Good morning! I did sew something for K: an absolutely dull blue and not particularly attractive Seahawks tee-shirt at my daughter’s request, because she — much to my shock — is a football fan. Who knew parents completely oblivious to the Superbowl would produce a gung-ho 12th man? 12th man is the term used for a Seahawks fan, as I understand it, but don’t hold me to it.
But why subject you, my discerning friends, to a stenciled tee yet again? Instead, I thought it might be a little more interesting to continue showing you my sewing space. I love seeing how other people have their work areas set up and maybe you would have suggestions for improving mine – that would be much appreciated! I ended up with more photos than I expected, so there’s going to be a part 3 on Wednesday.
Shall we continue with the desk? I picked up the little organizer with drawers from Storables years ago and it works really well to keep all of my odds and ends stored yet accessible (I can’t find the 20-drawer version online, but it’s similar to this).
On top of the little organizer, I keep my weights I get from the hardware store for tracing patterns. They’re in a wooden bowl a dear Kiwi friend gave me as a gift. I’ve had that bowl for over fifteen years and it makes me happy to have this memorabilia from her (she lives in Australia now and it’s been many years since we’ve had a proper face-to-face chat). The glass jar holds vintage safety pins from my mom, and the pincushion for hand-sewing needles and extra pins is from Daiso, our local Japanese dollar store. The jumbo darning needle (the gold one) is handy for poking out corners or threading elastic. The pretty glass coaster is from Anthropologie and I love the colors and sparkle. And of course, I can’t live without my seam ripper nearby.
The tiny little drawers are ideal for my assorted tools. The first row is exclusively for the machine needles I use the most (except the twin needles – those I dislike and avoid using). You can see that I separate my needles by type.
The second row has extra hand-sewing needles, less frequently used machine needles, and extra pins.
The third row is a mish mash – I store my presser feet in the first drawer and info about the various presser feet next to it. I have some chalk powder, a tape measure and a brooch from M’s grandmother (no idea why it’s in there) and snaps. I could organize this better…
The fourth row has threaders, bodkins, the little brush for cleaning out the sewing machine dust, oil, point turner and seam presser (never used it), chalk, and tape for assembling PDF patterns. That last drawer contains plastic labels for the drawers, which I obviously haven’t bothered to use.
Moving along to the desk drawers, I already showed you the one that contains the my fave thread colors. The drawer above it houses the bobbins and my walking foot and a Bernina pouch that came with the sewing machine. The pouch contains some mysterious tools that came with the sewing machine — I have yet to figure them out. This is also where I keep the instruction manual for my sewing machine. I use the tweezers to thread my serger and like to have it accessible.
The center shallow drawer is still in progress and has all of my other thread spools.
And then on the right, the top drawer is a bevy of tools I couldn’t fit into the desktop organizer and don’t want to have out in the open necessarily. More pin cushions, needles, tape measures, tape, dusters, wonder clips. It used to look a little neater when I first cleaned it out.
The final drawer is where all of my favorite elastics congregate. I often use the 1/8″, 3/8″, 1/2″ and occasionally the 5/8″ and 1″. I also toss in double-sided fusible tapes, knit tapes, Steam-A-Seam and piping in here.
On the left side of my sewing table, I keep all of my Japanese sewing books and a selection of other, non-Japanese sewing books, along with my reference binder for commercial patterns. To take this photo, I had to pull it out into the hallway since I didn’t have enough room to frame its entirety.
Now that I’m looking at these images, I’m itching to organize everything better. This was a good exercise! Stay tuned for part three: the cutting table + ironing station!
I’ve read on other blogs that some bloggers organize their books by the color of the spine. Seems fairly useless, but you could make it look so good!
I’ve seen that! I love the idea in theory, but I know that I’d forget to keep it color coordinated with the sewing books since I pull them out so frequently. 🙂
You have a lot of stuff. Lots of little thing reveal themselves as you look through your sewing supplies. more little things than is apparent from looking at your station. Is this a sign of good organization?
I’m intrigued by your comment, Max! I want to know what’s revealed 🙂
Well, let’s see? You have a lot of green and khaki thread, but not so much blue. Your “cute” stuff, like pincushions are inside the drawer, and not out. You do not have a roll tape dispenser, but I see some rolls of colourful tape. Things like that.
You’re a keen observer, Max! My life would be a lot easier if I had a tape dispenser, but my laziness reveals itself there. And you’re totally right, I try to keep the cutesy or too colorful supplies hidden to give my eyes some relief. 🙂
I feel I have a much better understanding of OCD after reading this post. Your organization skills are to envy! 😀
Haha! I try to keep things organized because my space is so tiny — of course, things don’t always look quite this clutter-free ;-). Thanks Jing!
so fun to see all this! I love the idea of drawers for all your supplies – mine are hanging on a peg board and inevitably spill over from the bag they’re in. That thread drawer is eye candy to a sewist – love all the fun colors together:)
I love my threads all together too! I want to get one of those drawer dividers (or make one) since the threads end up rolling around unless I pull the drawer out sloooowly 🙂 A pegboard is a great idea! But yes, my little desktop organizer is very handy. 🙂
Love all the drawers. I need some more for all my “haberdashery” supplies 🙂
I spotted some Merchant & Mills entomology pins – aren’t they fantastic (except when you accidentally stab your fingers)?!
The M & M pins are lovely! Truth be told, the packaging is what lured me to them 😉 Thanks Rhoda!
What a fun and interesting post! I love your organisation of your supplies – must make sewing much more efficient. And you have all the supplies that could be needed for most projects, which must cut down on the frustration involved in not having something you need – one of my bugbears. I just expect what I need to be there.
I can also see the benefit in all items having a place that is off your workspace – another thing I need to do.
Thank you for sharing – I’m enjoying this, and as usual, am inspired!
It’s definitely gotten more and more efficient over the years! Since I tend to err on the side of getting too much stuff, I don’t often run out of stuff but I have the problem of overflow. Must get cracking on the sewing!! 🙂 Thank you, Jenny!
oooh! I wish I was that organized! And everything looks lovely as well. 🙂
Thanks Traveller! I feel like I can always be more organized, but it’s very much a finely tuned working station at this point. 🙂
Yet another fun post! I have to say that the first photo was framed funny on my computer and I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. It totally looked like the organizer was on the floor and was huge and that the wooden bowl on top was an epic showpiece! Then I scrolled down a little and the pincushion and scissors showed up and my eyes and brain were not connecting information at all. Finally, I figured it out. My brain does not work anymore, obviously!!
I love seeing all your tools and little bits and bobs for sewing. It’s great. I don’t know how you’ll survive the burden of being so cool and all of your readers’ expectations from now on 😉
Oh, Alana, I’m so not cool…but thanks for that, it brightened my day 🙂 That’s weird that the image came up so distorted. I had to update my WordPress so maybe something went awry. I’ll never understand technology 🙂 Thank you!
Oh no, your image wasn’t distorted. It was how my brain translated what my eyes saw that was all off kilter 🙂
Oh, that’s interesting! That organizer thing was disproportionately large in the image 🙂
Hi Sanae,
I am in the very exact place where I am organizing my new sewing space. Love the elastics drawer…and might take some tips from here. Oh and that little cute thing to hold the bobbins in lovely!
Ah, I meant to include a link to the bobbin holder. It’s great – one of my fave sewing tools! 🙂 Thanks, Asmita!
Hello, me again…
What do you use wonder clips for? I’ve never heard of them. Searched online and got a bit of an idea, but interested to hear your take on them.
PS I agree with Asmita. Our guru of cool
🙂
Hi Jenny! I use the wonder clips for leather/pleather since I can’t use pins for those, and to hold knits together if the fabric is too thin. I also love to use them to keep zippers and piping in place. Thank you for your sweet words!! 🙂