expensive styles of paper. The presence of the magical grid is always listed on the front of the package because it’s a selling feature. Here’s an example of how this kind of paper is described.

Matte Paper – I’ve tried all sorts of gridded paper, but the easiest to work with has a matte surface.  If it’s foiled, metalized, or has a thick surface texture, it’s going to be more difficult to cut. So while it has a gridline, I tend to skip the foiled versions like this.

Solid Color – In my ideal world, the paper would be a solid color or have a simple geometric pattern that won’t show through to the important grid side.  Paper comes in all thicknesses and weights and some patterns show through dramatically.  Picking a solid color eliminates that problem.  This is almost my ideal style of paper.

Wider Width – Holiday wrap comes in a wide variety of widths from 18″ up to 60.”  I like to invest in a paper that’s between 30″ and 48″ wide to accommodate most pattern pieces. If it’s narrower, you can tape pieces together, but it takes time and ya gotta have a lot of tape on hand.

Buying your Holiday Wrapping/Pattern Paper

Of course, for me, this is a two-step process.  I like to stalk my paper at my favorite big-box stores like Target, discount stores like TJ-Max and even at my local pharmacy.  I figure out which brands and colors are available in which stores and I might even take a photo with my phone and make a note with the exact details.

Then I make a mad dash back to the store the day the holiday sales start to potentially snatch it up at 50% or even 70% off depending on the store.  Because I have pre-shopped, I know exactly which store to go to for my best chances at landing a deal.

The candy-printed roll above was my purchase from two years ago, and I have about half a roll left.  In my studio, I like to have one open and on the go, and a second waiting in the wings.  This year, I have to pick up roll for my personal backstock. So I’ll be starting the hunt soon.  Because the discounted end-of season-sales are so unpredictable, I like to have 3-4 locations lined up in advance and plan my shopping accordingly.

Sometimes it’s fun to rummage through old commissions and look at the patterns in my file.  At a glance, I can tell the time-frame of the project based on the holiday paper I used to craft the patterns.

Time to let the pattern paper/holiday wrap shopping process begin!  
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
November 7, 2017

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Sewing room storage is an endless struggle for me and for most of my crafting, sewing, creating friends. Many years ago, I decided to “control” the amount of thread I own by keeping my ENTIRE collection in one small three-drawer organizer. I purchased a super-affordable three drawer unit at Target so many years ago, the white has turned yellow!   You can see it in this photo on the right, watched over by a camel and supporting my slightly out of control baggy collection.

The Color Wheel is my Guide

I divide my thread into three categories based on color.  I have one drawer for warm, one drawer for cool and the third for neutral.  Dividing the drawers up in this manner means that I can quickly grab a color to sew with. Since I work primarily on commission on garments, I include the cost of thread as part of a fixed studio fee. My customers get to choose if they want to keep the thread or leave it behind.  I always encourage my clients to take the thread with them for future alterations, repairs, and adjustments.

A Peek Inside my Thread Drawers

I roughly use this division to help guide my storage choices, though there is some “play” to the rules.  For instance, all the “greens” go in the cool drawer, even the ones with more yellow.  I also divide between purples (cool) and magenta tones (warm.)   And sometimes, I wind up with colors jumping into the wrong drawer like that rogue pink among the blues and greens.  Although that is a more “cool” toned pink, I generally look for pink in the warm drawer.

Theater Trick – Use Grey

One of the tricks I picked up during my years at the La Jolla Playhouse was the grey thread trick.  If I don’t have the perfect color, I match the value of the cloth with a shade of grey.  While I wouldn’t use this trick for top-stitching, I’ve machine sewn hundreds of garments with the appropriate shade of grey, and then only purchased the smallest spool of the closest coordinating color for any visible finishing work. This saves me a lot of time because I keep a complete complement of full grey bobbins beside my machine and ready to sew at a moment’s notice.

How do you store your thread?  I’m host to a FaceBook sewing group called “Studio Davina: Behind the Scenes.”  Come join us there for our ongoing conversations about sewing, patternmaking, costuming, and supply storage.

And now, I’m going to take a moment and admire my clean drawers.  As you can see in the photo at the beginning of this blog, I just chuck the thread in.  Every year I pull them out and sort them out.  Of the course of time and working on costumes, they will eventually be a mess again, but today they are looking beautiful!

Happy Costuming!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
November 5, 2017

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