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Studio Organization for the Crafty Woman

Crafty women sometimes have a different idea of what Girls’ Night Out should look like. I recently visited a close friend who had just moved into her new (to her) house. The last few boxes to unpack were daunting for her as they housed her passion–one of her prime interests in life–her sewing. This has also been her business, and there it was, all boxed up, staring at her. She had so many boxes to go through and found it difficult to decide which one to sort through first. All the items in the boxes were quite daunting, too! Some needed to be kept, some needed to be given away, and some just needed to be trashed! I would like to think I helped, but I’m not positive. Much of the time I was there, I was thinking about my own studio organization and how much I really want to work on getting rid of some of my old stuff!

So, in honor of all our unorganized yarn/sewing/craft rooms, here are several organizers and room arrangements that I wish I had in my studio!

Organization Walls

Studio organization bookcases
http://raisinguprubies.blogspot.com/2012/05/cute-place-to-make-stuff.html

Slanted ceiling studio organization

(I have no idea where the above photo is from, but it is a great storage idea for my studio which has a slanted ceiling. If you know the correct web address, so I can give credit to the designer of this space, please send me a message!)

Organization Bins

Organization bins
http://lostbuttonstudio.blogspot.com/2008/01/playroom-furniture.html

Although this is showing toys and books for children, I can just imagine these bins holding skeins of yarn, scraps of fabric, and opened packages of batting and fleece.

Studio Organization

Ideas for studio organization
http://www.honeybearlane.com/2013/05/25-ideas-for-craft-room-organization.html

Pegboard on the wall is a great idea, one which I have already made use of in my studio. Organization needs often change over time, though. I find I must change-up my pegboard every now and then to make it more useful. Honeybearlane.com has some great craft room ideas; I need to procrastinate research a bit more to see what new ideas I can come up with for my studio.

Pegboard Organization

Below is a photo of my downstairs pegboard. As you can see, I am just starting to populate it with hooks and miscellaneous things I need to store. (Notice the magnet board directly below it.) I’m working downstairs more these days because the light is so much better, but I share the space with Hubs, so I need to keep it more organized. I have some really great ideas for studio organization, but no time to implement them. One thing on my to-do list is to paint the pegboard, but for now, I’m thrilled just to have it on the wall.

Chocolate Dog Studio organization using pegboard

Use Your Stash

Looking for ways to use up and get rid of your yarn stash? Do you have UFOs (unfinished objects), WIPs (works in progress), and PIGs (projects in grocery sacks) hiding around your home? Then you need to join the Use Your Stash Challenge 2017! Be watching this blog — details are coming next week!

use-your-stash-challenge-2017-1

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Cleaning!

I gave myself a stern talking to; this week. I am spending the day cleaning up my studio and doing some paperwork for the business. It has been ages/months maybe even years since I last sat down and really worked in here. I have been gifted with a bunch of fabric from friends and family. Some I will use or did use in the 100 items in 100 days Challenge but some I won’t use, ever!

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Isn’t it awful!

I am making progress. I can see the top of the cutting table. I have decided to give the yards of felt in strange colors, like lime green and black to charity. I have no idea what I would use it for as I am not that fond of working with felt. I could make thousands of brooches and Christmas ornaments with the huge amount of felt that I am not giving keeping. I am getting rid of items that I made five years ago that didn’t sell. Like these pincushions. I have 10+ pincushions and if you know of someone that needs or wants one. I will ship it to them for the cost of the shipping! Just send me a message or leave a comment and I will get in touch with you.

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Hubs is getting some organizing items for me from Wal-mart. I am super excited.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Cleaning

I’m starting to make headway on the cleaning job. I can really see some differences and I have been able to finally let some things go. Some of the things I am letting go are some rubber stamps, stamp pads, and a bunch of scrap book paper. The scrapbook paper is going to a teacher friend of mine for her classroom.

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I have these really neat scrapbook storage drawers that are perfect for projects in process. Can you see the one labeled buttons.  2014-02-22 16.54.16

 

I am in the process of putting the buttons into other containers. I am using these drawers as project holders. So I have one labelled cup cozies, coffee press cozies, and bibs. I can pull the drawer out take it to the sewing machine and work on the project, when I am done I can simply close the box and put it away! It should work like a charm for most of the smaller projects I do.

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I did a size and shape sort of the embroidery hoops . I have gone through four of the fabric tubs and managed to empty two. The fabric under  peg board is a variety of linens that I pulled from all over the sewing room. I just need to put them away and it will look much better.  I sorted out the larger fabric scraps from the smaller ones and have started some color sorting of the medium scraps. The ones too small to fold and too large for scrap piecing.

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So it is starting to look better. It just takes time to make order out of chaos, and it was definitely chaos! This studio has had two moves and umpteen moves within the house. The moves really took their toll on any organization I ever had, which wasn’t much.So I am getting excited. I have so many ideas of new things to sew that it is all I can do to force myself to finish it up!

I am showing the parts that look the best, but I am still working on it.

Talk to you later,

Karen