Background: Mr. Felt Food Kids has moved me quite a few times in the past few years. Our last move was to this small apartment in Milwaukee while we wait for our home to sell. We moved at the end of October........and it looks like we'll be moving out of state for his job again in about two months, much longer if we're lucky.
Why organize? Why not just keep it all in boxes?
My two etsy shops (http://www.etsy.com/shop/FeltFoodKids and http://www.etsy.com/shop/AmazingGraceCreate) are starting to take off and I need to find things quickly! Those of us with sewing/crafting addictions realize that these hobbies can take up a large part of your time. The last thing you need is to search through piles and boxes for 30 minutes every day.
So this week I organized and fully unpacked my sewing studio. Oh my! I worried Mr. Felt Food Kids would get a little frustrated when he saw how many boxes of things I have accumulated. I am grateful for 2 things in life: 1) professional movers packed us so they were the only ones who knew the truth as they pulled boxes from storage and packed more and 2) Mr. Felt Food Kids' mother was an avid sewer so he grew up with this kind of collection.
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| Overview: My Sewing Studio, just organized! |
I use the guest bed for current projects. That's a stack of men's dress shirts being transformed on the edge of the bed, a pair of jeans I need to mend for Mr. Felt Food Kids beside it (why do those projects always get put off?), onesies getting ready for applique up near the pillows, and an adorable red fleece coat I'm sewing for Grace this spring. Ready for a closer look?
I'm not proud of the Tower of Terror on the left. I'm trying to decide on a storage solution--I'm sure there will be many blog updates as I finally organize my things. This is my first time finally having a space of my own so bear with me!
Diaper box #1 is cotton scraps, #2 is flannel scraps and #3 is baby clothes waiting to be made into a quilt for Grace. That's right I make lots of baby clothes quilts for everyone else but my own daughter's is barely started! I'm waiting as I collect more outfits, right? lol The big blue bin, nicknamed BIG BLUE, holds burp cloths, shoes, and onesies listed at AGC. The dresses are in another closet. The bin under that is finished baby gifts for my brother and sister. Neither family is expecting but someday.... :)
The stack of see through bins with white lids are full of patterns and more long term projects that I have yet to finish. I'm hoping keeping them in sight will help inspire me to finish them!
This bookcase was recently reclaimed from Grace's play room. The bottom shelf holds a felt in each color (don't worry, I have bins more of felt--this is my starter collection used to start projects, lol). On the top shelf, there are 2 rows of Christmas fabrics. I'm making Christmas quilts as gifts this year. On the right is a few more flannels and vintage bed linens stacked on top of those.
The wooden basket on top holds baby shoes in baggies, ready to be finished. It's honestly quite a good system. The black milk crates on the right? Those are FULL of felt food. So full I need more storage & am working hard to try and figure out what that will look like. As we've all seen now, my studio is very full.
Here is where the magic happens, lol. The kenmore sewing machine is a $90 model I got for $10 on craigslist and Old Bessy is a work horse. I have no idea how she has survived this long (2 years) and would like to get a better model and give Old Bessy a bit of a break but that will have to wait, especially since Old Bessy is hanging in there. Poor thing works every day and I'm not always nice to her, making her sew several layers of denim not to mention the felt and fleece fluff that often crams her crevices.
The desk I got for free at the side of the road. A coat of paint, scrapbook paper & decoupage and she was looking pretty good. Then Grace decided to rip paper off. *sigh* Of course the desktop is never empty. Those are 2 baby bibs waiting for velcro (now done).
The pile on the floor to the right of the desk is supplies I'm going to sell soon. Promise.
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| This is getting embarrassing! |
You'll see inside the cabinet in a minute but on top are my photo taking supplies. The furniture on the right is a dresser from Ikea that actually does store Grace's clothes. On top, I have a basket full of symphony broadcloth scraps in a million colors so I always have the right color on hand, a handy ribbon organizer full or ribbon and another basket full of misc. There are 2 jelly rolls, various ribbon scraps and some clothing tags for my AGC shop in there right now.
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| This, my friends is why the doors are always shut. |
I got the storage cabinet at a garage sale for $5 and am thankful to have something with doors!
Top shelf: craft glue, diapers for burp cloths washed & ready to go, zip lock bags
Second Shelf: organizers full of thread, projects completed but waiting for other pieces (ie: burp cloths waiting for me to finish the matching diaper bag), and I also store inspirational pieces here--a vintage doll quilt I want to replicate, etc.
Third Shelf: Containers with velcro, ribbon, & other scraps, a small stack of designer fat quarters, a baby quilt that is started
Bottom Shelf: A box of vintage patterns next to a pile of vintage fabrics
This is as far as I'm going today. It's half of my studio. I'll share the other half next Monday. For now, I need to hide in shame at all my supplies, etc. Oddly enough Mr. Felt Food isn't bothered by it at all but he does agree that whenever/where ever we move, I will always need a dedicated work space. I also feel the need to add that my mother is worse! :) She once told Mr. Felt Food: "she who dies with the most fabric wins" and he seems to have believed it for now.
Later this week I have a review of a local restaurant that needs to be featured on Diners, Drive ins and Dives, a post on cooking with kids (or at least cooking with Grace), and join me again on Friday for more Healthy Snacks. This week it's the Letter B!
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