Re-organizing our Sewing Closet

Every now and then, I have to re-organize our sewing stuff because it's gotten too disorganized as things are shuffled around, put into the wrong place, or we start piling things instead of putting them away.

I was looking for something in particular that I knew I had, but couldn't not find, so I started on a massive re-organization binge. Of course, I didn't take BEFORE photos, but I'll just amaze with the AFTER photos.

This is our sewing closet -- otherwise known as a linen closet for any normal household. It contains a lot of the supplies and tools that we use on a fairly regular basis in our costuming efforts, such as the ironing board, ironing hams, stabilizers, bias tape, etc.

Along the side of the closet, I hung up all our large yard sticks and other large measuring sticks.

The top shelf has all our embroidery accessories.

The second shelf has other much used supplies, such as zippers, bias tape, boning, elastic, buckles, and other findings. It also stores our various hams and pressing clappers. My Viking got these plastic shelves on clearance at Target.

The last shelf contains bigger boxes, like our button boxes, ribbon crafting supplies, etc. (I'l be able to also put my serger back onto this shelf!

The last part of the closet contains some other shelving (also from target). It includes my hoop boning, all the grosgrain ribbon, various forms of stabilizer (tear-away, wash-away, etc), spools of serger thread, and other supplies that are too big to store elsewhere.

I'm really happy with the re-organization, even if it took me some time to re-organize. It meant that I got rid of things that we didn't need or couldn't use anymore. It feels a lot more cleaner and organized, as well as looking the part! Hopefully, we can keep it as organized as we start new projects!

Creating and Organizing Crafting Supplies

As most of my friends know, my entire house pretty much serves as one big huge crafting room. The dining room table has been our main workstation for quite some time, which leads to project sprawl....

 

(Not my house, but close enough....)

 Also, our storage situation has been hit or miss for quite some time. We primarily use a lot of plastic storage bins that stack, but this solution has proven inefficient.

We decided to finally tackle the problem head-on. I've been looking at various craft room ideas on Pinterest and such. Many use the Ikea Kallax / Expedit cases for storage. So, first, I decided to tackle my fiber & yarn stash first.

We picked up a 4x2 and 4x5 Kallax bookcase, stacked them onto each other, then bolted them to the wall in case of earthquakes.

Then using the storage bins (also from Ikea), I started organizing my stash by fiber and yarn weight; commercial vs. handspun. (It turns out that I didn't buy as many as I needed, so I need another trip to Ikea.)

•  Top row - All fiber, which includes top, roving, braids, silk hankies, etc.
• Second row (white) - Sweater amounts of yarn to individual aran/bulky weight
• Third row (yellow) - Worsted weight yarn to sport weight
• Fourth row (needs more bins) - Handspun yarn
• Fifth row - Fingering/Sock weight + UFOs + Weaving supplies
• Sixth row - Patterns, notion, and still unsorted yarns.

(Fleece amounts of roving are in another location.)

This sorting actually freed up quite a bit of space and confined it to a specific area (instead of having it all over the room).  Seeing it one location made me realize that I actually don't have as much fiber and yarn that I thought I did. Of course, this doesn't mean that I'm going to run out and buy more fiber and yarn, but it's nice to take stock!

Consolidating the Stash made it easier to put the industrial sewing machine into a closed room, whereas it was in our living room previously. Having it in the room means that we can close the door and not scare the cats with the very loud industrial motor.

As you can see by the photo, we're still not quite finished. We need to pick up more Kallax bookcases so that we can start organizing the sewing supplies too!

This process is going to be take a little bit of time to finish the whole room, but it's freeing up a lot of space in the rest of the house.