As with many creative people, sometimes my creativity overwhelms my work space. That is a kind way of saying that sometimes we let our work space get messy! Having recently won a contest at The Cottage Home blog that included some of these Fabric Organizers, I had some of the tools I needed to organize my space. What I lacked was proper space in which to put them. I really want to get some new shelves but until I can make the trip to Ikea, I decided to clean out my cupboards and find a way to make these work. I really needed to get my fabric away from my cats! They keep using it as a bed!
So, here is what I came up with.
I was very lucky to find this built in craft area already in the house we bought 6 years ago. I took the space over as my crafting and computer area. I also have my mom's old sewing desk. But I was not using the space well. There were bins and small shelves of fabric everywhere! So, I moved all fall and winter fabrics into bins in the garage, put all knits in one big bin and put the rest in the cupboard above my work area.
Here is my work area. I share the space with our filing cabinet, which I really want to organize and move into the garage. I have my growing collection of Ottobres in a magazine holder and bins with current projects cut out and waiting to be sewn. My kids helped me decorate, by the way.
And here is the cupboard above my work area! Thanks to Lindsay at The Cottage Home and another mama I did a trade with, I now have a lot of fabric organizers. I am not even using them all! When I get some proper wooden shelves for the room, I will use the rest. For now, these are the fabrics I anticipate working with in the next few months.
The cupboard next door has the growing lace and elastic collection.
Thanks for looking. My space is not exciting nor will it ever be featured in a design magazine but it is very workable and usable and I am going to continue to make it more and more organized and efficient!
Wow! After seeing some other sewing spaces, you have a sweet haven here! Lucky you to have a designated sewing area!
ReplyDeleteWow, doesn't it feel so great to have all of your fabric organized. It looks great! I'm jealous of the amount of space you have to work in......what a luxury. Thanks so much for sharing this with me and thank you for reading The Cottage Home :) Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThese fabric organizing boards are great, however, I find them fairly spendy to purchase.
ReplyDeleteHere is a tip I came across in reading some blogs. I'm sorry I did not document the blog, nor do I remember if they even listed the orginal source of the idea.
The alternate fabric storage method is called "Comic Book Boards". Amazon or your local comic book store are guaranteed sources, of course you can Google for price comparison etc...
The boards are certified acic free poster board type sheets. 7" X 10 1/2" is the "Silver" size I use. I wrap from 1/2 yd as the smallest up to 5yds as largest pc of fbrc on a single board (I don't have fbrc pcs longer than 5yds). Of course they would be superb for wrapping multiple rounds of lace, rickrack, ribbons or other trims as well.
In my area (Central NM, USA) I pay $9.99 for a pack of 100 boards. This is VERY economical compared to about $156.00 that it would cost for 100 of the plastic corrugated same size board (Shorty size and price from the web site you linked for the item above).
I am in no means affiliated with the comic book board people, just love a good money saving as well as organizational and GREEN tip.
While these boards don't have the tabs, which I personally find just make a lump in the fabric wrap, they are reusable just like the plastic ones. Naturally posterboard is biodegradable whereas plastic is not, thus while the plastic is stronger, you can choose to use 2 boards to wrap large lengths of fabric around or replace a worn board and still be saving significant funds.
Hope it can help anyone who might want to try it out. Happy quilting