Tools a beginner might not think of

[gem]

I use the Post-it Super Sticky Notes, too--you can find them just about anywhere, actually (I think I've gotten packs at Target, my grocery store, and most recently, Ace Hardware... in addition to Office Max/Depot).  I'll use them to identify parts of cut-out garments (LEFT SLEEVE, etc), to ID my stash ("4 yards wool/poly gabardine, washed & pre-shrunk, Spring 2014"), and to make notes about the next steps in a sewing project (nice to have when you've drafted the pattern yourself & it didn't come with instructions!).

***
Anyone want to hear a funny but ENTIRELY off-topic Super Sticky Note story? Too bad, I'm telling it anyway.  The last time I started writing a new novel, I was very excited to try a new-to-me method of plotting it out via storyboard, like this. I didn't have a bulletin board--but my office/sewing room has two big double closets with sliding doors. I cleaned the room so I could close all 4 doors, bought myself a big multipack of Super Sticky Notes, put the title of the book on one, and stuck it on the upper lefthand corner of the doors.

...Three years later, that ONE sticky note--the title!--is the only one I ever got around to! LOL ...Evidently I'm not a storyboard person! But the novel got finished anyway, and the Super Sticky Notes have been employed for various other purposes--including sewing notes--around the house.

[gypsylakat]

Evidently I'm not a storyboard person! But the novel got finished anyway, and the Super Sticky Notes have been employed for various other purposes--including sewing notes--around the house.

I can't stand doing a ton of pre-writing/storyboarding etc.
I'm not going to pretend to be an amazing writer or anything, but I do generally get good grades on the papers I turn in- except when they involved a ton of pre-writing as part of the grade. I understand that teachers want us to learn different styles but sometimes they're just such a crappy fit it's not even funny. Same thing when they want students to do a ton of editing- I'm writing on a PC not in sharpie on a wall- I can do most of my simple editing as I go!

[gem]

***Still Off-Topic***

When I do workshops, I tell my students that whatever method gets them from "Chapter One" to "The End" is what they should use... but I also encourage them to try new methods, because you never know what's going to resonate with your process. The funny thing is, I can't seem to take my own advice about it! When I started the revision for this book, I decided I was going to do a Proper Outline, despite *just* (practically moments before) telling a novel revision class that an "outline" can take any form that works for the writer--just as long as it's some kind of chronological list of every scene in the book + notes about it.  Well, my "proper outline" lasted a page, before I realized that I already have a perfectly good system that's served me well for the last four books--a chapter-by-chapter Notes file! In contrast, my writing partner makes weird, incomprehensible doodle-diagram things, sometimes several sheets of paper taped together (and then tries to explain them to me). My editor is also a very annotated-notes person (her editorial letter on my last book was 45 pages long, and that didn't include her outline!), which works well for me, although I've seen other authors faint at the sight!

I don't know how anyone in school has *time* to revise a paper! I know I never did, but it also wasn't a skill that was taught "back in the day." But it is critical to successful writing--the ability to tweak and finesse and sometimes hack and slash and rearrange. I think of it (BACK ON-TOPIC!) a lot like sewing--your muslin is your rough draft, and all the fittings, ripping out and resewing, &c are your revision process, in order to produce the well-fitted final garment. Sometimes--a lot of the time--you need to go through several things that DON'T work, in order to figure out what DOES. As the sewing, so goes the writing.

[Trillium]

LOL!!  Love how you tied that in! 

[LadyStitch]

Here is something that I started this past summer that may be handy for beginner, and those who have sewn a "few" times. 

I started project folders.   I can get those cheap after back to school 10 cent 2 pocket folders really easy.  OR  when someone was cleaning out their back lock of filing cabinets I got my hands on some manilla file folders.   What I did was each time someone asked me to work on something I made a file folder.   This way I had swatches, drawings, cost sheets, pattern notes, measurements sheets, alteration notes, what have you, for the project in hand.  Because of the way I have had to jump from project to project lately this has kept my head straight.  Each folder is labeled using the aforementioned extra sticky post it notes. This also means I have a physical reminder of what is on my to do list.  This has also worked for non-sewing projects. I keep the folders in the 'file' section of my back pack.  It has turned into my walking office/sewing room. (a fellow theater tech person and I laughed when out of the blue someone asked for a pink sharpie, and large saftey pins and we BOTH pulled them our of our backpacks in 30 seconds) 

Another though, project files.... to keep track of all your current projects, future projects, and wishful projects 

[Hoowil]

Since I make most of the patterns for the kids' garb, I keep everything in big, gallon zip locks, labeled with what year its from, what it is, roughly what size it is, and a quick description so I can match it to the project it was made for.

[Rowan MacD]

Since I make most of the patterns for the kids' garb, I keep everything in big, gallon zip locks, labeled with what year its from, what it is, roughly what size it is, and a quick description so I can match it to the project it was made for.

It helps to have a bunch of those old fashioned metal shower curtain rings around with the Zip Lock bags.  You can attach the bags together by related group.   
   I do this with my MA patterns that have been traced to permanent pattern material.  You can also use them to bag the muslins/mock ups to hang with them.
   

[Hoowil]

Since I make most of the patterns for the kids' garb, I keep everything in big, gallon zip locks, labeled with what year its from, what it is, roughly what size it is, and a quick description so I can match it to the project it was made for.

It helps to have a bunch of those old fashioned metal shower curtain rings around with the Zip Lock bags.  You can attach the bags together by related group.   
   I do this with my MA patterns that have been traced to permanent pattern material.  You can also use them to bag the muslins/mock ups to hang with them.

I don't remember where I found it, but I have a wicker chest that the cross-section of the storage space is almost dead on exactly the dimensions of the bags. I use it like a filing cabinet. Only problem is that since I've only got it about half full, stuff keeps falling over and sliding under the other bags.
For my MA stuff, I got a bunch of big manila envelopes and used a three hole punch to put them in the back of the binder the instruction manual went in. Keeps it all together. I've got envelopes for the originals, and for each project. Which reminds me:
Contractor's plastic: the nice thick stuff, that you can trace/transfer patterns onto. It allows adjustment, use of multiple sizes off one pattern, and is a lot more durable than the tissue. And a 4x40 foot roll is only a few bucks.

[DonaCatalina]

Never-Dull scissors. Good for heavy fabrics and leather. Worth the money. They do keep their edge. I have a 20+ year old pair that I got at Tandy Leather.