I love things being neat and clean. But I’m also a creative spirit. So that means parts of my sewing room are cluttered with random fabric heaps, antique magazines stacked on top of hat boxes, various bins of ribbons, loose pieces of pattern paper, and of course the “current project” pile.
But having some sort of an “organized mess” in your sewing area will be immensely helpful to projects being successfully completed.
Even if you are one of those really creative personalities that naturally has a disheveled and messy sewing room, you have to be organized at some level.
So how do you arrange all those piles so that in the middle of a project you can go straight to the spot where your bone casing is kept? Let’s take a look at 19 helpful ways of storing your sewing stuff where you can find it.
1. For starters, every historical sewer needs a place for her books. As we study past fashion and work on new construction techniques, our personal library becomes vital to delving deeper into historical clothing and costumes.
A simple bookcase can hold more than books, though. Use it to stack patterns and pattern boxes, hat boxes, trim bins, fabrics folded and on boards, and more. One day your costume library will expand so much that a second bookcase will be needed. ‘hehe’
2. Open wall units with a variety of shelves and spaces are great places to store books, boxes and even bonnets too big for regular hat boxes. These smaller cubbyholes are perfect to store a current project’s materials. Or use each space for a different project.
3. Utility shelving (open shelves with a metal frame sold for garage storage) are mighty helpful in a sewing room. The shelves are large enough to hold plastic bins, tall hat boxes, baskets, pressing aids, fabrics, a radio or TV, and a bowl of chocolate chips. The openness of the unit allows room for irregular-sized costume pieces to have a place of their own.
4. Peg board can be mounted to any wall for vertical storage. You can find small bins with their own hooks to store pens and pencils, notions such as hook & eye sets, cloth tape measures, and pins. Tie a ribbon onto your scissors and hang on a peg hook. Many rulers sold today have a top center hole – hang those up as well. This makes your tools readily accessible for any project.
5. If you have the wall space, a small corkboard can be used for more than photos and design sketches. Pin up current project sewing instructions. Keep a few hand needles stuck in one corner for quick tasks.
If you’ve learned a new technique and made a sample, put it up for future reference. Use the corkboard for all sorts of samples and good-to-remember tips. Pin up a cartridge pleating sample, embroidery stitch samples, and ribbon pleating strips. Notes with helpful hints like where to set your machine guides for stitching in boning or piping or when using the ruffler foot are useful to have at a moment’s glance.
6. Ask for discarded fabric boards and tubes at the fabric store. Use them at home to keep your own fabric wrapped neatly. Pre-treat your fabric then fold and roll onto the board or tube.
Be careful of wrapping soft fabric onto tubes then standing them up for storage. The fabric can slide down the tube, causing buckling around the bottom. This can be very hard to press out. Fabric rolls should be stored horizontally if at all possible.
7. Mark all new fabric purchases with the yardage amount (length), fabric width, fiber content, and if the piece has been pre-treated onto a square of muslin. Safety pin the muslin to the fabric corner. This one step will save you a lot of good sewing time!
8. Keep like fabrics together when storing. Fabrics should be kept lightly folded but flat or on boards. Sort them by fibers (silk, linen, cotton, rayon, etc.) or by colors. Protect wools from bugs with cedar or moth balls.
9. Plastic bins of all sizes are great for storing folded fabric, interfacing, fabric scraps, patterns, trims (sorted by color or type), ribbons, notions, you name it! And if you get the clear bins, you can easily see your supplies without digging through stacks of boxes. The plastic bins available today stack so well is so you can use vertical storage in a small sewing space.
10. How do you find that bone casing? Purchase medium bins the size of shoeboxes to separate supplies. Have one for bias tapes (purchased or made), another one for piping, and a third for bone casing and twill tapes.
If you find yourself overwhelmed with too much trim, divide your laces from ribbons and other trims such as feathers, and keep all in their own spot. You can further divide them by storing all white lace apart from colored lace, black trim separate from light and dark colored trim, etc.
11. Hat boxes also make terrific sewing storage containers. Use smaller sizes for hairpieces, wigs, embroidery supplies, or for a good-size travel sewing kit. Medium and large hat boxes can be used not only for hats and bonnets, but also for flowers, feathers and other 3-D trims, ribbon spools, sewing tools and hardware, and current project supplies. They stack nicely on the top of a bookcase.
12. Try a fishing tackle box to store your small notions and tools. The little sections work really well for hook & eye sets, buttons, snaps, marking tools, cutting tools, crochet hooks, grommets, buckles, elastic hanks, even boning if a compartment is long enough.
13. If you hang your finished costumes in a closet, drape an old sheet over the rod, coming down each side to cover the tops of the clothes. I’m still surprised how much dust can collect on the tops of costumes in closed closets.
14. For carting costumes to events, utilize bed sheets for transporting. Use old sheets or purchase them at discount stores and sew up a long bag. Use a twin or full size flat sheet. Fold in half lengthwise, sew the edges together, then fold down the top edge and sew a casing for a drawstring. Keep the bottom open.
Slip bag over your costumes that are on hangers, and pull up the drawstring around the hanger bases. You can also add a button hole in each side of the bottom hem to pull up and slip over the hangers. Makes a neat package!
15. Also using old sheets, you can sew up pillowcase sized bags with a simple drawstring casing to hold undergarments like corsets, chemises, drawers, petticoats, stockings and shoes. Even mini bags can keep your historical jewelry separate from your modern jewelry while keeping pieces clean and protected.
16. Many craft stores carry wooden slat crates that are perfect for holding all your historical sewing patterns in their oversize envelopes or bags. Most are available to purchase unfinished for you to be creative with paint. Look in the wood section.
17. Boning stores well in a tall kitchen canister with the lid removed. Look for spaghetti-type storage jars. And rubber-band like sizes together.
18. Use a Sharpie™ or other thin marker to write bone length sizes on the end of your flat white bones. This trick is amazing in saving time searching and measuring to find the correct size bone. It also makes it easy to glance at your stash so you know which sizes to order.
19. Presentation paper pads, (approx. 24” x 32”) from office supply stores, make for workable pattern paper. Use picture hooks to hang from the top holes behind a door. Makes the paper handy, keeps it flat, and gets it off the table so you can sew!
No matter if your sewing supplies and materials are stacked, folded or thrown in a corner. Having a little bit of “method to the madness” will make your sewing life easier. It’ll also help you get those projects done faster.
To really declutter your sewing space, read my post on using the KonMari Method to tidy up.
I’ve a touch of OCD, so I keep my sewing room very neat and organized. Since I wasn’t planning on hanging much in the closet, I had shelves installed on both sides. It gives me plenty of storage space, and there’s still room to hang things in the middle, which is good in case we ever sell the house. I wrap my cotton fabrics on comic boards and store them in dresser drawers, organized by color. All my shelves are filled with photo boxes, baskets, and bins in colors that match my sewing room’s decor. There’s a lot of them, so I’ve often had students ask me, “Do you actually know what’s in all those boxes?” Even though they aren’t labeled, the answer is yes! Since I’m very color-oriented, I know that the dark purple box holds my ribbon collection, while the giant lavender bin holds knit jersey fabrics, and the lime green box holds my antique lace collection, and so forth. The only time I misplace sewing items is when I decide to go in and reorganize things. . . .
I would add to no.7 that if you bought the fabric for a specific future project to mark that down as well. More than once I’ve used yardage I had earmarked for something specific, and didn’t notice until I got ready to start the project.
Same here! Now where did that silk organza go….
So many great ideas! I don’t have room for a big cutting table so I use an air hockey table, It has raised edges so rulers, pencils, and cutters don’t fall off constantly. It’s big enough for two large cutting mats taped together on their back sides. It’s also a little higher than a normal table which is nice for cutting and it’s narrow enough I can reach all the way across.
I have two walls of my sewing room fitted out with open modular closet organizers from Home Depot and a large “desk” built on another wall for machines and cutting (wide shelving also from Home Depot with 2×4 supports) the other wall has a table with laundry baskets beneath for large storage and the space is finished with clear plastic storage drawers. Everything is visible (even the projects I want to forget to finish) and easy to find. The grid shoe racks like this are PERFECT for storing spools of thread, baggies with bits and pieces, boxes with trim and beads – any small thing that just needs a cubby!
I discovered a great trick by accident!
I finally have a dedicated sewing room (hurrah!) shared only with a couple of bookcases and some files. When I’m not sewing, we use the space for hanging sheets to dry inside, for which my husband has strung a clothesline a bit above my head. I hated that he kept forgetting to take it down, until he was helping me cut out a new dress. When I finished cutting one of the many long skirt panels, my husband took it and draped it over the clothesline…now I don’t know how I managed without one! It’s brilliant! It holds all the big pieces close to hand without taking up valuable table space. It is currently holding my sewn skirt while I’m waiting to set the waist.
As for the items I chose on purpose, my favorite’s are a pair of glass front bookshelves that keep my fabric stash neat and visible, and a pair of small metal rolling drawers from IKEA with lots is small drawers to hold my equipment and supplies in categories.
I have been forced to organize my sewing notions because I now have a sewing buddy. Every Wednesday I pack up and travel to her home for dinner, conversation and sewing. So I now have plastic storage containers which I carry in a laundry basket. This makes loading and transporting things easier. Nothing like taking one’s sewing room on the road to force one to organize. The back seat of the car looks like a fabric store on wheels. However, leaving important items behind taught me to make a check list before packing up.
Having a friend who shares my enjoyment of creating is worth it all.
Just in time for my summer organizing!
I love your tips on storage containers.
My stash currently is yards and yards of quilting fabrics. I am excited to be venturing into costuming and Historical sewing, it looks like I may need to sell my quilting stash to make room for all the new supplies. 🙂
Love you FB page & Blog!
the rolling stacked bins ons wheels are my fav. I keep my trim and ribbon in it if I wanted to “try out a trim on a costume I can roll the whole shebang over to my project,pick stuff out and return it directly to the drawer if it doesn’ t work.I was also given an expandible wall hat,coat,scarf rack. when pulled out to full length it like 8ft.Micheal’s craft store has boxes with a octopus art on it that I designated as “Steampunk” so I keep small SP items in there, I can grab and go if I need to take it somewhere.I also bought different sized cardboard “suitcases”with watch and clock artwork at Micheal’s so larger SP items go in there. having trouble trying to figure out where to store crinolines,the closet is about 3ft wide,3 ft deep..so its filled.COnsidered “flying” the slips on hooks and pulleys,but I don’t really have alot of ceiling space either . Clear shoe boxes are my friend. Only problem is, when I “organise”, I can never find anything!
I haven’t got the advantage of a sewing room or even a permanent table for my sewing machine to live on. So organization has become key. Every time I want to sew at leas 45 minuets of set up time is required. I keep every thing in clear plastic boxes in varying sizes to try and keep this time to a minimum. I even keep a few boxes for my unfinished projects.
May I suggest not using moth balls for wools. There are herbal sachets that can work just as well, and you don’t have to deal with the chemical smell that lingers horribly on them (which can make some people rather sick). I put my wool fabrics into a space bag, add in a couple of herbal sachets, close them up, then suck out the air with the vacuum cleaner hose. Sometimes the bags will leak air back in, but the bugs still stay out and they smell herbal instead.
And thanks for your suggestions here. I’ve got a pretty organized sewing room, but you have tips that will make my work even easier.
One more idea, a label maker really can be helpful, although the Sharpie is quick. What matters is to label it so you know what is in the boxes and bins that are being stored. I store my plastic bins in cupboards with labels on them, and put a label on the door so I know in general what’s behind those doors at a quick glance.
One way I keep my sewing room neat is: a small shopping bag hangs at the end of my cutting table. Bits of fabric too small to go in my remnant cabinet and too big to throw away go into it as I’m cutting. When it’s full, I give it to a quilting guild. They love the fancy fabrics for their art quilts. Makes me feel like I’m not wasting fabric & keeps my remnants to a usable size.
One thing that helps keep the clutter down is cleaning twice a day. In tailoring you clean up the area at lunch, this includes sweeping the floors and putting bits you are no longer using away. Then at the end of the day you sweep the floors again place the days work neatly to the side ready for the next day.
If you get into a routine like this daily then the clutter will not grow until it is unbearable. A clean environment really helps creativity and willingness to work. Even if you are on a deadline and are working at a fast pace, take a moment to clean and gather your thoughts.
Thanks for these!! I live in a tiny apartment and my sewing “room” is actually an active hallway, so I find I have to be super-organized or things get out of control Really Fast 😀
Some helpful tips to expand on your list:
-Use a quilt basting gun at the end of your fabric, from selvage to selvage, to hold it onto a roll and keep it from falling down. You can then roll it, pin the other end into place, and it can be stored vertically.
-The acidity in cedar can discolor your fabric, particularly if sealed in a plastic bin or otherwise non-breathable place with it. Protect your wools and silks from bugs by storing them folded on clip-style hangers, in zippered muslin garment bags.
-Make a catalog for your fabrics – every time you buy a piece, clip a corner off it, staple it to an index card, and put all your info on the index card (yardage, care, content, cost, etc). Store cards in a recipe box. Then, to know what you have, you only have to flip through your recipe box, not go looking at tags on every piece of fabric.
Hi There Jennifer,
I, on the other hand, LOVE that you are on FB and twitter, and may not have discovered you otherwise. It’s wonderful that you have utilized social media to spread the word and educate others on historical sewing. (Bravo!)
Thank you for your excellent work preserving history in the modern age. As a professional Tech Designer and hard-core sewer/costumer, I greatly appreiciate you existance.
Thanks Again,
-Kathleen
Thank you, Fran, for your honest feedback.
It is true I do use Facebook and Twitter to connect with others who enjoy sewing historical costumes. Please do not feel excluded though! My main articles will always be posted here so you can stay in touch and learn new things.
If you have any ideas on how I can help you in your sewing, please let me know.
I am disappointed that you are using Face Book for some of your information. That leaves me out, I won’t do Face Book for personal reasons.
I really enjoy what your do and since I do sewing for reenactors of all eras, I truely appreciate your good work and instructions. Your photos make it so nice and easy to see what your are doing
thanks for all your hard work
Fran Wilcox
Great idea for keeping bones in tall kitchen “spaghetti” or other container. Mine have just been in a ziplock bag and poke thru.
I have a rather organized space, but some of these are solid gold. I’m loving the pegboard/ slotwall idea for oft- used notions, the hangar bags are brilliant, as is the muslin label on your fabrics.
I often buy thrift store yardage (after a burn test, discretely) so I measure and label using the thrift shop hang tag.
Looking at the picture, having lived in that small apartment with you, I remember how much space was at a premium. It’s certainly nice to have your own sewing room, isn’t it? Perhaps you can post some pics of your current work space to show a ‘before & after’ effect. Very good tips for all of us neat freaks; makes me want to organize my own office now!