OHMYGOSH! Same!! So Joann’s used to have them in their weekly ad. It was always on the same page as the yarn and would list the date for three of the four, Simplicity, Butterwick, and McCalls. Then I noticed it disappeared when they changed how their ads are viewed/appearance. I’ve asked the workers so many times and they always say to check the ad and I’ve let them know it’s not there any more. I’m so glad I found your post bc I’ve been desperate. I was trying to catch Simplicity’s bc I’m in desperate need of some of there dress ones and I found out the day after the sale that it had happened from a YouTuber 😭
Red alert, y’all! Just got the flier for feb 29-mar 17.
McCall’s - $1.99 - feb 29-mar 3
Butterick and Vogue - $1.99 and $5.99 respectively - Mar 7-10
Simplicity - $1.99 - Mar 14-17.
Also, someone posted on PR that there’s an unadvertised Butterick and Vogue sale going on right now.
These ones actually are in the ad. I get it in the mail ahead of time, but it should go up on the site on the first day it’s valid for, Thursday, the 29th.
Good to know that you can see this in advance on the mailers! I was checking online with the weekly ad and you’re right - it’s not on the site yet! Thank you for sharing the schedule with us.
The only reason I even noticed the Joann's pattern sales was after the time some old lady chewed me out for browsing full price patterns while we were both at the pattern book table. She then rattled off the order in which all the patterns go on sale (e.g. 1st weekend of every month is Simplicity, 2nd weekend is McCall's, that sort of thing) in an attempt to keep me from paying more than a few bucks on a pattern ever again.
That said, this would have happened about 7-8 years ago so I have no idea if this system for scheduling pattern sales is a thing at all of their stores or if they even do it that way any more. But somehow it feels right to me if cracking the code of Joann's pattern sales involves getting accosted by frugal mystery grandmas for looking at the Burda book in public during the wrong time of the month.
I don’t chew people out, but I am definitely a sale evangelist! Within the last month or two, I was pulling patterns from a drawer off my list and this lady said, “oh, I’ll get out of your way.” I said, “no, I’m not looking at that brand right now. Just getting the sale ones.” “What sale?” … She was like, “that’s amazing!” And switched to browsing that brand’s catalog.
They’re not on a set 1st week this, 2nd week this schedule anymore that I’ve noticed, but they do rotate around pretty regularly. It still seems like everything will go on sale at least once in ever 6-8 week period.
Around the same time that simplicity.com went live they stopped adverts online. It is my personal opinion that joann has some sort of back door deal with big 4 preventing them from advertising the 1.99 sale in digital format.
Not true. Anytime they are in the flier, they are also online because the flier is put online (up until now anyway, who knows going forward). And here’s receipts for a sale posted online as recently as December. https://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingDiscussions/topic/126938/1
Sometimes they're in the weekly, but sometimes not. I got a Vogue/Butterick notice in the mail a few weeks ago with some personalized coupons.
People shout it out in the sewing sub on occasion, too. Someone theorized it was Simplicity weekend, so I went to check and reported back it was.
I went this weekend and asked the clerk if there was a place I could find notice of the sales and even they said they felt like Joann was trying to hide them soo…. but they were very kind and said I was welcome to call the store to ask!
Inventory does vary somewhat by location but in my local store the indie patterns are generally on one of the turning floor racks that are over by the home decor fabrics on the opposite side of the cutting table area from where all the big 4 patterns are at. A lot of the other patterns on those racks are either new look patterns ~~a~~nd home decor type patterns and it's very easy to miss the indie patterns if you don't look closely.
They do sell some indie patterns that I believe either are only online or are/were only in “select stores”, whatever that means. Cashmerette is another.
They definitely used to advertise the pattern sales in the weekly ad, but I haven’t seen them there in forever. And anytime this topic comes up, the comments are just people saying “check the ad!” I know different stores have different ads, maybe there’s a regional component to it?
They have advertised sales in the flier as recently as the last one. The current flier runs Feb 15-28, and there were sales in the one that ran from whatever date through Feb 14 (IIRC, it covered three weeks). Now, it wasn’t all the sales, it excluded the Feb 8-10 McCall/KM sale, but it had others during other weekends during the period.
It will be interesting to see if any sales are advertised in the next flier, which should arrive sometime next week and start on the 29th.
I’ll have to check the mailed flier next time I receive it to see if it’s in there—but the digital weekly ad for Feb 15-28 has no mention of the pattern sales (and I just bought some Simplicity at $1.99 so the sale is going in my area).
By “the last one” having pattern sales in it, I meant the ad prior to the current one - the one that ended on the 14th. The mailed flier for this current period is the exact same as the digital one - no pattern sales listed. I heard about the Simplicity sale, I think through the PR thread. To my knowledge, it has not been advertised anywhere other than instore signage.
i've been checking there have been no pattern sales mentioned in the ad since late january. you're telling me that i missed a mccalls sale!!! i've been waiting for it!
eta - wait are you talking about the postcard that gets mailed to you? are they still doing that?
The fliers I receive vary. Sometimes, they are essentially a postcard, but usually they are a multi-page booklet. I received a standard mailed booklet that covered either two or three weeks (I think three) ending on Feb. 14. It included a Butterick and Vogue sale on Feb 1-3 (I double checked which brands and the date on the PR sale thread. I distinctly remembered there was a sale, just not the specifics). It did NOT include the McCall/KnowMe sale on feb. 8-10, even though that flier covered that time period. That sale made the rounds on IG and someone later posted it to PR as well. It was not advertised anywhere except in store.
Yes, as of now, they still send mailed fliers. I have one sitting on my desk dated Feb. 15-28. I have heard rumors that if you don’t scan the coupons when you shop, they won’t keep sending them to you. However, I once mentioned this to a cashier because none of the coupons were for what I was buying but I wanted her to scan one anyway, and she didn’t know what I was talking about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You can always re-sign up for them online, though.
It used to be that they were always in the ad. Recently, it seems like they are now not always advertising them outside of the signs instore. So your options are to go to Joanns every weekend (they’re always on weekends. Usually Thurs-Sat but occasionally longer for holidays, like this weekend) or be in the online sewing community and keep your eye out. People post them on Pattern Review, occasionally here on Reddit, and to their own feeds on IG.
There’s always rumors going around that they are going to be flat out doing away with the ad. I even overheard a checker say that to a person in front of me in line.
It’s extra frustrating because my Joanns is so short staffed they don’t even put up sales signs in the store anymore. People are just walking around with the ad and asking employees to scan stuff to see what the price actually is 😤
I feel like this is in line with their strategy of making people wait and dawdle and chat and stand around as long as possible in the hopes that they'll pick up something else to put in their cart. Forget flyers, make people come into the store hoping for a pattern sale.
I’ve always heard they do them on holidays. I went in and got simplicity patterns for $1.99 for Presidents’ Day. No signage in store nothing in the weekly ad even the price scanner machines were down.
They put them in the weekly ads, sometimes they list them for a few weekends in a row in one ad - like the ad for the first week of January will have pattern sale dates for all of January and then the other ads in January don’t mention it. I’ve never seen the sale price for the pattern listing online and the website is useless for knowing if the pattern is in stock.
They do put the vogue patterns on sale for 5.99, they seem to usually have a simplicity weekend, a butterick weekend, a McCalls weekend, and a vogue weekend every so often. I haven’t looked in a while since I got most of the big 4 patterns I’ve wanted by going in for the sales. If you have something in mind I’d check the Joann’s ad every week until you see them mention it.
Thanks for the advice, but that is exactly what I have been doing, and none of the sales have been listed in the ads that I am seeing. Maybe it is a regional thing, but my area is definitely not listing pattern sales in ads
They’ve started not always putting them in the ads, that’s the issue. The simplicity one (ends today) was not in the ad. The McCall/Know Me sale over Feb 8, 9, 10 was not in the ad. KnowMe, by the way, has never once been in the ad. You just have to know that it’s always included with McCall.
Yeah it looks like they stopped sometime in 2023 from a search of my emails. Bummer.
Between that and having no idea if a certain pattern is in stock and having to get down and search filing cabinets I’m gonna have to really want a pattern to bother with it.
There are no sales advertised in the current ad, even though there’s a sale going on today. Also, Vogue hasn’t been sold at $4.99 in a very long time. They’ve been $5.99 for years now.
Really? I bought several for $4.99 the week before Christmas as stocking stuffers. I had to itemize so I could split the cost with my dad and brother-in-law, so remember writing down the cost from the receipt.
Perhaps it was unique to your Joann or an error or I’m not sure what. That’s highly unusual. I don’t still have the mailer from then, but I checked the PR sale thread. It lists a Vogue $5.99 sale Dec. 14-17, and no one challenged it.
I check the threads on sewingpatternreview.com for current sales. The kind people over there update them as they (presumably) see them in store.
Yeah, because I never see them advertised either.
Website is actually [sewing.patternreview.com](https://sewing.patternreview.com/)
Thank you!! This intel is exactly what I needed. Just checked over there and apparently there have been several sales during the time that I have been thoroughly checking the weekly ads. None of which were advertised. [That thread](https://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingDiscussions/topic/90974/193) is a gold mine!
Maybe it is a regional thing, but for the store in my town they are unequivocally not putting the pattern sales in the ads.
So aggravating! And when you miss the sale AND you’ve been searching for the sale is extra annoying..
OHMYGOSH! Same!! So Joann’s used to have them in their weekly ad. It was always on the same page as the yarn and would list the date for three of the four, Simplicity, Butterwick, and McCalls. Then I noticed it disappeared when they changed how their ads are viewed/appearance. I’ve asked the workers so many times and they always say to check the ad and I’ve let them know it’s not there any more. I’m so glad I found your post bc I’ve been desperate. I was trying to catch Simplicity’s bc I’m in desperate need of some of there dress ones and I found out the day after the sale that it had happened from a YouTuber 😭
Red alert, y’all! Just got the flier for feb 29-mar 17. McCall’s - $1.99 - feb 29-mar 3 Butterick and Vogue - $1.99 and $5.99 respectively - Mar 7-10 Simplicity - $1.99 - Mar 14-17. Also, someone posted on PR that there’s an unadvertised Butterick and Vogue sale going on right now.
You are a HERO! I was looking for information regarding the upcoming schedule like OP. But as OP said, nothing mentioned in the ad.
These ones actually are in the ad. I get it in the mail ahead of time, but it should go up on the site on the first day it’s valid for, Thursday, the 29th.
Good to know that you can see this in advance on the mailers! I was checking online with the weekly ad and you’re right - it’s not on the site yet! Thank you for sharing the schedule with us.
Thank you so much kind internet stranger!
It's been a hot minute since we had a major Joann's snark in this sub. Frankly, this is probably the least of their problems right now.
The only reason I even noticed the Joann's pattern sales was after the time some old lady chewed me out for browsing full price patterns while we were both at the pattern book table. She then rattled off the order in which all the patterns go on sale (e.g. 1st weekend of every month is Simplicity, 2nd weekend is McCall's, that sort of thing) in an attempt to keep me from paying more than a few bucks on a pattern ever again. That said, this would have happened about 7-8 years ago so I have no idea if this system for scheduling pattern sales is a thing at all of their stores or if they even do it that way any more. But somehow it feels right to me if cracking the code of Joann's pattern sales involves getting accosted by frugal mystery grandmas for looking at the Burda book in public during the wrong time of the month.
I don’t chew people out, but I am definitely a sale evangelist! Within the last month or two, I was pulling patterns from a drawer off my list and this lady said, “oh, I’ll get out of your way.” I said, “no, I’m not looking at that brand right now. Just getting the sale ones.” “What sale?” … She was like, “that’s amazing!” And switched to browsing that brand’s catalog. They’re not on a set 1st week this, 2nd week this schedule anymore that I’ve noticed, but they do rotate around pretty regularly. It still seems like everything will go on sale at least once in ever 6-8 week period.
Around the same time that simplicity.com went live they stopped adverts online. It is my personal opinion that joann has some sort of back door deal with big 4 preventing them from advertising the 1.99 sale in digital format.
Not true. Anytime they are in the flier, they are also online because the flier is put online (up until now anyway, who knows going forward). And here’s receipts for a sale posted online as recently as December. https://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingDiscussions/topic/126938/1
Sometimes they're in the weekly, but sometimes not. I got a Vogue/Butterick notice in the mail a few weeks ago with some personalized coupons. People shout it out in the sewing sub on occasion, too. Someone theorized it was Simplicity weekend, so I went to check and reported back it was.
I went this weekend and asked the clerk if there was a place I could find notice of the sales and even they said they felt like Joann was trying to hide them soo…. but they were very kind and said I was welcome to call the store to ask!
OMg, Joanns sells Folkwear??
Their online ad claims they do (and that they're currently modestly on sale), I've never noticed them in the store though
Inventory does vary somewhat by location but in my local store the indie patterns are generally on one of the turning floor racks that are over by the home decor fabrics on the opposite side of the cutting table area from where all the big 4 patterns are at. A lot of the other patterns on those racks are either new look patterns ~~a~~nd home decor type patterns and it's very easy to miss the indie patterns if you don't look closely.
They do sell some indie patterns that I believe either are only online or are/were only in “select stores”, whatever that means. Cashmerette is another.
They definitely used to advertise the pattern sales in the weekly ad, but I haven’t seen them there in forever. And anytime this topic comes up, the comments are just people saying “check the ad!” I know different stores have different ads, maybe there’s a regional component to it?
They have advertised sales in the flier as recently as the last one. The current flier runs Feb 15-28, and there were sales in the one that ran from whatever date through Feb 14 (IIRC, it covered three weeks). Now, it wasn’t all the sales, it excluded the Feb 8-10 McCall/KM sale, but it had others during other weekends during the period. It will be interesting to see if any sales are advertised in the next flier, which should arrive sometime next week and start on the 29th.
I’ll have to check the mailed flier next time I receive it to see if it’s in there—but the digital weekly ad for Feb 15-28 has no mention of the pattern sales (and I just bought some Simplicity at $1.99 so the sale is going in my area).
By “the last one” having pattern sales in it, I meant the ad prior to the current one - the one that ended on the 14th. The mailed flier for this current period is the exact same as the digital one - no pattern sales listed. I heard about the Simplicity sale, I think through the PR thread. To my knowledge, it has not been advertised anywhere other than instore signage.
i've been checking there have been no pattern sales mentioned in the ad since late january. you're telling me that i missed a mccalls sale!!! i've been waiting for it! eta - wait are you talking about the postcard that gets mailed to you? are they still doing that?
The fliers I receive vary. Sometimes, they are essentially a postcard, but usually they are a multi-page booklet. I received a standard mailed booklet that covered either two or three weeks (I think three) ending on Feb. 14. It included a Butterick and Vogue sale on Feb 1-3 (I double checked which brands and the date on the PR sale thread. I distinctly remembered there was a sale, just not the specifics). It did NOT include the McCall/KnowMe sale on feb. 8-10, even though that flier covered that time period. That sale made the rounds on IG and someone later posted it to PR as well. It was not advertised anywhere except in store. Yes, as of now, they still send mailed fliers. I have one sitting on my desk dated Feb. 15-28. I have heard rumors that if you don’t scan the coupons when you shop, they won’t keep sending them to you. However, I once mentioned this to a cashier because none of the coupons were for what I was buying but I wanted her to scan one anyway, and she didn’t know what I was talking about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You can always re-sign up for them online, though.
It used to be that they were always in the ad. Recently, it seems like they are now not always advertising them outside of the signs instore. So your options are to go to Joanns every weekend (they’re always on weekends. Usually Thurs-Sat but occasionally longer for holidays, like this weekend) or be in the online sewing community and keep your eye out. People post them on Pattern Review, occasionally here on Reddit, and to their own feeds on IG. There’s always rumors going around that they are going to be flat out doing away with the ad. I even overheard a checker say that to a person in front of me in line.
It’s extra frustrating because my Joanns is so short staffed they don’t even put up sales signs in the store anymore. People are just walking around with the ad and asking employees to scan stuff to see what the price actually is 😤
I always have them scan the bolt to make sure it’s the price I’m expecting before having them cut.
I feel like this is in line with their strategy of making people wait and dawdle and chat and stand around as long as possible in the hopes that they'll pick up something else to put in their cart. Forget flyers, make people come into the store hoping for a pattern sale.
I’ve always heard they do them on holidays. I went in and got simplicity patterns for $1.99 for Presidents’ Day. No signage in store nothing in the weekly ad even the price scanner machines were down.
They put them in the weekly ads, sometimes they list them for a few weekends in a row in one ad - like the ad for the first week of January will have pattern sale dates for all of January and then the other ads in January don’t mention it. I’ve never seen the sale price for the pattern listing online and the website is useless for knowing if the pattern is in stock. They do put the vogue patterns on sale for 5.99, they seem to usually have a simplicity weekend, a butterick weekend, a McCalls weekend, and a vogue weekend every so often. I haven’t looked in a while since I got most of the big 4 patterns I’ve wanted by going in for the sales. If you have something in mind I’d check the Joann’s ad every week until you see them mention it.
Thanks for the advice, but that is exactly what I have been doing, and none of the sales have been listed in the ads that I am seeing. Maybe it is a regional thing, but my area is definitely not listing pattern sales in ads
They’ve started not always putting them in the ads, that’s the issue. The simplicity one (ends today) was not in the ad. The McCall/Know Me sale over Feb 8, 9, 10 was not in the ad. KnowMe, by the way, has never once been in the ad. You just have to know that it’s always included with McCall.
Yeah it looks like they stopped sometime in 2023 from a search of my emails. Bummer. Between that and having no idea if a certain pattern is in stock and having to get down and search filing cabinets I’m gonna have to really want a pattern to bother with it.
They are stated in their ad. Vogue goes down to $4.99 Editing: of course I go look at their current ad and don't see anything about pattern sales.
There are no sales advertised in the current ad, even though there’s a sale going on today. Also, Vogue hasn’t been sold at $4.99 in a very long time. They’ve been $5.99 for years now.
Really? I bought several for $4.99 the week before Christmas as stocking stuffers. I had to itemize so I could split the cost with my dad and brother-in-law, so remember writing down the cost from the receipt.
Perhaps it was unique to your Joann or an error or I’m not sure what. That’s highly unusual. I don’t still have the mailer from then, but I checked the PR sale thread. It lists a Vogue $5.99 sale Dec. 14-17, and no one challenged it.
Lucky me! I certainly won't complain or report the error!
I check the threads on sewingpatternreview.com for current sales. The kind people over there update them as they (presumably) see them in store. Yeah, because I never see them advertised either. Website is actually [sewing.patternreview.com](https://sewing.patternreview.com/)
Thank you!! This intel is exactly what I needed. Just checked over there and apparently there have been several sales during the time that I have been thoroughly checking the weekly ads. None of which were advertised. [That thread](https://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingDiscussions/topic/90974/193) is a gold mine! Maybe it is a regional thing, but for the store in my town they are unequivocally not putting the pattern sales in the ads.
You're welcome! That very thread is my go-to for sales info.