Thursday, April 30, 2015

Guest Blog: Spring Clean Your Sewing Room in 7 Easy Steps



As you are storing your winter jackets, scarves, and boots, now’s the time to turn your attention to your sewing room. There’s no avoiding it, spring cleaning is in full swing.

If you’ve been quilting up a storm, it probably looks like a hurricane recently blew through. If you’ve been meaning to get back to your projects now that the holidays are over and the weather is warmer, you are most likely dreading the Christmas mess that you left behind.

We feel your pain. And, we think we can help you recover the creativity you feel from a well stocked and organized sewing room. We’ve scoured Pinterest to bring you seven tips that should perk up your favorite room.

Your Sewing Room: Organized

1.    Buttons look cool inside an old jar but you can never find what you need. Solution? Sort your buttons and use paper clips to keep the same types and colors together. You’ll have to bend the paper clips open and twist them shut. This might feel a little tedious but you will always be able to grab exactly what you need.
2.    Embroidery floss becomes a tangled mess when left unattended. You know what would be fun? Wrapping each color around a wooden clothespin, writing the color number on the clothespin itself with a sharpie. If you are really inspired by all the fun colors in your collection, display them in a pretty bowl or vintage tool box.
3.    Fabric Scraps are the one area that quilters lose all organizational skills. There are always an overwhelming amount of scraps that we can never seem to part with. Have you tried using those fun little mail sorters? This keeps the fabric within sight so that they get used while keeping them off the floor or the table or every square inch of your sewing room.
4.    Winter quilts don’t need to be packed away in dusty basements. You can install towel racks on the backs of closet doors and keep them accessible year round.
5.    Bobbins like to roll around and unravel, but if you attach a magnetic strip to the bottom of a drawer or on the wall near your sewing machine, you can keep your bobbins locked and loaded for use at any moment. Make sure your bobbins are metal before installing magnetic strips.
6.    Tools, like scissors or glue sticks or seam rippers, work best when you can actually reach them. Try storing like things together in mason jars. There always seem to be extra mason jars around the house, right?
7.    Pressed fabric for your next quilt project. Be honest, even if we are spring cleaning, we can’t possibly put every single thing in our sewing rooms away, because we are always in the middle of some fantastic project.

Let’s Get Started

Spring cleaning is usually just an excuse to pick up pretty storage things.

Like any great project, the idea of it seems amazing, and it’s even better if it involves a trip to the fabric store for supplies. So, just because these tips require very little in the way of purchases, it shouldn’t deter you from your goal: a happy and organized sewing room!

You see, it’s totally possible to organize your sewing room without breaking the bank or weeks of planning and building a complete remodel. Sometimes, it’s best to work with what you’ve got!

Author Biography:
The Jones Sew & Vac family has been bringing south Idaho together by sewing for over fifty years! Over that time, they’ve gained immense knowledge and love sharing it whether it be about sewing, embroidery, or quilting!