Unpacked Or Just Things Shoved Where They Fit?

Once again my planned blog post has been pushed aside as another more pressing issue has come to mind.

For those who are not familiar with my previous posts we moved to a new apartment last year. We had no set date so I had us pretty much packed on standby by the end of January and we moved in April. We unpacked all the loungeroom/kitchen stuff pretty quickly (more the work of Mr StitchNSew) which was fortunate as Mr StitchNSew had surgery in July. What took longer was all my craft stuff as only I could unpack it. I have unpacked all but 9 boxes which contain my craft fabrics (non dressmaking fabrics) and the tubs they go in. Saying that there is a difference between unpacking and putting things the way you want them to be to unpacking and shoving things where they fit. My unpacking is the latter of the two. I went through boxes, pulled stuff out and stuck it where fitted. I did get a fair bit of sewing time after work and on weekends done after the move but I never focused on how I had or where I had things set up. The rooms and set up in the new place is completely different to the old place, even the book cases I store things on are different as we completely switched things around and I have different ones now. My yarn supplies are the only things I have sorted but even those still need work. Although Mr StitchNSew tells me I have plenty of time to sort out my craft stuff I know if I don’t address it soon I never will. In recent weeks I’ve done a bit of sewing so feel that I’m on track with my gift making for the year so I think now is the time to focus on sorting stuff out or at least make a start on it.

 

Years ago I brought the book Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter and read it at the time picking up a few ideas. In 2019 I decluttered a lot of my craft stuff including books as I didn’t want to move stuff I wasn’t using. I shudder to think how many more boxes I would’ve had if I didn’t do my mega declutter. I kept this book and read it again. Even if you are not a quilter the book has some great advice as you can incorporate it to any craft. I got some good ideas and now I have a clear place to start.

My craft set up is a little unique to most. Most people’s sewing machine isn’t in the middle of their lounge room and few would have to worry about the position of their cutting table in terms of accessing the fridge or wheelchair path. Not many are lucky enough to have a craft vault (tiny room with built in shelves) either. Some areas in the new place were obvious places for my craft supplies like the craft vault. others seem to have just developed themselves such as shelf on the book case in the lounge. My areas to focus on are

• Sewing Machine Cabinet
• Trolley
• Cutting Table
• Vault
• Shelf Nook
• Chair
• Wardrobe
• Study/Spare Room

Looking at each area I asked myself the following questions

• Current – What is currently going on the area?
• Plan – What is my plan for the area?
• To Do – What needs to be done to change from current to plan?

Sewing Machine Cabinet
Current – Has WIPs, random craft supplies, gets dusty, no room to work on projects so I need to shift things around when I sew
Plan – Have the area clear and dust free. Have my most used tools within reach.
To Do – Make a dust cover for machine, sort what I want to keep in the side shelves/bins. Remove half finished projects and craft supplies

Trolley
Current – Sits next to fridge. Has random supplies on different shelves. Some items are grouped together. Can’t easily find things. Things fall. Stuff gets dumped on it
Plan – Have specific areas on the different levels for different things. Use the side area of fridge as a magnetic board for notes. Have it clutter free
To Do – Buy clips for fridge. Remove all items and sort into different areas. Put items away in other areas that don’t need to be on it.

Cutting Table 
Current – The top mostly is clear of clutter. Cabinet space beneath has WIP’s and patterns, some tools. Table is moved about when Mr StitchNSew takes wheelchair out
Plan – Set a limit on WIPs and have them in some sort of container. Use the cabinet space more efficiently. Have top clear of clutter so top can be folded down easy or table pushed easily to access wheelchair
To Do – Decide on how I want to contain WIPs. Remove all WIP’s and complete them or find container to put them in. Check what other items I can store there

Chair
Current – Has yarn and sewing WIP’s
Plan – Use it as a chair to craft and watch tv
To Do – Finishing sewing WIP and 1 yarn WIP, move other yarn WIP to different area. Remove any items from chair

Shelf Nook
Current – Dumped yarn projects that need photographing. Has yarn, hooks/needles from previous projects
Plan – Place for my yarn butlers and yarn bowl. Room for a couple of project bags with WIP’s
To Do – Photograph finished projects, put away items from previous projects.

Vault
Current – Some shelves has fabrics by type. Some shelves have craft fabrics just shoved in. Has pieces for my QAYG project cut out or fabrics ready to ironed and cut out. Pattern box has some which I won’t use. Some fabric for gifts later this year are stuffed on shelves. Rolls of interfacing and previous taped PDF’s are in corner. Has some items on top shelf which could be moved to wardrobe. Has washed craft fabrics which have been used in projects since the move. Has box of knit scraps.
Plan – Long term is to measure each fabric and document it so I know what I have. Short term just only have dressmaking fabrics and craft fabrics for future projects on shelves. Have shelves neat and not overflowing. Store interfacing and PDF’s neatly. Have area to sit and look through pattern box.
To Do – Remove items that don’t need to be there. Finish ottoman (current WIP) Move QAYG project to box in study/spare to free up shelf space. Go through patterns and remove any that won’t get made

Wardrobe
Current – Drawers has clothing and knitwear in them. Have to move spare crutch and tablecloth roll just to access anything. Shelves contain knitwear, random craft and fitness items. Has tubs of yarn which is my good yarn. Some hanging frames are broken apart. Has hanging bag of sewing tools and bag of zippers. Finished gifts placed on top of yarn bins. Has box on top shelf of fabrics. and jigsaw puzzles
Plan – Only have the area for craft supplies. Shelves to be organised. Only keep tools I’m going to use
To Do – Sort out hanging bag and cull what I’m not going to use. Find a place for clothing and knitwear in other wardrobe. Cull items from top shelf. Give away one puzzle and do other. Move spare items to storage cage

Study/Spare Room
Current – Craft fabrics in boxes. Old dryer which didn’t get sold prior to move. Has some fitness equipment. Craft supplies on shelves in no real order. Has rubbish not yet taken down to bin room. Has fabrics culled waiting to be offered to friend. Has a couple of boxes not fully unpacked (crafted related and not) Small bookshelf has some study supplies on it but not all. Has mirror which can’t be accessed due to boxes. Bags of stuffing everywhere. Has unused fan in corner. A box of yarn which could be sorted and put with other yarn. Has box of electrical cords. Some items are in boxes but the lids don’t close properly. Have trouble getting chair through doorway
Plan – Have items on shelves neatly and fully accessible with some sort of coverage to prevent dust. Mirror facing out so it can be used. Have craft fabrics arranged neatly in boxes. Have study items all in one area. Have easy access to move chair in and out of room
To Do – Unpack and sort craft fabrics in orderly manner in small storage tubs. Put together printer and move all study items to study bookshelf. Unpack all remaining boxes. Move box of electrical cords. Take down all rubbish to bin room. Sort yarn box and put QAYG project in it. Decide if shelving is needed for craft fabric boxes. Sell old dryer. Sort out shelving and put the most used supplies within reach. Make curtains for the shelves.

Clearly the biggest area I have the study/spare Room. In the old place my craft fabrics were stored in a garage on shelves. Originally my plan was to once again have them on the same shelving in our storage cage but using the fabrics since we moved I don’t know if I want to go down to the storage cage. Yes it takes me about 2 hours to go through all the packed boxes but it convenient having them in the spare room. The storage cage is in a concrete carpark with no seating and bad lighting, reality is I’m not going to want to go down there just to find fabric. Until I know exactly how many small storage tubs I have I can’t look at shelving for them. I’m happy to stack them in the corner for the time being. I am going to sort them properly which I never did before. I have culled some fabrics from them (and culled a heap when packing) but I know there is more I can cull and give away. The dryer is taking up space but until Covid eases off a bit I’m reluctant to have strangers come to our house to pick it up. Once again I will work around it. I move my chair from the study to my sewing table. We used to have 2 chairs but the one in the study was partially broken so we didn’t move with it. Sticking with minimalism I only want one chair as I’m the only one ever using it but I want to be able to move it between the spare room and lounge easily without chipping the walls so I need to move things about a bit.

I haven’t given myself a time frame to get all this done. Looking at things clearly I have a starting point now and clear tasks that I can do when I get a chance. Seeing the tasks broken down makes it less overwhelming. I’ll do posts on each individual areas once I am fully happy with them or maybe even progress updates depending on how long it takes. My craft areas are a mess and to be honest I still don’t know how much I have kept until I sort it all out.

Let the fun begin!

Cassiy

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My Craft Space Set Up Before

I can say it now we are moving!! We have purchased a unit and later this year will make the big move. To help me remember how I had my set up before I started packing I thought I would share it on here. Crafting can take up a lot of space with supplies and machines. I’m always curious as to how people have theirs set up

I had 4 main areas within my rental unit that I used plus my garage which I kept fabric and my first sewing machine which I called my travelling machine in.

Study

This is where my sewing first started. Before I started sewing in the loungeroom on Mr Sttichnsew’s suggestion I had my machine set up in here in a cabinet, all my craft magazines/books and few craft supplies on bookshelves.  If I was going to sew it would only be when I had enough time to set up and pack things away afterwards. I’m lucky enough I can leave sewing projects out without animals or kids touching them but when I was sewing in the study I was limited with space. I would have to pull my sewing cabinet out into the centre of the room and move things about a bit to use it. It was a nice little room to sew in but it was also very isolating. In the end the study turned a storage area for some of my sewing machines which I wasn’t using and I had a spare sewing cabinet which held my overlocker in it and the top it was used for a dumping ground for patterns. My roles of interfacings and pdf patterns rolled up were kept in there too as well as all my foam blocking mats. My bookshelves contained some craft supplies and my remaining craft magazines and books. By the end of 2019 I had sold 3 of my extra sewing machines and sold my spare sewing cabinet. Once I started clearing out my excess craft books and magazines I had space on my bookshelf to store my overlocker so I sold the cabinet.

Spare Room

This is where I kept all my dress making fabrics, sewing notions, yarn most of it anyway. I had a wardrobe which much to B’s amusement I called the “Craft Wardrobe” It contained a shelving unit full of fabric, containers of yarn, a bookshelf of sewing supplies and a heap of other crafting items hanging or squished at the sides.  In the room I had boxes of fabrics, another shelving unit of fabrics and all my paper dressmaking patterns. I also had my clothes drying airer which often would have fabric drying on it. I would try and keep this room under control but it did get a little crazy at times… ok a lot crazy. Having my sewing patterns and dress making fabric within the same room meant sometimes I would just go and play around with my patterns and fabrics to get ideas on what to make. Sometimes that was all I needed to help me relax.

Garage

In the garage I keep a lot of my general crafting fabric. This is fabric I use in gift making and for making WIRES pouches although I did have a stash of that in my spare room too. My fabric boxes weren’t organised at all and I would have to go through several boxes to find fabric I want. It was fun “shopping” in my mini fabric store but my dream would be to organise it more so perhaps all colours were together or all prints are together. I need to go through as there are a lot of fabrics in there I know I won’t use such as Christmas themed fabric or fabrics which have like a metallic finish on them which aren’t suitable for WIRES pouches. Future me will get this organised and that way I can use it more. In recent times sometimes I have gotten lazy and just brought new fabrics instead of going through it all. As mentioned I would store my travel sewing machine here but I don’t travel with it any more so have kept it as my spare machine instead.

Bed Room

This isn’t one of my main storage areas but I managed to stash a lot of yarn in here. Most of it is under the bed where I also kept my yarn winders. In the bottom of the wardrobe I also had a stash of yarn. This was big lots of acrylic yarn for future projects or scraps from previous blankets.

Lounge Room

This was my sewing area and preparation area. I permanently have my sewing machine and ironing board set up. My machine sits on sewing cabinet by the tv so I can watch it as I sew or I can listen to music. We have no dining table so in the space behind the lounge where most people would use a dining room I have my ironing board and craft table set up. My craft table is actually a cutting table which I think you can no longer buy. It is higher than most craft tables which is good for my back as I don’t have to bend so much. With my mobility issues the higher table helps immensely. The table was my mum’s and it was one of the few things I said I wanted when we were clearing out her stuff. Most times it is pushed against the wall but I do pull it out into the centre of the area when I am tracing out/cutting out large patterns as I can get around all sides of it. When I use my overlocker I used it on this table. My craft trolley used to live under my table but I now keep it near my sewing machine as I can reach over and grab things from it.

I have no idea what the set up will be in the new place but I know things will be different. I won’t have a garage to store fabrics in I know that for sure. The unit layout will be different and it will take me a bit to work out where to put everything but I will get there. As with most things I had just gotten the right set up and balance of things before the decision to move was made. I have limited time off before the move so late December I started packing away things I wasn’t going to use in the coming months. It has been an interesting task. I have had to really plan out what I’m going to knit/crochet during that time to leave enough yarn out for projects. I had to also think about the projects themselves, I didn’t want anything too complex as knitting/crocheting is my relaxation from everything else that is going on. It helps keep my sanity. I decided on a few easy projects and so far so good. With my sewing I have kept out a bag of essential tools and supplies and my projects are again relatively simple or things I need to get done by deadlines which may fall near our expected move timeline. We don’t have an actual move date yet but have a rough time frame. I’m even thinking of gifts for Christmas 2020 and as I pack my remaining craft fabrics I’m happy to even make a start on those knowing I can always place them in a box and know where they are as during my packing I’m numbering each box and writing contents in a notebook.

It might be many months before I do an “After” blog post but once I get settled in I will. Ideally I would like to have it as a similar set up but as for the most part it was working for me in this place but I will have to wait and see.

Cassiy

 

I Love My Fabric Party Weekend

I’ve mentioned it a couple times but last month Beth from Sew DIY hosted a virtual “I Love My Fabric Party” on Instagram. Across the world people were invited to spend some time appreciating their fabrics. You could join in for as long or as little time as you wanted and what you did during the party was entirely up to you. You just posted photos on Instagram and shared along with others the experience of playing in your fabric stash and showing it some love.

For me it came at the perfect time. My dressmaking fabric had gotten a little out of control. I was running out of space for it. I knew I had fabrics I would never use so why was I keeping them? I have put myself on a self imposed fabric buying ban so it was a really good chance for me to sort my fabric in a way that I could easily find them and more importantly use them.

To keep track of what fabrics I had in my stash I decided to use a program called Trello. Trello is generally used in business as a management tool and I must admit when I looked it up to add the app on my mobile I thought ‘oh my god this is going to feel like work’ from my time doing project management but there are a few crafters out there using it to manage to their stashes and it is actually a great tool! If you want to read an example of how to use check of Helen’s blog post. At this point I haven’t gone into as much depth as Helen has but I have set it up so I have 2 boards Fabrics and Patterns. On my fabrics board I have several lists based on the fabric type. As I pulled out each fabric I measured it, snapped a photo on my mobile then uploaded it as a new card to my fabric board under whichever category with details such as length, perhaps where I brought it from, items I’ve made with it and potential pattern ideas. It sounds a lot of work for a lazy crafter like myself but it was quick and really simple to do. Best of all it didn’t feel like work!! I haven’t ventured into my patterns yet but I will.

Going through my stash I found it really easy to remove fabrics that I knew realistically I was never going to use. Perhaps my tastes have changed or the fabric had a feel that I just knew I’d never wear. I’ll take these to my next fabric swap with the Sydney Spoolettes. Full disclosure I may end up putting a couple of these fabrics back in my stash. Some fabrics I am rethinking that I could use them but that is only a couple.

I set up box for fabric scraps. The box contains mostly knit fabrics but it does have some wovens too. Smaller pieces that I can’t really make a skirt or top from but are perfect for project like undies (which I must really start making with the many patterns I have) As they were so small these pieces generally got pushed to the back as I tried to squeeze yet another fabric into my shelves. I wanted to access these fabrics easily plus it freed up space on my shelves. I have started using bits of my scraps. My infinity scarf came from finding a leftover piece of fabric and thinking how could I use this.

I sorted my shelves so all fabrics types were together. All my knits in one shelving unit, charity and gift making wovens on designated shelves, lightweight wovens on a shelf, heavy wovens another shelf. You should never compare your stash to another persons (size does not matter) but I felt like I had a lot. I actually have a little room on my shelves now which I didn’t have before.

I found the weekend very therapeutic going through my fabric. I had my music playing, a chair to sit on when I was uploading photos. If you love fabric you will understand how relaxing it is just touching it, looking at it, thinking about potential patterns I could make with it. Perhaps it sounds silly but reorganising my fabric made me feel like I actually had control over it. It was no longer falling from shelves when I opened the door or pulled back the covering I have. By seeing and knowing how much fabric I have I don’t feel like I am being deprived by my buying ban. I have all this wonderful fabric in my stash just waiting to be created into awesome me made clothing or in gifts.

Cassiy

Embroidery Thread Storage

I am being totally honest my embroidery thread has been living in storage boxes in a shopping bag in the centre of my loungeroom for years. It was right next to where I sit on the lounge and was handy to access when I was in front of the tv but really it shouldn’t have been living there. I am in the process of decluttering and sorting things out so last week I decided it was time to tackle my embroidery threads.

Most of my embroidery threads were my mum’s. She had them stored in plastic boxes that you can buy to store embroidery threads in once you wind the skein onto bobbin tabs. Mum had them sorted by brand and colour number. If you do cross stitching or embroidery where colour number is important it was a good way to sort them. Thinking about how I actually use embroidery thread I go by colour. I’ll have a gift that I need to embroidery and it is a matter of finding a colour to match it. I had 4 boxes of mum’s threads and 1 of my own that each time I was looking for a colour I would look through, most time I ended up using the colour I found in the first box. Another problem I had was that because I needed to put the threads away in number order, I never actually put them away after I used them instead I would just put them aside on my craft table and when I had a heap I would sit down and put them away at once which could be months after I used them. The way I had them clearly wasn’t working for me, top it off where they were I would constantly knock them over or trip over the bag they were semi placed in. They were a trip hazard and trip hazards are bad in our house.

My first task was to go through the bag and boxes to find all the skeins that needed to be placed on bobbins. I had way more than I thought I had. It was a chance to cull some of them that were poor quality or looked old and manky. In front of the tv I sat and wound each one onto the bobbin cards. I did this over a couple of days so it was really easy and not as a cumbersome task I thought it would be. When you’re watching tv you’ll be surprised at how fast you can do them.

 

After I had them all on cards I did the daunting tasking of emptying all the boxes onto my craft table and sorting them by colour. I did 9 main colour groups – greens, blues, pinks, reds, orange, yellow, purple, brown and other which was greys, blacks, neutrals. This gave me a chance to see what colours I had, how much I had of each and roughly what boxes I could put them in. I had no idea I had so many greens and browns, I thought I would have a lot more purple.

When I placed them in the boxes I did them very roughly darkest to lightest. I tried to keep shades together but I wasn’t so fussy that if I placed a slightly darker one amongst a lighter one that I needed to resort the box to make it fit. As long as I had the colour group in the one box I was happy. I can easily search through and compare colours if they are all in one box. I thought it would take me hours to sort them out and place in boxes but according to my Instagram photos I took I did it about an hour which is pretty fast. I did place special ones together such as all my pearl threads which are thicker or some sparkly threads which I had no idea I had in the one box so I know that is the box I go to for them.

I found a new home to keep the boxes too. In the last 8-10 months I have slowly been decluttering my house, part of what I have done is toss out a heap of my old craft mags creating empty shelves on my bookcases in the study. These boxes fit nicely on a semi empty shelf. I can access them pretty easily, I still need to clean up further in my study but that’s another job on my todo list.

Organisation is very subjective, each person needs to find the best way to organise their things that works for them. What worked for my mum clearly didn’t work for me, however now by sorting the threads in colours and storing them that way 100% works for me. I only have to look through 1 box to find the colour that I need, putting things away if I have used 2 colours I only have to open up 2 boxes to put them away. I’m going to be more inclined to put the threads away straight after I use them in this more simplistic system. By placing them on the shelf I have eliminated the trip hazard that they were in the loungeroom. I no longer will knock them over and have all them all fall open on the floor which was a nightmare each time it happened. I’m starting to see empty space now in my house and I am enjoying how it looks. To be honest my craft supplies were starting to get out of control and stress me as I just saw them as clutter with how messy they looked. Crafting for me is meant to be my way of dealing with stressing, it shouldn’t be the cause of my stress. Decluttering and organising can become very addictive, if you don’t believe me try it. My best friend lives over 4 hours away, we keep sending each other photos of things we’ve sorted out or decluttered. It is very satisfying seeing an area you have cleared up and taking a photo of it. Between us we don’t know who actually started the decluttering bug, we both claim the other one started it neither less we have the decluttering bug and are motivating each other to get in and just do things. Some people might be able to organise things on their own but it is fun to have a friend to do it with. We are proof you don’t even need to live near each other to help each other out in the decluttering process.

Cassiy

 

To Sew List Jan 19

Back in August I did my clothing “To Sew” list with a plan to update it every 6 months so perfect time to post it on January 1. My list isn’t set in stone and if I don’t make everything or even anything on it I am not bothered, it is more of a reminder to myself of patterns I want to make when I think I want to sew myself something but what… To recap this was my list

• Concord t-shirt √
• Springfield top √
• Turner dress
• Cedar dolman top
• Concord t-shirt dress
• Scrundlewear
• Calista curvy bra
• York pinafore √
• Hollings Circle skirt
• Rusholme A-Line skirt
• Finsbury  Bubble skirt
• Fallowfield  pencil skirt
• Roehampton culottes
• Brighton Front Opening skirt
• Derwent Wide Leg trousers √
• Winnats tank √
• Monsal Lounge pants √
• Longshaw skirt √

Well I am happy to say that I have gotten a lot of the pieces made including making 2 York’s as I really liked the pattern and I have made all the patterns from A Beginner’s Guide to Sewing Knitted Fabric. Some of the items do need tweaking just because of the fit and I am having issues with my curved shoulders (too much computer work) I was able to use up a lot of fabric from my stash making the different pieces which was good but saying that I kept adding to my stash at the same time!

This is my latest to sew list

• Turner dress – Cashmerette
• Appleton dress – Cashmerette
• Pembroke dress – Cashmerette
• Appleton dress – Cashmerette
• Cedar dolman top – Cashmerette
• Concord t-shirt dress – Cashmerette
• Scrundlewear – Stitch Upon A Time
• Bunzies – Stitch Upon A Time
• Calista curvy bra – Stitch Upon A Time
• Quicker knickers – Little Finch
• Poppy bralette – House of Morrighan
• Robbie pants – Tessuti
• Black Winnats top – Wendy Ward
• Black hoodie/cardigan/jacket (no pattern yet)
• Hollings Circle skirt – Wendy Ward
• Rusholme A-Line skirt – Wendy Ward
• Finsbury  Bubble skirt – Wendy Ward
• Fallowfield  pencil skirt – Wendy Ward
• Roehampton culottes – Wendy Ward
• Brighton Front Opening skirt – Wendy Ward

I still have the remaining skirts from A Beginner’s Guide To Making Skirts as I haven’t gotten to those yet. I now have 3 undie patterns that I want to try, I have so many knit scraps left that I really just want to use them up on undies. The Calista is still something I would like to try but I have also found another bra pattern which looks kind of easy so will try that too. The Appleton dress is what I want to make for Frocktails so I need to get in and start sewing that. The Robbie pants are just something I saw this past weekend, a friend has made them few times and she looks fabulous in them so I thought I would give them a try. Prior to the lasted Dr Who this year I was wanting a long hoodie/cardigan/jacket but after watching the series I have really fallen in love with her jacket. I want to make something similar but in black. In my mind I can see a long hoodie type cardigan that does up with a zip, I haven’t got a pattern yet but I haven’t seriously looked around for anything yet either.

As mentioned for the pieces from my last list I was able to use up a lot of fabric from my stash, particularly when making the pieces from A Beginner’s Guide To Knitted Fabrics where I used fabrics that I wasn’t sure how else I would use them such as white fabrics. Since my last list I have been adding to my stash. Over this past few days I have ordered another 6 metres of fabric alone, it was on sale and hopefully can be used for 2 of the items on my new list. Now I am a bit more picky on how much I buy and try to buy with a purpose in mind. I raided my stash to find fabric for my Appleton dress so I will use the black/white daisy fabric. The Sesame Street fabric is newly acquired, it will probably be another Turner skirt but with the faces only on the front and a plain black back. I wasn’t able to buy enough to make a full turner skirt so will team it up with black fabric from my stash.

There is no pressure on myself to get all my items made. I’m just going to make myself clothing when I am in the mood.

Cassiy

Built In Wardrobe Make Over

The built in wardrobe where I store the majority of my dress fabric and yarn has been bugging me for a while, it had gotten way out of control. I’d get something new and just dump it in there. At times I’d move one thing and everything would fall out. I had some non craft stuff hanging in there and the big white box is my finished gift box. At times this had so much stuff on it I wouldn’t even bother trying to get in it I would just put the next finished gift on top… I know what is the point of having the box then if I can’t get to it.

The middle blue tub is where I stored all my wool I use in WIRES pouches so I was forever going to it to grab another ball. That was a nightmare to get into as I would have to try to open it without toppling the pile of things that surrounded it. Just by the weight of everything the lid had broken and I was almost cutting my hand as I was pulling the yarn out. I may of even pulled yarn out through the crack in the top which wasn’t good but it worked kinda…

Something had to be done as it was making going into the cupboard not fun. Recently in a facebook yarn group someone showed a picture of some new storage boxes that Kmart has that are stackable and flip open at the side so you don’t have to remove the lids to access the contents. Yesterday I measured my space after checking out the dimensions online and today I picked up 3 containers. I cleared out everything from the side space and the containers fit perfect. The bottom one has all my cottons that I use for dishcloths. The middle one has WIRES yarns as they are all 100% wool. The top one is my everything else yarn. There are half a dozen cottons in there but they will be made into a scarf. I’m currently venturing into new different types of yarns so they are all in there. If I run out of space in there I can’t buy more yarn so an incentive to start knitting and crocheting!

As I moving my fabrics about I was looking at each one and thinking if realistically I would use it or not. I culled a lot of fabric from my stash. In October Sydney Spoolette’s are having our Spring Fabric Swap day and this lot will taken to that. Some of it is offcuts that I know I won’t use again. Some of it is fabric I purchased new but it isn’t screaming make me into something. Some of it I have brought second hand or gotten at previous swap days. There is no point of it sitting in my wardrobe when it might be perfect for someone else.

I noticed as I was sorting through was I had a lot of things in plastic bags. I only have one thing in a bag now and that is a set to make a tank top everything else I took out of the bags. These bags will now be sent back to my local supermarket tonight for recycling. I think I am less likely to use it if it still in the bag. Another thing I have to remind myself just because it is blue doesn’t mean it has to come home with me. I have both some yarn and fabric that I don’t really need and I know the only reason I’d gotten it was due to the colour.

The wardrobe is better now. I culled some other non craft stuff from it. I’ll be honest and say it is not ideal but for the time it will do. I basically have the fabric stacked in the open container that used to have the WIRES wool in it. On the other side of the room I do have some fabrics in containers but I don’t really want to put the fabrics in containers in here as I know I will never bother to go into them. The fabrics I do have in containers are really specific like fleece or felt. All the stuff in here is dress fabrics – some knits, some wovens, some heavier fabrics. If I am going to make clothing this is the pile I am going to head too. I can still access it all in here. Maybe I might look to see at some point if I can fit some narrow shelving or something in there but for the time being this will work.

Now I just need to get my sewjo back and start sewing again!

Cassiy

 

 

Keep It Simple

I need a bag at work to keep some supplies in so I can store them neatly in a cupboard and not have to carry them everywhere each day. No problem I can sew I’ll just whip up a bag that closes up and I can use it as a project bag after I finish needing it for work. Friday afternoon I came home, prepped some fabric, found a pattern I was going to have to modify but was still larger than I was wanting but would do the job. This morning I was ready to cut the fabric and thought STOP!!! Think about it can you use a different pattern or.. even use an existing bag to do the same job.

By chance I found this Bendigo Woollen Mills tote bag in my stash this morning which came as part of a kit I brought earlier this year. When I found it I thought ‘this sitting in bag in plastic is just a waste you should use it some time’  The sides expand so I thought I might even use it to form a pattern to make some reusable shopping bags which I am planning on making. When I went to cut my fabric I remembered this tote bag and thought it is a great size but it doesn’t stay closed.

Brainwave by adding a couple of kam snaps to the top of the bag instantly the bag had closures. In my stash I found some black snaps which matched the print on the front of the bag so you can’t tell that I added them myself (not that it matters) 5 minutes later I had a bag that would stay closed, would fit an A4 notebook in it plus a few other goodies (coffee cup, glasses, teabags) Next year when I don’t need it for work it will be a yarn bag again.

As crafters I think we tend to over think things sometimes and create more work for ourselves then we need to just because we have the skills to do so. If I had made the bag I originally had thought of doing it would’ve taken me hours, it would’ve been a good bag but there were other more simple solutions that I didn’t think of because my immediate first thought was make one. I never even considered modifying an existing bag. This is also a reason why it pays to know what you have and if you get something like a useful tote bag don’t stash it away use it or why bother getting it in the first place. At times we need to Keep It Simple and think outside the square for solutions. We are all time poor as crafters so why create more work for yourself when your time can be better spent on other projects.

Cassiy

Electronic Yarn Winder

Last year I brought myself a Boye electronic yarn winder. Until recently it had been sitting under my bed unopened. I had to frog back a crochet project so I decided to break it out of the box to re-wind the ball.

So as the name suggests this plugs into the wall and does all the manual winding of the yarn to create the yarn cake for you. I found this great YouTube clip on how to use it. I first tried it out on the ball of Bendigo Woollen Mills Cotton I was frogging back. Bendigo Woollen Mills balls / skeins are 200g so they are quite large. It did handle it but towards the end it struggled as the yarn cake got larger and larger. The machine slowed down and I had to help it a bit. I put a photo up online and a friend commented that cotton can be hard to work into a ball.

In the end I decided to cut the yarn and make a second cake. I haven’t weighed the yarns to see how much is in each cake. A yarn cake is the description given to balls of yarn when they are wound like this. They allow you to use the centre pull method when your working with your yarn so the ball / cake doesn’t go jumping around the table. I did use the large cake for a project after this and to be perfectly honest I wasn’t a fan of the centre pull method on such a large ball. The yarn is taken from the inside of the ball out. The cake is starting to collapse and I kept getting yarn spurts where entire chunks were coming out. I’m not sure if it was due to the size of the cake. I guess next time I use one I will see.

The second lot of yarn I tried out was smaller 50g ball. It was a cotton mixture. The machine easily made it into a cake without effort. It took a matter of minutes to wind it into the cake shape. I used this cake on my yarn spindle using the regular method of using the yarn from the outside and I had no trouble with it all.

Now that I know the machine isn’t as scary as it looks I’m going to be using it more. The machine is easy to use. I had it placed on my cutting table and it suctioned on well to it and didn’t move (there is a giant suction cap on the underside of it) I want to make all my skeins into cakes now. I’m going to try it again on the cotton. I might make a project with the smaller black cotton cake to see how it goes with the centre pull method. I like the flatter shape that the yarn cake has. It would be great for stacking your yarn if that is how you store your stuff.

Cassiy

 

 

 

Hair Accessories Organiser

I found this great hair accessories pattern in One Thimble Issue 12 and thought it would be perfect to make as gifts this year so I added it to my ideas list.

I had 4 girls I thought this would be perfect for so I cut all the fabric out and made one of my “kits” containing all the fabric and notions that I needed for the project. Although there are 4 each one is slightly different so I noted down the fabric combination for each child. When it came to sewing I thought why make 1 when you can make 2 so started and on them and then thought why make 2 when you can make 4 and stitched the 4 of them up a once. It might seem tiresome and you would think it would take longer but I think it was actually much quicker. You use the same equipment on each one so you only need to take out that equipment once.  Your brain in remembering each step in the process and how your actually doing it (even if you are following a pattern) so you don’t have to re-think back. At your sewing machine you only need to change your stitch length once for the same step you do on all 4 so it does make sense to batch sew if you can.

The front and back fabrics for these I got last year from a sewing magazine. They are fun and pretty but not childish so as the child grows and feels they are a grown up (even though they may only be 8 or 9) they don’t feel they have something babyish in their rooms. For the long lengths of ribbons that run down the front of each the pattern called for gross grain ribbon which I didn’t have large amounts in my stash but what I did have was a large roll of jacquard ribbon so I used that, the tiny hearts on it are so sweet. The ribbon is stitched down in sections so you can hold large amounts of clips in each of the lengths of ribbon.

The organiser has a pocket to hold all the hair ties that you can’t clip on to the ribbon. It expands out so you can fit a lot of hair ties in there and we know little girls have heaps.

At the bottom are hanging loops that you can place headbands in. Headbands never really went out of fashion but I think they are becoming popular again.

This organiser makes a great gift, it is an all one hair station to keep all hair accessories in one spot. You could make it for a child of any age. Like any homemade gift you can personalise the fabrics to suit the child. The pattern has some embellishment on the top where the hanging loop is but I didn’t bother, I left more space for clips. On each gift I added the clips and bobby pins I made and of course a headband. I think the girls would like it. My inner 9 year old would like it so I think they will too.

Cassiy

2017 Gift Plans

My 2017 gifts are organised.

I have already finished my first gift for 2017 as it is due at the start of January. I have sat down and worked out every gift I am making for both birthdays and Christmas for each person. Pattern wise I need to finalise a few things but at least I know what I am looking for. When making my gifts this year I realised it worked better when I had things already cut out and ready to go, kind of like kits that you buy at the shops or craft shows. Why are kits so popular in the shops? Because everything you need to make item is right there in front of you ready to go. I have spent most of my Christmas holidays making up kits for as many gifts as possible so I can just grab and sew them throughout the year. When I go to my Sewing Guild meetings I’m often stumped as to what I will work on that day but by having things in kits I can easily see what I items I can work on. I have certain projects I like doing on certain sewing machines. Anything that has a lot of curves to it I only like doing on my big machine as it has the knee lift.

I have added notes to some of them such as what colour thread to use if I had multiple coloured items in a packet. On others I have written the way I want the fabric to be used in the project. Making up the bags was a great way to go through my fabric stash as I pulled out all the fabrics I needed from it for the required projects. It made me really look at the fabrics and think of creative ways to use them.

In the kits I have included the interfacing they require. It was a chance for me to pull out my entire interfacing stash and sort it out. I now know what I had plenty of and what I was running low on. It was a real eye opener as I didn’t realise how much I had in my stash. I was able to use a heap of odd shape and small pieces in projects which has culled the stash a lot.

I am now feeling the most organised about my gifts I have ever felt. I’m going to be trying to some new patterns and some old favourites. Some gifts are going to be more complicated than others but if I just do one stitch at a time I will get them all done with love as I always do.

Cassiy