Sunday, December 07, 2008

organization

I thought I had posted about this already, but on
 second look it seems not.  While I was procrastinating working on my wedding dress, I decided there was no possible way I could work on something so darn important until I spent, oh, like 10 hours shopping for organizing supplies and then another 5 or so using those supplies to organize my entire sewing area.  Yay!
Now this of course was classic procrastination and avoidance, but it really turned out to be a good idea and made it a lot easier to do the dress--and all my sewing--when I finally got around to it.  which was of course mere days before the wedding itself, but that's no longer important.

I like seeing other people's systems for organizing themselves, so I took some pictures to post here for anyone else who shares my obsession.  Of course it's all very messy again by now, since I've actually been using the space, but for a few brief shining moments it was perfect as pictured here.

The top picture shows the thread holder I hung up above my cutting table which also holds my sewing machine.  I put various zippers, bias tape, hem tape, lace, and ribbon in zip lock bags which I also hung on the extra pegs, and 2 clipboards on the bottom row of pegs to hold pattern instructions for easy reference as I cut or sew.

the bottom picture is of peg board which I hung to the right of the sewing table for all my scissors and rulers and tape measures, etc.  I also left space at the top for zip lock bags with unfinished projects, though I hope to eventually cut back on those by, you know, finishing them.  Or giving up and getting rid of some which I've already done.

Under the table, where you can't see it all, is a laundry basket with mending, a shopping bag with scraps, and some cutting mats and other things too big to hang elsewhere.

4 comments:

Lisa said...

How do you store your fabric? Do you have a big stash?

My thread is in my sewing table (I inherited my grandmothers). It has shelves in the doors for it. I need a good way to do bobbins though.

I need something better than "wherever" for my scissors and rulers.

Maisy said...

I stumbled across your blog after searching whip-stitch on google. I have a question...don't know if you even want to answer it. Here I go...i am new to sewing. is there a clean way to sew a pillow without being able to see the stitching on the 4th edge? I don't know how to do zippers. If that doesn't make sense I understand. I did a whip-stitch and some rude person said I should do it differently. Any Thoughts??
Thank you!!
Maisy

Holly said...

Hi Maisy! What I do for a pillow is sew it inside out almost the whole way around, so probably about halfway across the 4th side or as far as you think you can get and still turn it right side out and stuff it. then you turn under the edges on the open part so the raw parts don't show (make it match the parts already sewn, if you can) and use a slip stitch to sew it closed. you will probably want to pin it together before sewing to make it easier on your hands.

If you search online for slipstitch or slip stitch you can probably find many tutorials or even videos. http://www.fiber-images.com/ has some drawings of hand stitches if you look in their free stuff section.

Holly said...

oh, and Lisa, maybe I'll post more pics sometime but my fabric isn't stored in an organized fashion at ALL, just in folded stacks in various baskets and bins, most of which are either on top of the bookshelf you can see the corner of in one of the photos and in the opposite corner of the room from the sewing table. I need a better system; or what I really need is to get through some projects and lessen my stash!