Help! My Sewing Room Is So Unorganized I Can't Even Use It!

Do you sew for others? I have a pattern of a VERY simple dress. It has one long zipper in the back, no pockets, no sleeves. I want 4 dressed made from the same pattern. I'd choose some sort of cotton. Interested? B.

Hi J.,

Unless your husband or you have some carpentry and electrian skills, my suggestions will require investment of money for those skills as well as some other materials. It might be advisable to take a day to estimate the cost of everything and get a small "home improvement" loan which you usually can get with lower percentages than putting it on a regular charge card.

Your large collection of fabric will survive long periods in usable shape if you can store them wrapped around tubes so that they do not develop permanent wrinkles as they will if they are folded for long periods of time.

Upright wooden racks drilled with holes to accept wooden dowels or pvc pipe to hold the tubes of fabric can be stored along your walls. Go to a good drapery or upholstery store and look at the way the tubes of fabic are displayed. You need to figure out something similar to store your large inventory of fabric. If you build the individual racks with wheels you can put several at one end of the room. Wheel them out when you need to get to the ones in back. The racks will be as wide as the dowels/tubes plus the boards with which they are constructed. You can make them as tall as you can reach. They should be about one foot to 18 inches deep. Deep enough to accommodate the fabric roles.

Store your dining room table elsewhere. Look around for inexpensive, unfinished kitchen cabinetry. Think about what you would like to store in them to decide if you want the kind that has just doors and open space ( like the kind that goes under the sink) or it you want
ones with shelving. Doors are always nice because it looks less cluttered. However, you can get the kind with out any tops which you won't need if you place a sewing board on top. This cabinetry can be used to store boxes of patterns, some of your craft items. Think about what you need to store and plan accordingly.

A permanent sewing board will be one of the best tools in which you have ever invested. I have had one since 1963. It is going to sit on top of those cabinets (two at least spaced apart to balance the board; OR, six placed three in a row and back to back, board on top, if you have the room. You might also check the GoodWill for bedroon dressers on which to sit the sewing board.

You can make the sewing board yourself, maybe with some help from your husband or older boys. See if you can locate a marine shop near you, if not find this on the Internet. You want raw, untreated lightweight canvas (it needs to be heavier than duck fabric, about the weight of canvas that artists use for oil paintings. It will be cheaper if you buy it where they are ordering for boat covers, sails etc.) It MUST be untreated, undyed canvas because after you apply it, you want to shrink it. You will need to order about 3 1/4 yards, preferably 60" wide material. I got mine at a marine shop and it cost me about $20.

Go to Lowes or similar hardware store. Purchase a 4'x8'x 5/8" CDX (that is the cheapest, roughest they have) plywood and a piece of 1" or 2" foam board the same size. Be sure that you can stick pins into the foam board.

You are going to "upholster" the board with the canvas. Put the foam board on top of the roughest side of the plywood. Put your canvas over the foam board. Smooth it out, and even it so you have equal amounts on each end and on the sides. With a heavy duty stapler (it should have staples with 1/4 to 3/8 inch "legs" on the staples) staple the canvas at one end. Go to the other end and stretch it tightly and then staple it at that end. Do the
sides next by putting 3-4 staples spaced 4" or so apart on one side, going to the other and doing the same. Then pull and stretch and staple so that you get the canvas as tight as you can. Miter or fold your corners down neatly.

When you are finished, take a clean spray bottle, fill it with plain hot water and spray the canvas until it is fairly damp. Let it dry for a day or two. The untreated canvas will shrink to fit that board like a glove. Be sure the board is centered on your cabinetry. It does not need to be anchored.

You will now have a great surface not only for pattern cutting, but doing your craft work as well.You can mark straight lines on it wirh # 4 pencil at the top and bottom and along the sides for truing up fabric and pressing it straight with your iron. When it gets soiled over time, you can spray it with upholstery cleaner, scrub it up, let it dry and it is ready to use again.

Over the years I have had to replace my canvas several times. (The board went out onto the patio set on saw horses, covered it with colorful plastic and it served as a huge dining table for an outdoor party). Because you have it sitting on the kitchen cabinetry in your sewoing room it will be a better height than the dining table. No more aching back from bending down too low. You will find that this sewing board is also a neat surface for folding laundry... like those soon to arrive baby clothes.

Have an electrician install a good shop light and an overhead electrical bar tying into the ceiling electrical area where your overhead lighting is now, so that you have great lighting and can plug in your iron, fabric steamer, or any craft tools you may be using from the ceiling. No cords for the kids to trip over or the dog to chew. Out of your way, too.

Empty out the closet, take off the door. If you have room to use the door as an extension of that small desk ( balancing it on another unfinished kitchen cabinetry... or something the same height from GoodWill) do that; and set up your sewing machine on it so it is always out ready to use. Put your sewing stuff in the drawers: bobbins, scissors, tapes, pins etc. Depending on how your room is laid out, if you can put this machine table against a wall, you can hang your scissors, spools of thread, 48" metal measuring tool, french curve etc on the wall, If you want to have a minimum of holes in the wall, get some 1"x2" boards anchor them to the studs and mount another piece of plywood on to them. Then hang your stuff on that

Otherwise store the closet door in the garage. Have someone put shelves from top to bottom in the closet, spaced to accommodate your boxes. If I were you I would make the shelves out of strudy wood, braced with the 1"x2" strips on either end of the closet, and maybe a triangular brace in the middle of the board if the closet is a wide one. Might leave enough room before the bottom shelf for a canister vacuum. Get plain white storage boxes for your crafts, paints, half done projects. If you use a computer, print labels with LARGE point size print and put them on each side of the boxes so that you know what is in each one without having to rummage through it each time.

If you have time, money, energy you can paint everything in some cheerful color scheme.

Happy hammering! Enjoy your new sewing room. It will be wonderful to walk in there anytime and pick up where you left off on your project. If your little guys like to "borrow" your stuff, like your good scissors, craft glues, pins etc... might want to put a lock on the door so that they only enter when you can supervise.

Blessed be,
Merylyn (aka Mommie Salami... my adult daughter's sense of humor; she is the one who
submitted my name for participation on this list)

You already have a lot of good suggestions that I agree with, such as going vertical (you can often get inexpensive wall cabinets at Ikea, or even Home Depot or Lowes where you can keep all your various bins behind closed doors to give the room a much neater look...just don't use those doors as an excuse to let the cabinets get messy! If you think that could happen, go with open shelving. You can get shelving systems where the shelves are adjustable. They are easy to install - usually just some rails to screw into the studs and then the shelves just sit on special brackets. You can find these at home improvement stores or places like The Container Store.

If you are into scrapbooks & paper crafts, both Target & Michaels have a series of cubes that are designed for that purpose. Some have drawers and others have several shelves designed to hold 12x12 paper. I have them and they work great!

I also agree that your first step should be to go through what you have and purge. Another idea if you hate the idea of throwing things away is to donate it. Many preschools, elementary schools & senior centers would be happy to take fabric & fabric scraps, ribbon, paper & various crafting supplies for arts and crafts projects. It's very easy for us to hang onto these items "just in case we need them someday" but if someday hasn't come yet, it probably never will.

Wrapping paper has a way of multiplying into a huge problem. (I have this problem, too). Everytime you buy a gift, you buy wrapping paper and keep what's leftover "just in case". Try buying a couple of rolls of solid color wrapping paper (maybe one white or cream, one pastel yellow or green and one a bright color like red or blue) and using them for all occassions. You can always personalize them with ribbon or stickers, or since you're a seamstress, you can sew something fun to attach to the bow. That way you aren't stuck with dozens of odds and ends of wedding, shower, baby, boy, girl, birthday, etc. paper that just gets wrinkled and torn. Again, any unused paper can be donated to the places I mentioned above.

For inspiration, try checking out the Mission Organization site at HGTV. This episode in particular is about sewing rooms, but there are lots of others, too.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/ah_organizing_other/article/0,18...

Just copy and paste the above link.

You're so lucky to have a whole room to devote to your loves! I hope you are able to find a solution that works for you so that you can enjoy your hobbies again!
T.

J.,
My mom was the queen of crafts, I was the queen of organization. We put her current projects into one bin,one each per project. Then we took all the supplies, built shelves into the closed, and put in those rubbermaid drawers that pull out, and stacked them in there, but buy the drawers first, then put in the shelves to they will be the right height to fit two or three of them. Next, put your fabric into tubs with lids and organize it by what type it is, lastly, go around and label everything with something removable, like the p-touch machine. It will be
a wonderful change if you need help, let me know.
W.

My craft room looked just like yours does not too long ago...and if I'm careful, it gets that way again every once in a while. I highly recommend reading "Organizing from the Inside Out" by Julie Morgentstern. (and taking advantage of the offer of a free hour from the professional organizer!)

In the short run, purge! I found it really hard to purge at first. I had so much stuff that might be useful "someday." The best advice I heard is that "someday" isn't on the calendar. If you don't know *exactly* what you'd use something for, it's outta there! You have to be completely cold-hearted-objective. Don't let yourself fall into that "it would be nice if I could...." Be realistic with yourself. If a project isn't holding your attention anymore--and we all have those unfinished projects that *we're* done with even if *it's* not done--get rid of it. All that unfinished stuff and stuff that you might use "someday" is keeping you from getting to and using the stuff that makes your heart sing! So be ruthless in purging! (If you can't stand the thought of throwing it away have a yard sale or list it on EBay or Craigslist and use the money for your new storage needs!)

AFTER you're done purging, sort like with like. Use those tubs you have or just make piles around the room but get everything together. Then look at what sort of storage will work best and do a little research to see the different types of storage solutions out there. The best thing I read in Organizing was to set up your room like a Kindergarten classroom. Everything is easily accessible (which also means easy to put away again!), labeled and in an area where it make sense. (like with like) If some of the tools you use for sewing overlap with scrapbooking, those two areas would be close to each other so you don't have to go across the room to get to what you need. Think about how you use each thing and if it's something you would use more if it were in a drawer out of the way or you'd need to be able to just reach for and grab. I highly recommend using pegboard above work surfaces. Great use of vertical space, gets everything off of your work surface but still very easily accessed. (You can get pegs and clips specially designed for pegboards at any hardware store.) I can't stress the "easily accessed means easily put away again" thing enough. I found if I have to move anything out of the way to get to something else (in the back of the cabinet, etc.) then I'm far less likely to put the thing back when I'm done. Enough of that and your space is a disaster area again.

For now, I'd say get your sewing area set up, since that's what you need immediately. Push everything else into a corner and throw a sheet over it so you don't have the visual clutter, which is overwhelming, and focus on the sewing. Then come back when you have time (yes I know what I'm saying) :) and work through the rest. Or hire a babysitter before the new baby comes for a couple hours at a time--don't do marathon sessions, it gets to be too much, trust me--and get to work.

Take before and after pictures, too. If fun to look back on your own personal "Clean Sweep"! Have fun!

If you can, remove the door to the closet. This creates more of an "alcove" and inspires you to keep it neater. You can paint or wallper inside to make it look more inviting. I keep all my material in plastic drawers on wheels--you can buy these at any office supply store--and you can use a dymo-labeler to indicate what's in each drawer--I have one just filled with ribbon! Get a hanging rack for your threads. A see-through shoe hanger--the kind with little pouches, is a great way to hang up all your sewing implements. Use the wall-space for attractive storage. For the wrapping paper I put clothing hooks on the wall in pairs about 2 1/2 feet apart (see what size an average tube of wrapping paper is and put the hooks about 4 inches in)--get 1/2 inch wooden dowels that are cut 6 inches longer than the paper rolls. Run these through your tubes of paper and set the dowels on the hooks. When you wrap you can just unroll and Voila! Also,If you only buy wrapping paper that "matches" a color scheme you're working with, you actually save money on having to always buy different color ribbons and bows,etc. I painted my desk white and typed categories in large black print--glued these to the outside of the desk drawers and it not only looks very cool but helps me remember what goes where. Remember that you can use a "desk" for your sewing stuff,too. Just be sure it's labeled! Hope at least one of these ideas helps!

Hi J.!
You sound like an awesome mother, and yes, PRAISE THE LORD! Here are some tips for organizing that I got from a lady here at work who is a scrapping queen!!! You need a shelf or rack for your material. Make use of wall space. It gets stuff off the floor.(Do you have a closet in there?) Secondly, get a shelf with a lip on it and some of those "bins" like for college dorms or even the small plastic storage tubs. Label them and make one "buttons," one "thread," one material scraps, etc. If you need 2 shelves, then make 2 shelves. If you need 3, then 3. Then, with the project bins. Create ONE bin for EACH project. That way, you can come in, grab the bin you want, work on what just that project, and put it back...The same with supplies. You need a needle- get to the bin- which can have smaller bins inside for organizing/compartments, and get your needle. Then head to the thread bin, etc.
The table should be clear. I am a stacker. I stack all sorts of junk everywhere and it seems to grow. It's a discipline to put stuff away. If there is enough room for both the desk and table, awesome. If not, I suggest keeping one or the other and moving the other out. If there is, organize the room as such that they are not right next to the door. You can walk in, walk to your bins (which are stackable when empty!) get what you need, work on your project, etc.
Now, for your wrapping and scrapping... I suggest bins for your scrapping as well. For the wrapping- if it's on rolls, you can always hang little prongs (think toilet paper rolls, but larger) that you can roll off what you need and leave the rest on the wall. Or, like me, since I am short on space, I unroll the roll, fold it up, and tuck it into a drawer. I used to have a wrapping bin, but it always seemed to explode. So now, it's a drawer.
On top of all of that, I keep a pair of scissors in every spot- one in the sewing stuff, one in the scrapping stuff, and one in the wrapping stuff...unless you have a central location you can keep "scissors" and stuff like that.
Good luck with your organizing! I am by no means the queen of clean and clutter free, but people have passed some great tips on to me.
I hope this is helpful!

I am only just now catching up on reading these posts, so I am late in being able to answer. You have been given a lot of great suggestions. I would only add a suggestion that you check out www.bestscrapbookshelf.com
I am also a professional organizer. If you're in the Sacramento area, I would love to help you. You can check out my website at www.SacHomeTransitions.com
Generally, my best advice would be to do this in small steps - don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Organizing is a process, and it will get messier before it gets better, as you sort through things and decide what goes where. But you can do it!!

I saw something in a magazine, and I'm dying to make it. I thought you might appreciate it, too.

They made a box about 2 foot by 3 foot, only 2-3 inches deep. (Think of a large shadow box). They used pine, but you could probably use MDF-fiberboard. They applied peg board to the inside back of it, and painted the whole thing a bright cheerful color. Then they took a stretcher frame, and covered it with a pretty decorative fabric that matched the painted color of the box. The stretcher frame (covered in fabric) was attached to the large box with cabinet hinges to create a door. This big box was hung over a sewing table like a picture. But you opened the door of the 'picture', and you had inside a framed pegboard box on which you could hang sewing notions, such as scissors, rulers, cutters, etc. When notions were not in use, the door to the box was closed, and all the notions were hidden away behind the framed pretty fabric.

That was one way to go vertical, without looking messy.

I hope this helps.

I have a freind who uses an armoire with clear tubs labeled with fabric, art supplies, projects, etc. You can use the smaller "shoebox" size containers for partially finished projects or smaller supply items or use small free standing closet shelving within the armoire to hold the smaller shoebox containers rather than stacking them in a larger bin. This is a nice alternative to tying up a closet or in the event that you do not have closet space to use.

Good luck organizing! Tackle your project in small chunks 15 minutes at at time or set a goal to deal with one area or your fabric collection today and some other item tomorrow. The hardest part is starting when we are overshelmed by a large unorganized mess. Check out the flylady on the internet, they are fantastic!!

Well, what I've done for my sewing/craft area is place one set of stackable shelves on my desk. This is for fabric, misc. sewing items and such. On the wall in front of my desk, I'm getting a peg board put up. I can hang my scissors, hot glue gun and such, as well as running a wooden dowel between two hooks where I can hang my ribbon and thread. As far as pictures and the such, get one of those cute fabric covered boards with the ribbon criss crossing it that you can slip the pictures into. For your ceramics and paints you can get little cupboards with doors at Target that work really well. I don't know if this helps at all, but that's what has worked for me. Good luck.

I have found that when I have a room that is disorganized, I need to get rid of some things. I think your first step is to go through everything and get rid of whatever you will not be using in the next 6 months. You can create gift baskets with it, or give it to Goodwill, etc - but get it out of your craft space so you have room to work. Then you can set up shelves or baskets inexpensively, based on whatever you have left. Label everything, and always put everything away every time you leave the room. Then resist buying anything new until you've completed your in-progress projects. I go through all my closets and rooms several times a year doing this, and reducing the sheer volume of stuff is what really helps!

I keep all my fabric in a small armourer. I put my fabric to be cut in tubs that I stack inside, I have fabric squares of various sizes that I keep in plastic bags, the kind sheets come in. The plastic tubs are 18qt that I purchased at Target. My armourer came from my in-laws, but I think IKEA has inexpensive ones also. I don't have a lot of other kinds of craft items, but I would think the same idea could be used for your other items, if you have room maybe for two armorers. You could also use cork board on on wall to display pictures, and have an "idea board". I think the biggest pay off would be just to get everything off the floor, and put away, use vertical space whenever possible. Maybe use a chain suspended from the ceiling, that you could attach your baskets too, kinda like a stuffed animal chain thing that you would use to keep your kids stuff on. Hope these ideas help some. I just remembered, for wrapping paper I saw where someone had used a dresser, they stored the paper in a big drawer, and all the other stuff, ribbon, scissors, tape, cards, whatever in the smaller drawers, and you have a flat surface to wrap on, I thought that was a good idea also. Well good luck.

"Baby steps as taught at flylady.com !

I have the same problem. And my name is JoAnne C too! haha I go by A. though. I think it'd be a lifesaver if you can find someone to work on it with you. Then, help them in return somehow. My craft room is separate from the house and I have a lot of books and old stuff my husband and I are storing in there. I want to start with a garage sale, but it's a little overwhelming. I'm 8.5 months along. If you're pregnant you probably can't do much lifting. Even buying all the organizer stuff and lugging it around and with 5 kids! I wish you luck!
My sister is the mom of 9! She had 7 girls all in a row and then her 8th and 9th were boys.

Hi, Have you considered doing and organizer closet? We put them in 4 of 5 closets (husband got burnt out and still needs to do the last one). But I love them. Go to the container store and have them design one for you for free--then go to home depot and buy the materials for less than 1/2 the price.

Also, purge! Get rid of the little scraps and what-not that you think you may use one day, but honestly you never will.

Sounds like you are ready to nest. Remember to get clean you gotta get messy first.

Blessings

I would get rid of anything that you know you don't need or is not in good conditon. Also go through your fabric and get rid of anything that is too small or has a stain or you know you well never use agin.

Then find a friend and go shopping. Target, ikea, teh contanier store, and storable are great places to go. Go with a good idea of how much stuff you have so get what you need. My room has a lot of shelves and contaniers but i mostly scrapbook so there are many small parts.

The only other piece of advice i have is LABLE LABLE LABLE.
it well make everything easier to find and put away.

Good luck
A.

I saw some really neat products on Oprah. The owners of "The Container Store" were the days' guests. I bet you can check out there website, if even just for ideas. Ikea has really good and inexpensive storage products, too. I think they even have pictures of rooms on their webistes for ideas and such.

Good for you, dear heart- anyone who homeschools and sews - GOOD for you! - I use one of those ''hangs on the back of the door'' door'sized ''''shoe''' keepers for smallish stuff- and sewing projects and equipment might just fit very nicely- that's a space that is often NOT used - and would keep a lot of things handy for you. __

Blessings -
God loves a merry heart -

J.
aka- Old Mom

wow! look at you! congratulations!

one thing I found, being an inveterate door remover (I have actual *room* doors stored in my garage, not just closet doors ;) ), is that a curtain can make all the difference--it doesn't block the energy (actually it often improves it by 'softening' it), but it does _completely_ remove the visual input (even a nice labelled set of boxes on shelves might sometimes be nice to cover up with a gentle sweep of fabric ;) --and it helps little hands 'remember' that there is a line they shouldn't cross without at least *considering* asking Mommy ;)!! ).

I get mine at Goodwill, where a room-door-wide, to-the-floor curtain is about $2. Matching sets are a little harder to find, of course, so if you have a nice wide modern closet (I don't), Goodwill might not be as great an answer.

Curtain hardware is of course available lots of places, including Fred Meyer if you are a NW'er. I use cafe rods, which don't hurt the kids or the wall when they are inevitably pulled down because someone wrapped themselves up in a curtain. (Better than slamming fingers in a door ;). )

I hope you have a wonderful wonderful time in your successful room :)!

--K.

Well I never saw this post, but I'm also in the process of organizing my craft room! Some girls from my church LOVE organizing (ages 16 and 9) and their sister (age 11) has been playing w/my 2 boys while they help me sort. They keep me motivated, too! We discovered that old comforter/curtain packages are good for big projects. They have a zipper and are clear so you don't have to label...if you know what fabric is w/what project! haha! Kudos to you for homeschooling 5 boys! I am getting ready to send my oldest to Kindergarten and I am ready for the break! Glad you got some stuff done while you were in nesting phase! I can barely get anything done w/2...don't know how you do it! God bless you!

Ok first of all.. sew some things for me!! just kidding... have you thought of calling closet world? They do more than just closets. My bf had a closet turned into a computer desk area. It looked really neat and gave him the office space he so desperately wanted.

J., I am a Professional Organizer and the best hands on solution is to go "vertical". Tubs tend to be chaos contained but not functional. There are many solutions for your fabric whether it be bolts or swatches, pictures-photos should be store in acid free "boxes", paints/ceramics/baskets on wall hooks and vertical stacked craft stands with wheels. If you are interested in a free hour assessment for me to organize, please contact me.
www.custommovesolutions.com
C.

I know this is late...but I must have missed the original request...my sewing room always seems to be a mess...but something my daughter got me several yrs ago was the best...it is a three drawer (about 11" wide) unit...in the top drawer I keep all the instruction booklets for my machines (I could never find them when I wanted them-I can now), in another drawer I dvided it with a drawer divider(sometimes I just use cookie packets)...and keep all my needles in it with other sewing supplies....third drawer I use it for material markers, seam rippers,scissors etc. I just love this organizer. Also, we move alot and my sewing tables change depending on circumstances...this time I ended up with a huge above the desk cubicle and I have also enjoyed this. My three drawer unit is not too big that things get lost, it is the best...it was not expensive yet so handy.

I missed this when first posted but am very interested in the diapers you are sowing. I have been buying cloth diapers and covers but would be very interested in trying to sow some. DO you have a pattern? Or did you just measure from one you bought? For the covers, did you find the PUL fabric somewhere or do you also knit the wool covers??
I know you have your hands very full, but would love to get any information you have a few minutes to write about. Thanks! becky

I rescued the old (small) dining room table and put bed risers under it so it's the perfect cutting table / ironing height for me and use the underneath for those rolling storage bins for my fabric, too! And I told my husband that my sewing desk and cutting table were MINE and that any of his stuff I found in my area would be on the floor!!! :)
Just enjoy the hum of your machine!!!

Target sells these modular wire cube racks. They can't hold a lot of heavy stuff, but they are great for fabric.