I’m not the most organized person, and I really wish I were when it comes to my sewing room. I’m so ashamed to share this picture with you all, but I think revealing this mess will motivate me to make changes in my sewing room:
Ugh, what a mess! I hate that patterns are all over the place. I work on several projects simultaneously, because of that I do not want to put away the patterns, but am not sure where to store them without interrupting my progress. My chair is not stylish – I like the fact I can roll over to my sewing machine, to surger and to ironing board, but it looks like one you would see in a collage dorm. My threads are all thrown in a make-up bag that was given to me as a souvenir from China, and every time I need to find thread, I get frustrated.
So finally I got sick of my Chinese make-up bag enough to organize my thread. I bought this rack from the 300 yen shop the other day:
Much better! But, I need two more of this rack these because I have a ton of more threads. I don’t know how I accumulated so many *things*. When I first started sewing, I had nothing. Even my sewing machine was borrowed from my friend. Now I have way too many small things..they are necessary, but it’s so hard to organize them all!
Along with the rack, I bought this jewelry hanger as well.
My sewing room is still messy, but these baby step improvements really brighten up the mood and are little spots of light in my dark messiness. I hope to make it better in the near future!! How do you keep your sewing area neat? Any tips?
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Claire (aka Seemane) says
Gertie, Patty and Threads have some great posts on sewing space organisation (lots of people have added their comments to them) 🙂 :-
(1) The Near-Insurmountable Task of Orgazining One’s Sewing Room (Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing)
(2) Planning a new sewing space (Patty, The Snug Bug)
(3) The new sewing corner (Patty, The Snug Bug)
(4) What Makes a Sewing Space Great? (Threads Magazine)
Plus, Denise at The Blue Gardenia blog has a long running series with interviews and pictures of lots of people’s sewing spaces too:- The Blue Gardenia – Sewing Spaces.
Chie says
hi claire! this is great! thank you for the list of links 🙂 i’ve recently seen the girtie’s post, but i hadn’t com across the rest, so they are great inspiration to me 🙂 in fact, i bought another thread rack and a box thingy to organize patterns today. ill update more soon!
Lisa says
My sewing room is much more messier than yours! I also have patterns everywhere as I am always working on a few projects at the same time. And then my daughter helps herself to my sewing supplies but never cleans up after. It’s impossible so I don’t stress about it.
Chie says
im always working on more than one projects as well! doesnt it make it harder to be tidy? that’s my excuse for not organizing it well! hehe :p
JEH, Esq. says
I am actually overly neat, which makes it hard to work in my studio because I spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning up the smallest messes. I am a bit of a clean freak, but one thing I recommend to tidy it up is to start in one section of the room. Focus on making your notions easier to reach and organized, then move on to your machines, later you ironing station, etc… If you look at the whole crazy mess you will get overwhelmed.
Also, if you mount your basic block patterns to heavy cardstock, you can punch a hole in the top and hang them together by a string. You can pin them up against the wall or on a rack of finished garments. That helps me. That way they are readily available, but off the floor.
Good luck!
Chie says
hi! thank you so much for your advice! i wish i were as organized as you are 🙂 when im sewing, im always thinking about new projects and ideas, so i feel like im always in rush to proceed with new things, without cleaning it up!
i think starting with a certain section for organizing is a great idea! im working on threads now, i shall move on to organizing other notions soon… 🙂
Janelle says
Hi Chie! Your sewing room isn’t messy at all, in my opinion! My work space is messier, despite my best efforts, especially since it’s my bedroom and not a room solely devoted to sewing (which is my ultimate dream!). Other sewing rooms I’ve seen have drawers and shelves for storing fabrics and notions, and Sunni from a Fashionable Stitch inspired me with her pegboard idea for storing cutting and pressing tools (http://www.afashionablestitch.com/2011/buttons/inspiring_me/cramped/), and something similar can be done for small spools of thread.
For my patterns, if i don’t feel like filing them away yet, I tack them to my bulletin boards, like the one you have next to your serger. I have three large ones that I use for tacking inspiration and patterns that I’m using.
I hope some of that helped!
Chie says
hi janelle! i saw Sunni’s post as well, and was so inspired to have a little “facelift” (as she puts it) in my sewing room. the pegboard is a great idea, so i can reach to the tools that i use often!
Claire (aka Seemane) says
Gertie, Patty and Threads have some great posts on sewing space organisation (lots of people have added their comments to them) 🙂 :-
(1) The Near-Insurmountable Task of Orgazining One’s Sewing Room (Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing)
(2) Planning a new sewing space (Patty, The Snug Bug)
(3) The new sewing corner (Patty, The Snug Bug)
(4) What Makes a Sewing Space Great? (Threads Magazine)
Plus, Denise at The Blue Gardenia blog has a long running series with interviews and pictures of lots of people’s sewing spaces too:- The Blue Gardenia – Sewing Spaces.
Paunnet says
My sewing room is also my bedroom and it’s extremely small. It’s also A LOT messier than yours, I’m afraid.
Don’t get overwhelmed and procede by baby steps, it’s the best thing to do! I have the same type of chair as you and although I agree that it’s not too glamourous, I would never change it!
Chie says
i know!! the chair is so not glamorous, but its so convenient to move from sewing machine to surger to ironing board. maybe i can add a pretty pillow or something to brighten things up?!
Anna says
aww! That’ so wonderful! I love the new appearance! ♥
Natalie says
Looks great!