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This picture of my cutting table is embarrassing to show... But working on setting up my new mini-office and learning that Mamafitz won 4 hours with a professional organizer in her sewing room got me to thinking about the typical state of unorganized clutter in my sewing room.
I know that it would be easier and more enjoyable to work there if I could get it organized and keep it neat. But there's a bit of a gap between knowing and doing... :(
So, what about you? When it comes to your sewing supplies, what is your biggest organizational challenge? What is your favorite organizational tool or tip?
7 comments:
just putting things back up when I'm through with them is my biggest organizational issue!!!! My tip would be to use those plastic shoe box sized containers with lids to keep your different notions, etc... in. You can label them so they are readily identifiable. I have a cabinet that i keep mine in. Whenever I need elastic, zippers, Velcro, binding, or whatever, I can find it right away.
hopefully soon i can share some tips! :D i am so excited that i won that auction it's ridiculous.
My sewing room looks a mess! I think I'm going to buy a closet organization system to utilize more space in there. Next year, I'm taking a quilting class and finishing the quilts my grandmother began before she died. I've had her quilting projects for years and it's time for my garment fabric to have more space. I look forward to reading all the tips on organization.
My favourite organising tool is the ice-cream bucket. You get to eat the ice-cream first, then fill each container with a different notion eg zips, elastic, trims. I hang my fabrics in a wardrobe. I have started keeping a tray next to the sewing machine for all those bits and bobs that never get put away.
I've been using small clear plastic boxes for marking tools, elastic, bindings, elastics. They stack on a shelf and I've labeled them.
Each sewing machine has a little metal box with the feet.
Scissors, rotary cutter and rulers are hung up on the wall behind the cutting table using 2 kitchen utensil bars (like you would use to hang up spatulas, spoons, ladles, etc). I'm pretty good about hanging these back up when I'm done.
The shelf near the ironing board is 'almost' big enough for the pressing tools but the ham lives on the end of the ironing board.
My biggest problem is all of the supplies that sit on my cutting table - the pins, bobbins, weights, thread, marking paper, etc. When I need the whole table, all that stuff gets shifted to the ironing board til I'm done - and then shifted back. I think I also need a shelf behind the cutting table because these things actually never get 'put away' because I'm using them most of the time.
Clearly, I'm in need of some more organization LOL
My biggest challenge is pattern pieces. I use mainly TNT's and constantly leave them in a pile rather than putting them back in their manilla file and filing them.
My best tip would be to use a peg board. I have one above my cutting table and hang everything I can. Rotary cutters, pattern paper, pattern weights, scissors, quilt rulers, embroidery hoops and more hang there. We put in a hook on the bottom to hang my cutting mats because I can't leave the table up between uses. Screwed in two metal cups to hold marking pens, pencils and that kind of thing. Easiest thing in the world to grab something, use it and put it right back in place!
I second the notion of using boxes for extras. I use black photo boxes, labeled, and they are stacked on top of the cabinets above my sewing table. I like the photo boxes because you can't see through them and it's less visual clutter.
The cabinets hold all my threads (regular, serger and embroidery)boxes with accesories for regular machine, serger and coverstitch. Plus the binders for all my patterns.
A few years ago I had the chance to redo my sewing area, 7x9 and shared with a washer and dryer, and thought long and hard about how to organize such a small space and I'm thrilled with it! The only thing I can't keep in there is my stash, but I do keep a small storage bin as a working stash!
I actually sew in such a small space, this isn't much of an issue for me. My fiance is building a house for us, a baby and two teenage boys that visit part time...and I have to sew in the living room/kitchen, which means all the sewing stuff has to be hidden all over the house JUST for room because we have no closets, no storage and a little over 500 sq. ft. (which is what I wanted, btw, I love the small houses).
My pattern boxes will go in the boys' attic room, covered, so that they have "tables" (and also they are old enough to not go through them), I have an old sewing box for scissors, etc. that are used all the time that will sit on the treadle pedal, my treadle drawers are seriously stuffed (and I already taught one kid not to mess with mom's sewing stuff, which will happen with the baby when it toddles unless I am there), the fabric will have to go under our bed, and I have an old train trunk that will act as the coffee table that will hold the rest of it.
The bigger stuff (cutting, drafting tools, dress dummy which I finally got! and even my chest freezer) are in my parents' barn and will stay there, at least until we add on in a few years, since they gave us land next door to them, and I currently have an area there that I use to do bigger stuff (drafting, cutting, fitting), and that won't change, except that I'll add a play pen out there so the baby won't get into anything and be able to make it work. I also have my electric machine out there that I can sew on if I need to while fitting and stuff so it's not so inconvenient.
I have always sewn with kids underfoot. When I started really getting into it, I had a 2 year old sister, then my son came along 2 years later, and I always had to be aware of putting stuff up. My boy just got old enough I could leave projects pinned and on the machine without worrying he'd get hurt, but that's changed now, and for me I have always had to put it up as I went because of the kids and living in small place, so keeping organized is not much of an issue, it's habit.
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