My series on quilt planners continues this week with a review of the Simplicity Vintage Sewing Planner!
This is the third post in this series. You can find my review of the Plan to Quilt here and my review of the Quilter's Project Planner here. This one is quite different than the first two!
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If you're new here, hello! I'm Laura! I design quilt patterns, and I'm a self-proclaimed deal hunter! Be sure to join the popular Quilting & Sewing Deals Facebook group where I post sales, deals, and coupon codes from all around the web!
The Simplicty Vintage Sewing Planner (available at JoAnn, Fat Quarter Shop, and Amazon) is part sewing project organizer and part calendar/weekly planner. Unlike the other two planners I've reviewed so far, this one is primarily a weekly planner. It does not come dated (you write the dates in), but it includes one year of monthly and weekly calendar pages.
The covers are a type of plastic (not paper), but still flexible. The planner is about 3/4" thick, and overall measures about 8 1/2" x 9 1/2". The inside pages are a good weight of paper that works well for pens, pencils, markers, and highlighting. I really like this size! It's easy to throw into a tote bag or large purse and offers plenty of room for writing on the pages.
It is a spiral bound planner, so it does easily lay flat. However, the "coil" is made from plastic circles. It takes a bit of care to turn multiple pages at once or flip back and forth between sections. (My only real complaint with this planner!)
However, this also makes the pages fairly easy to remove and rearrange! If you got this planner in the middle of July, you could move the months January-June to the back of the planner!
Tabs separate each section, and each tab is made from heavier paper than the other pages, like cardstock. And each tab features vintage-inspired artwork and a snarky saying! (Maybe my favorite part!) More on those later.
The front of the planner has five sticker sheets. There are some really cute snarky ones - like "Does running late count as exercise?" - along with more practical ones like arrows and "Sew Day."
Next are three clear pocket pages. These are so cool! Remember baseball card pages?? These are like those! You could insert little fabric swatches or business cards to your favorite quilt shops or to-do lists that you can check off dry-erase or wet-erase markers! AND they easily pop out so you can move them to the current week in the planner! I LOVE this feature!
There is also a clear zipper pouch, like a pencil pouch! Great for sticky notes, your pens, markers, etc.
The first tab is "Reference," which includes a glossary of common sewing terms. Note that I said "sewing" and not "quilting." This planner is definitely geared towards garment sewing and not specific to quilting. There are also pages about different types of fabric substrates and body measurement charts.
The next section is for planning "Projects." There are four pages for each project, and a total of 4 sets. This is actually quite a realistic amount of garments for me to make in one year, but it might be too few for others.
The first planning page has spaces for the description and pattern info, along with notes and a spot to record any alterations needed. There are also spots for a fabric swatch and a to-do list to keep track of your progress.
The second planning page is graph paper that can be used for sketches and notes. The squares are a bit larger than typical graph paper, but still very usable.
The next planning page is a front and back body sketch with spots to write 23 different body measurements. I can assure you I have never measured that many parts of my body! LOL!
The fourth planning page is a spot to list "Patterns I Own." This is the same page for all four projects, so it feels a bit excessive. I think it would have made more sense to have another notes page or spot for a photo. Nothing says I can't use it for that though!
The next tab has several pages of spots for swatches. How great to have a library of garment fabric swatches! There's even a spot for notes to write a pattern idea for each one! I have a small collection of garment fabrics with no plan, so this is a perfect reference for when I spy a good pattern sale! (I post those in the Quilting & Sewing Deals group!)
Now for the bulk of this planner! The monthly and weekly planner pages!
The first page after each month's tab is an overview for that month. There are spots for this month's goals, birthdays, holidays, events, and "purchases and good finds." This page also has some sewing tips too! For January, it suggests re-checking your body measurements after the holidays and that Valentine's Day is a month away so sew a special gift.
An undated month calendar is next. Each week has a Monday start and the weekend days are colored differently.
Each month has five one-week page spreads. These also start on Monday with a horizontal layout. There is not a lot of space for each day, so if you need to plan something every hour, this won't have enough space for that. But it's sufficient for noting appointments, important deadlines, and to-dos.
I like this planner more than I thought I would! The size and page quality is very good, and I love the vintage artwork and snarky sayings. It's obvious that the planner was created by sewists for sewists. I also love the clear pocket pages and swatch organizing pages. I really like the combo of project planning with a calendar and weekly planner. Because the planner is undated, you can start this planner at any time during the year!
My complaints are the type of binding that makes it a bit finicky to turn the pages, I want more sets of project planning pages, and I'd like the "Patterns I Own" pages to be moved to a section by itself and have notes pages for the projects instead. Oh, and it's technically not a "quilt" planner.
Overall though, this is a great planner! I'd definitely recommend it for anyone who does garment sewing or is a lover of vintage sewing.
The Simplicty Vintage Sewing Planner is available at JoAnn, Fat Quarter Shop, and Amazon. There is actually a whole line of vintage Simplicity products too! Lunch bags, scissors, gift wrap, magnets...
Are you a garment sewist or quilter? Do you like the idea of project planning pages combined with a calendar/weekly planner? Do you have an "ideal planner?" I still have at least one more to share!
I'm really enjoying your reviews! The Quilters Planner was so close to my perfect planner, but they removed the habit tracker, and don't have a coupe of things I find really helpful--pages on which to record reminders for years ahead, not just the next year; a blank sheet for each month to keep track of events that happen during the month (ideally located on the back of that month's calendar or the final page of the month). So, I'm keeping an eye out, although I may still go back to the Planner.
ReplyDeleteI use a staples arc planner, and love it. I like that you can lay it flat, and it is half size. I actually have two and need to reorganize them - one for tasks and one for classes/ideas/designs/etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great planner
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! I'll have to check it out at JoAnn's
ReplyDeleteI want to plan my quilts....I want to keep a log of my quilts... then an emergency quilt is needed or a love wrapper for someone or a QOV presentation is changed...then I’m all in a sweat or loose the planner under piles of fabric ����♀️�� But I love the concept ��
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