by Sherri Sylvester | Dec 14, 2015
(Quick! Go get those empty wrapping paper rolls out of your recycling bin. You’re going to need them!)
I have recently thought it might be fun to post a series on Organizing Your Sewing Room. This is the second post in the series. The first one had a free label printable for organizing your fabric. Since I didn’t really introduce the series the last time, here goes…
I love being organized, (it’s one of our family goals for 2016) and my kids are old enough that we are going to aim high and see if we can get this part of our lives to work better for us this coming year. My sewing room, thankfully, has stayed pretty organized – but only because I’m the only one keeping it in order. And, of course, there is that box of random things under my desk – but we won’t talk about that right now!
I have been using empty wrapping paper rolls to organize supplies for a few years now. They are great for things you don’t want to fold – like clear plastic, vinyl or oil cloth. I really like that they don’t take up much space. You can store them in the end of a shelf, like I do. Or in an upright space, even a tall basket! If you don’t have any wrapping paper rolls handy, you can ask about free cardboard tubes at any fabric store. Sometimes they have empty tubes they would love to get rid of.
Here’s a quick guide, and how to keep what’s rolled up from coming unrolled!
1: Measure the roll to find how long you’d like it to be.
2: Cut it at your measured mark.
3: Roll your supplies – look, no wrinkles!
4: Secure the end with a large paperclip.
Hope that helps! I’ve got a long list of little tips on organizing, so I’ll be sharing more of how I keep my room tidy(ish) again soon!
What do you use to keep your “un-foldable” supplies handy?
And we have a winner!
I’m also really happy to announce that entry #329, Marilyn H. won the 12 Fat Quarter Lecien Bundle from Flare Fabrics! I can’t wait to see what she does with it! Be sure to use the discount code “THREAD15″ to save 15% on your order at Flare Fabrics until December 31, 2015!
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 17, 2015
Having the correct supplies for your job is important. Firefighters need boots and helmets, dentists need that crazy metal picking thing they use. I need fabric for my job. (along with lots of other things!) That makes keeping track of it all an important part of my life. And, as with all supplies, they need be taken care of properly.
As I re-organized my sewing room a few months ago, I found a lot of fabric sitting in the bottom of the closet because it wasn’t pre-washed. I didn’t want to mix the washed and pre-washed becuase there wasn’t a fail-proof way to distinguish the two. #sewistproblems I also realized that I didn’t know important information about the fabrics in my apparel fabric section – like what they were made from, or if they were suiting fabric or chambray, or where I bought them.
That led me to design some simple labels that I’ve been using for a few months now. Pre-print a few pages of them and use them as the fabric goes onto the shelf. They are quick and easy to fill out. And I found it’s really helpful to know the exact details of at least 1/2 of my fabric. (I decided only to label the “stuff on the floor”. Yes, imagine 1/2 of my stash on the floor… yikes!)
Since I’ve loved using these I thought I’d share them with you. Click on the link below to download the free PDF and print some of your own! I used standard 1″x2″ label sheets from my big box office supply store. If you don’t have any, print these on plain paper, cut them out and pin or paperclip them to the fabric instead. In case you are worried about sticky residue from the labels – so far they haven’t left anything on my fabric and are removed easily. (You may want to test your own brand of labels though!)
How do you keep track of your fabric?
by Sherri Sylvester | Mar 5, 2014
When I started this blog I figured I would eventually tidy up my space enough to let you see where I work. After all, I’m always super curious about where other people sew, naturally I think some of you might be too! Since my machine went in for maintenance earlier this year I caught a break and a little time and I was able to clean and clear out the whole space. I have also discovered while looking at these photos that I love colour, comfort and being able to see everything. Just in case that wasn’t already obvious. (hee hee!) It’s interesting because I spend a lot of time making the other parts of my house as minimalist and simplistic as possible. I likely have too much to say about my space, so I hope you are okay with a bit of a novel today. I edited it down to this – really!
My husband and I share this 10 x 10 ft room. We used to take up space in the basement, with some of the kids toys and our TV. Since we both work from home we decided about a year ago that it was healthier to have a door on our work space. That way we could make our basement and main floor into a relaxing space instead of being reminded of work every time we were in them. After much discussion with the girls (who agreed it would be fun to move in together) we bought bunk beds for them and took over this little “nursery room” on our third floor. The result has been a much better home/work balance – so nice! It’s been especially nice that I’ve been able to keep my space clean for a month now, amazing for my husband who takes up only a little more than 3 square feet of one corner of the space and likes to work in a clean environment!
My desk is actually a mash-up of 2 Ikea Expedit shelving units along with some hollow core doors from our hardware store. Somewhere out in blog-land is the wonderful woman who suggested using a door for an inexpensive table-top and I will be forever grateful – if I could only find her again! We have cut the doors into multiple pieces and mounted the centre one on two Ikea table legs. The back of each door is screwed into one long 9 ft pre-primed piece of mdf that holds the whole thing together. Quite a feat in a small room, but it’s so heavy it doesn’t have a chance of falling apart! One day I will paint the edges of the doors, and maybe the tops too, but since it is a work-space the chances are slim on that one. This also means the counter is table height and I mostly sew standing up. I love the freedom I feel to move around, iron things when needed and generally feel more active.
The side wall holds my favorite framed book cover – the Singer Sewing Book from 1972. Another one of my husband’s grandmother’s things I was lucky enough to acquire. Eventually the frame will be painted – maybe black? I’ve also hung my thread holder and a drawing of a sewing machine that my oldest made, probably 2 years ago now! This wall is also where I try to stay organized and the clipboards hold my schedule and thoughts in check. They are move-able so I can take them down for scheduling and then put them back up as needed.
Stash much? As much as I love fabric, surprisingly I don’t have more than one shelf length of gorgeous quilting cottons! All my fabric is folded onto boards as mini-bolts and shelved on this bookcase I found my local Re-Store for only $20. It sits in the room’s closet space, though we have removed the closet door. It was pretty dark in there and the colour matching wasn’t going so well! Everything is loosely arranged in rainbow colour order. Flannel/Canvas on the top shelf. Quilting cottons and fleece on the 2nd shelf. The third shelf is dedicated to apparel fabrics and the 4th is for knits, though I ran out of room on this one and had to start a basket on the floor! The bottom shelf holds fabrics that I have rolled up because I have lots of them, and all of my interfacing, batting and fusible web. Outside of the shelving I’ve got rolled up vinyl to the right and my ironing board and iron are stored on the left wall. I’ve also got a bin for things I have made that don’t have a purpose yet. What do you do with “extra” projects? Do you have any?
The top of the closet holds the clothing I want to re-purpose, stuffing and all of my daughters’ flannel receiving blankets that I hope to one day make something from. Oh, and you get to see the lovely colour the walls were when we moved into our house. Very “unisex nursery yellow”.
The back of the door is right next to the closet and opposite my sewing area. I’ve hung the artwork my mom made me and I keep some sewing projects there. Especially my cargo duffle, which is really one of my most favorite projects that I have made to date. I think the artwork was meant for my kitchen, but I love it here, it reminds me of my family (my parents live quite far away in Texas) and the saying is so true. I need to be reminded that keeping a clean house is not worth the effort sometimes!
Back to the desk area then? I’ve got so many bins and containers here it’s pretty crazy, but they all have a purpose. The flowered tins hold my scissors and seam ripper, camera, miscellaneous receipts and my calculator – among other things. The blue box was my grandmother’s and I have an office divider to hold all of my rulers. Inspiration and my Canadian Online Fabric Store business cards are kept on the bulletin board I made at least 7 years (and no blog) ago that just happens to perfectly match the wall, I must like that colour!
The bottom shelf holds all of my re-purposed 80 oz pickle jars, and the jars hold everything from ribbons and elastic to zippers and Velcro. I’m slowly expanding my book collection and I’m excited to hopefully pull off a top from the Stylish Dress Book soon… we’ll see!
The top shelf is saved for storing my girls’ quilts-in-progress and my fat quarters are stored in a shelf that used to hold diapers and nursery items. I’ve also put up some pretty things, ribbon and my selvage jar, which will one day become useful and make itself into something!
Last but not least it’s my sewing machine. It’s not fancy, but it does everything I need it to and I love working with it. I’ve also got my favorite cartoon character to stare me down while I sew – Marvin the Martian is hilarious. I’m not sure why I like him so much, but it was a bit of an obsession when I was just out of high school and I may or may not have 3 stuffed ones hiding in the girls’ closet (one of them as tall as my kids!). The handsome face on my bulletin board is my husband, such a fun Instagram pic he posted I had to print it out.
That’s about it I think. I’ve got baskets of scraps and drawers with fabric paints, pencils and bias tape makers under my machine. One dedicated to all of my patterns tucked neatly into dollar store yellow envelopes. Too many bins of projects waiting to be finished hiding everywhere and of course more thread and tracing paper too. More things than you would ever care to read about I’m sure!
I’m such a curious person – where do you hide/keep all of your things? As I sew more I wonder where and how people without a dedicated room keep their stuff. Of course, if I didn’t collect projects so easily I would have less stuff, something to think about!
I hope you enjoyed the tour. I’d love to hear about your space. Do tell!
