Pattern Cards: How and why to use them.

Pattern Cards are going to change your sewing pattern game. These are a very useful tool around big fashion companies. And for a very good reason!

Back in the day when I started sewing, I used to store my patterns wherever I could. Sometimes I store them in bags, other times in folders, and every one of them was thrown in a box, and most of them would be forgotten or very hard to find whenever I wanted to use them again.

That’s why I started using Pattern Cards in addition to organizing them by category.

Best call of my life! Not only were they very easy to find, but I can now know all the information I need before starting to sew my pattern without pulling it out of the envelope. +

(Go here if you want to know how I organize my patterns).

That’s why today I am going to show you how and why to use pattern cards for your sewing projects and make your own with my free printable. So you can ease your sewing life (and room while we are at it).

What are Pattern Cards for?

Pattern Cards are very useful tools that show you, at first glance, all the essential information you need to know about the project you want to make, such as the amount of fabric required, the sewing allowance, the number of pieces, and so on.

This kind of information may or may not be on your download pattern document, but even if it is, in most cases, it won’t be handy when you need it, or you might forget some notes you modify in that pattern that you want to remember later on.

The first thing you want to do is download the two free blank pattern cards I’ve made for you. You might want to have a few ready-to-use copies of these cards on hand for when you start a new project.

All righty! Now let’s dig into how to use this pattern card so you can take the most advantage of it. First, you need to download the Printable Freebie at the end of this post!

For this pattern, I use the information from our pattern, Angela’s Dress.

How to fill your pattern cards

1.- FLAT OR TECHNICAL DRAWING AREA

In the left part of the sheet, you will have a semi-transparent female croquis. Here you can hand-draw the design of the pattern you are going to store here. This would help you identify graphically the pattern inside the envelope.

2.- GENERAL PATTERN INFORMATION AND SEWING ALLOWANCE

Then, you will want to fill in the general information about this start: what is its name, what fabric you will use, and how much you will use. If it requires any notions, such as zippers, buttons, etc., please note that as well. Finally, specify the size of the pattern.

You can now also indicate the amount of sewing allowance you have left for each part. Example: Armholes: 1/4″, Hem 1/2″….. You can always come back to this if the pattern has no specific sewing

allowances wrote, and you forgot how much it is.

3.- PATTERN PIECES

At the bottom of the croquis, you can list the separate pattern pieces your pattern has. This will come in handy to check that you have every piece of the pattern before you sew, or maybe one of them is missing, so you can print it again.

4.- PATTERN DESCRIPTION

The Description part is optional, but I found it very useful for describing a garment whose name isn’t that descriptive, for example, in our Angela’s Dress, I wrote this description:

5.- NOTES

Finally, the Notes panel is for your personal notes for when you are sewing along. Did you find that you want to cut some of the lengths of the skirt? Write it here!, Did the sewing allowance was too much? Write it here!. Was the length of the sleeve too short? Write it here! This way, you can see what changes you need to make the next time you want to make this pattern again.

And that’s it! What do you think? Do you love it as much as I do? Is there any information you might think is missing here? Let me know.

Free Pattern Cards Printable

We have our basic pattern card design for free. But don’t forget that if you want other designs of the Pattern Card, you can download them here.

Just updated in 2025!! We’ve refreshed our product and given it a whole new look!