Stash Hub Review | Digital Organization for Your Sewing Journey
Once upon a time, not too long ago (like … three months ago), this spreadsheet was my organization system for my sewing supplies. Well, it was supposed to be. To be really honest, I only ever got patterns added to this spreadsheet. Fabric, notions, projects, and other items, I just kept track in my head. Unsuccessfully.
This spreadsheet is clunky as fuck. It takes forever to load. It is near impossible to edit on mobile because of the number of columns and my use of embedded images. It just wasn’t working for me. I needed a new system.
In search of a solution, I found Stash Hub. To be super clear, this post is not sponsored in any way. Stash Hub has not paid me, provided me with anything for free, or even asked me to write this post. We didn’t even have any contact until after I had paid for the premium membership. I’m not an affiliate.
I downloaded Stash Hub in November, during a promotional sale where I got a year of Premium membership for $16.49. I had also considered trying Backstitch, a similar app which looks like it has some cool features, but the fact that it’s in Beta with a waitlist for signing up turned me off, because I’m a millennial who wants instant gratification 😂 (I also preferred the simplicity of some of the features in Stash Hub compared with Backstitch, as well as the brighter look with pops of teal, from an aesthetic perspective.)
It took me a few months to get everything (well, truthfully, not everything; I still need to do notions and bra making supplies) entered into Stash Hub. And, while I’ve been promising this review for a while, I didn’t want to share my thoughts until I had been using Stash Hub for long enough to be confident in my opinions.
And my opinion is: Stash Hub is fantastic.
Organizing my patterns
My first order of business was adding all my digital sewing patterns to Stash Hub. It was a bit of a process, just because you have to manually enter all of the information. But there are options to insert information like size range, design features, garment type, designer, and even cup sizes.
I’ve been told they’re working on adding a “Magic Input” option for patterns, which would allow you to just paste the URL for the pattern and have much of that information filled out by AI. That will certainly make things easier!
By cataloging my patterns this way, I discovered I have 117 patterns and have only made about a third of them! I need to get on making more patterns before I keep acquiring them.
I also realized that I have 41 Charm patterns because I’ve been a patron for a couple years, but I’ve really only made two of those patterns. So I’m seriously considering canceling my membership … (but the price increase if I wanted to re-join is making me second guess! What do you think?)
Organizing my fabric stash
The latest thing I’ve done with Stash Hub is organize all of my fabrics. I have 100 fabrics with a total of 196.5 yards! This was yet another indictment to sew my stash!
With fabrics, Stash Hub has already implemented the Magic Input option, which saved me a lot of time entering many of my fabrics.
I find it really interesting to see the breakdown of my fabric stash: My top colors are white, black, yellow, blue, and ivory.
Organizing my Sewing projects
Hands down my favorite Stash Hub capability is its “Projects” feature. This feature allows you to plan out future sewing projects by linking them with a measurements profile (yours or someone else’s!), a pattern, a fabric, and notions. And, when you mark a project as complete, it automatically reduces the amount of the chosen fabric in your digital stash.
Overall, I’m really enjoying Stash Hub, and now that my present stash is (almost) all in, I think it will be fairly easy to keep up with. I still need to add my bra making supplies to the app, and really decide if/how I want them added, because they’re kind of their own animal. But, otherwise, it’s all in and it’s very helpful to be able to see exactly how much of a particular fabric I have without having to take it off its bolt.
There are a couple features I’ve suggested to the folks at Stash Hub that I’m crossing my fingers for. One is the magic input for patterns I discussed earlier. Another is a slider for fabric weight, because I don’t always (very rarely) know the gsm but would still like to have some info about weight in there. I’ve also requested a way to input the hand/drape of a fabric. I also think adding “toiled” as a status in projects rather than just in patterns would help my workflow. But these are all pretty minor things that don’t really dampen my enjoyment of the app.
What are your questions about Stash Hub? I’m happy to answer them!
acraftyscrivener
March 1, 2024Perfect timing – i have tried various methods but have not committed to a system yet. This looks very interesting, it looks quite comprehensive, though I do not like yearly subscriptions….
sewbustycommunity
March 1, 2024Hi! I totally get not liking annual subscriptions. I had to pay $120 for my baby monitor subscription yesterday and wasn’t pleased lol. But I feel like this app is worth it. I’m thinking of it like this: It’s equivalent of a couple months of Netflix for a year of something that is way more helpful to me than Netflix lol
acraftyscrivener
March 2, 2024That is a good point, and I do like that a yearly subscription means that you have the expectation of it updating and bugs getting fixed etc.
Ceridwen
May 28, 2024Being GenX means I am committed to non-digital methods (and I am waaaay ahead of you with the pattern and fabric hoarding!)
I have several A4 binders filled with business card holders, each with an inserted card with a stapled swatch stating yardage, width etc and organised by theme (and labeled according to which storage box on pallet racking in the very large shed they reside.) They may be by grouped by fabric type or colour type or for a wardrobe sudoku. In the sewing room reside duplicate swatches on a cardboard label tag (also business card sized) that have the advantage of being able to be pinned on an ideas board or travel on a key ring to match colours. Faithful reproduction of colours on a screen is still and issue. And the fact that I haven’t yet built a massive studio to use as both workroom and storage facility!
sewbustycommunity
June 18, 2024Oh wow! That sounds like a great system. Screen colors are definitely not perfect, but I find it’s close enough to help me decide which fabric I want to pull for a project.
Barb
June 22, 2024I just started using Backstich , the wait was only 1 day. Entering patterns is a dream. They have all the pattern companies and patterns already on their site so you just have to click to add the pattern to your stash. All info is there
sewbustycommunity
June 22, 2024Wow that’s really awesome!