Back in November I discovered the vast and exciting world of indie patterns. I stuck one together and made it ( the Chardon Skirt by Deer and Doe Patterns). It didn’t seem so bad to go through the extra hassle of printing and sticking together all the pieces, so I did what any excited sewist would do and bought a bunch more. Well, fast forward a couple weeks and I start regretting my decision. Not because I don’t like the PDF process, but because I realized I truly appreciated the beautiful, easy, and uniform packaging of printed patterns. But I still wanted to use all those patterns I purchased, so I started thinking about a storage solution.

I wanted my all my patterns to be able to fit into the same storage crates, so I measured a standard printed pattern envelope, then looked up 6×9″ envelopes on Amazon. And I found exactly what I was looking for! Kraft Paper Envelopes .

And I am so happy with how my PDFs are now looking that I made this little tutorial. So, if you’re like me, and enjoy order and uniformity in your sewing room, get some envelopes and follow along!

Print Your Pattern Booklet

In order to get your pattern booklet to fit into the little envelope, you will need to make sure you adjust the scale in the print menu. Note: some pattern companies have their instructions already set up so that the pages print in a booklet form ( Tilly and The Buttons). But for most you will need to either select a booklet printing format or simply adjust the scale to 75%.

Cut The Booklet

You can use scissors for this part, but it’s much easier if you have a paper cutter ( I have the guillotine kind, but the slicing ones work as well). But I’m guessing if you do stick together lots of PDFs you probably already have one of these. And if not, get one!

I cut my instruction booklet pages to about 5.75″ x 8.25″

Decorate The Front

I love my patterns to look pretty, so take the first page of the instruction booklet, trim it, and tape or glue it to the front of the envelope. If you’re printer does color, even better. You could also decorate the cover or use highlighters or markers to add color. Also if you’ll be storing your patterns upright in a box, make sure the illustration is close to the top of the envelope, so you’ll be able to see it when you’re flipping through patterns.

These envelopes aren’t huge, so I like to trace my pattern pieces onto thinner tracing paper so everything fits nicely.

Voila! Beautiful PDF envelopes that fit in perfectly with all my printed patterns!