Sewing Patterns Apps?
I might not be actively sewing but I haven’t given up just yet. In fact, I’ve been buying more patterns, in the hope that I’ll have more time to sew once I’ve gone back to work. It might sound paradoxical but it’s really not. This year home has confirmed to me that caring for your kids at home is the most demanding job on earth, especially at a young age (the kids. Well, the mom too, actually). So give SAHM the respect their deserve 🙂 But back to the topic on hand, I’ve been buying some patterns and looking for ways to sew more from my pattern stash and add less to my fabric stash. I came to the conclusion that I needed a tool that’d allow me to have my pattern stash and infos such as fabric requirements on hand when shopping for fabric. Being the lucky owner of an iPad since last December, I naturally looked for some sort of sewing app. Here’s where I’m at:
- Pattern file: call me cheap but at 22.99$US, I find this to be rather pricey, especially since that doesn’t include the auto fill feature -updates the patterns database when new collections are released- nor the mobile feature. For those, one has to subscribe monthly or yearly. Now I don’t deny that these updates involve work but other non-sewing apps do manage to deliver updates free of charge so why not this one?
- Pattern Pal: This Threads post almost got me take my credit card out and ready, but then I stumbled upon reviews from other hobby seamstresses (like here and here). All in all, it sounded like I’d spend more time putting data in the app than I’d do sewing. Cost: 4.99$US.
- Bento: This is an Apple software where you can create you own sewing pattern database. It sounds interesting, though I wonder how IT-dummy-friendly it is (I’m not an IT specialist…). From what I’ve read, it seems to come with a sewing template database that can be extended according to one’s own needs and wishes. Here’s a review… The price ranges from 4.99$US for the iPhone app, to 49$US for the Mac software.
- Evernote: This is about the same as Bento, except it’s Mac-, PC- and Android-compatible, which could be the reason I’m attracted to this one. Also, is it free?!? In any case, here’s another review…
So tell me, do you use an app on a portable device to manage your pattern and/or fabric stash? Are you satisfied? Would you recommend it?
Lin3arossa 
None of the above. I am on a Mac and have an iPhone and have considered getting Bento. Problem is, I don’t know that I’d bother entering all that data.
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It really doesn’t take that long (I tried Evernote today). If you have an internet connection, you can source all the info from the internet (eg the Vogue page) by copy-pasting. Unless you have a lot of vintage or OOP patterns… Then you’d have to photograph them and it would be time-consuming indeed.
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I use Evernote, for EVERYTHING. Highly recommend it
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That’s the one I opted for. High addiction potential. So many purposes possible!
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I bought PatternPal right after it came out, and I think it’s a great idea for holding a handful of patterns I want to sew (and storing the fabric and notion needs for each) but there are bugs and basic flaws in the app that I diligently reported back to the makers. And there have been ZERO updates to it in the 2-3 years I’ve owned it. When I buy an app, I expect it to be looked after. 😦 So it’s okay for my purposes, but it pains me that it could be so much better with just a small amount of work on the developers’ part.
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Thank you for the feedback, Melissa! I downloaded Evernote yesterday I’m enamoured with it! So many possibilities!
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