Covering Pizza Boxes with Fabric by Serena Smith www.embtreasures.com
Pizza boxes are quick and easy to cover with fabric and offer great little storage containers to keep in your sewing room. Watch the video for step-by-step directions as well.
Supplies large pizza box piece of fabric 38" long x 20-22" wide 1/4 yd Ultra Heat’n’Bond wonderunder or 1 pkg 5/8" roll (needs to be the “no-sew” kind) 8" length of 1/8" or 1/4" ribbon scissors Olfa knife to cut slits in box
Let’s get started! If the pizza box is folded into a box, unfold it so it is laying out flat. You will be fusing the fabric to the outside of the box and then folding the fabric raw edge to the inside.
Starting at the box lid, fuse a piece of wonderunder to the cardboard flap. Peel off the paper backing and lay the fabric on top of the box so the fabric width is centered over the box and there is about 3/4"-1" extension of fabric past the lid flap. The fabric will not quite reach the end of the other side of the box. That is ok; this end will be tucked inside.
Using your iron, fuse wonderunder strips as show below and then fuse the fabric to the box, smoothing the fabric out as you are pressing.
After the fabric is fused to the outside of the box, flip it over and cut out the corners near the flap and cut slits in the fabric in the center and at the bottom of the box where the flaps will turn to the inside to create box. Follow the cardboard slits to cut the fabric.
Fuse the fabric flaps with wonderunder to the cardboard flaps on the sides and end of the box. Then on the sides, fold the fabric to the inside of the box and fuse down. The raw edge of fabric will be inside the box.
Fold the sides and top of the flap fabric to the inside of the box to cover the flap and fuse down in place. Using the Olfa knife, cut slits in the fabric in the bottom of the box so the flaps can fit inside to hold up the box sides. Follow the cardboard cutouts.
Fold the ribbon in half and lay the ends in the center of the flap. Fuse a piece of wonderunder on the ribbon ends to hold in place. Then cut a 1" scrap of fabric and fuse over the ribbon ends.
Fold in the flaps of the box and put the box together. The ribbon should form a little loop to open the box.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can "view" the tour by reading my description below. This is a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I'll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the latest issue! I'd love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfinished projects and finished projects: how do you store all of them? There are many ways to store all these projects, but let me give you some ideas as to what I do.
Unfinished projects: Most of my unfinished projects I don't store in my sewing room because I have so many, but I do keep a few things I am working on or continually working on in my sewing room.
Remember those pizza boxes? They make great storage boxes for project! Large pizza boxes are 15" square and 2" deep. They are great for storing 10", 12", 14", 15" quilt blocks with the threads you are using and instructions. You can also store fabric sashing pieces, binding and other smaller pieces of fabric.
Label the ends with mailing labels and you know what is inside. I keep smaller projects in these and store the boxes above my bookcases of fabric. Many of them contain projects that I am always making more of such as potato bags.
You can go to your local Pizza Hut and ask for a couple large pizza boxes. Medium and small boxes also work well, but don't give you as much room. Cover the boxes with cotton fabric and your box is ready to be filled up. These boxes work great for keeping blocks flat as well as carrying projects back and forth to class.
The majority of my projects I keep in 6" deep totes. They are just the right size to store everything project related inside: fabric, batting, threads, embellishments and instructions. The easiest thing to do is keep everything related to that project inside so that I can grab that tote and start working on what's inside. That way I don't have to go looking for the instructions, threads or other parts and pieces to finish it.
The totes are easy to stack and easy to carry around. Label the end of the tote with what is inside and you'll be able to see at a glance where your projects are.
Finished projects: Granted, I have many more unfinished projects than finished ones. But, I do have finished projects as well. They definitely need to be stored in such a way that will preserve them for years to come!
Store your finished projects in pillow cases instead of plastic bags. If at all possible with smaller wall hangings and projects, store them flat. For larger wall hangings and quilts that can't be stored flat, roll them instead of folding them. This will keep delicate areas such as printed photos, embroidery and embellishments from being folded in the wrong place. Roll it so the embellished areas are to the inside, keeping the top of your project clean and protected.
Take a peek into my sewing room: Bookcase fabric covers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can "view" the tour by reading my description below. This is a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I'll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the latest issue! I'd love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because I have my fabric stored on shelves in an open bookcase, I needed to create some kind of cover to keep my fabric clean, keep it from fading and keep it hidden at times. The fabric covers I made are just like roman shades. They pull up with a cord, bunch at the top when open and then are let down by releasing the cord. I really enjoy them because I don't have open doors in my way when I'm looking through my fabric.
My fabric covers are made from 100% Kona cotton fabric. It is a double layer of fabric to provide great durability. The width of the cover is the width of the bookcase plus a seam on each side. With wrong sides together, I stitched the two side seams and then turned the fabric to the outside and edge stitched the two sides to finish the sides of the cover.
The length of the cover is the height of the bookcase plus several inches for attaching to the top and 10-15 inches for the rod pockets. There are five rod pockets for the length of the cover. The pockets are 1 1/4", which means that I needed an additional 2 1/2" for each rod pocket.
A flat wooden rod that is 3/4" - 1" wide easily fits into each rod pocket. The wooden rods give the fabric support as it is pulled up and let down. The wooden rods are slightly shorter than the width of the cover.
On the back of the cover, on each rod pocket, I stitched a 1/2" plastic ring. There are three rings spaced out on each pocket: one in the middle and one on each side. These are just hand tacked to the back of the rod pocket only, not through the pocket or the rod would not be able to be inserted. In addition to the rings being on each pocket, they are also at the very top of the cover.
The plastic rings guide and hold the cording in place. There are three rows of cording. One row of cording through each set of rings down the length of the cover. The cording is securely knotted in the bottom ring and then strung through each ring going straight up the cover to the top.
At the top the cording joins together to one side and needs a very secure knot to hold the three rows of cording together. I placed a cord holder on the side of my bookcase to wrap the cord around to hold open the cover. All I have to do is release the cords and my cover will drop back down to cover my fabric.
The cover is attached to the bookcase by overlapping the fabric several inches on top of the bookcase and then stapling the fabric to the wood. It works great!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can "view" the tour by reading my description below. This is a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I'll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the lastest issue! I'd love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are many ways to store and organize your fabric collection. The most important thing is that your fabric is protected from the light, kept clean from dust and organized in such a way that you can find what you need.
I store my large pieces of fabric, larger than a 1/4 yard, in my two bookcases with fabric covers. Above these two bookcases I have two totes where I store small and large scraps.
Inside my small scraps tote are small scraps of fabric and various quilt blocks that are leftover from projects. They are perfect for applique or color reference, but none of them are larger than a 18" square. The second tote is labeled as large scraps. These pieces are bigger than the small scraps such as fat quarters and pieces of fabric that are less than 1/4" yard.
The two bookcases that store my fabric have five shelves each. They 6' tall by 30" wide with the shelves being 12" deep and the space between shelves varies from 12"-14". I have three piles of fabric on each shelf. If I fold my fabric lengthwise into a 10" width and then fold it in half across the fabric width, it fits perfectly on the shelf with the folded edge facing out.
One bookcase holds my solids, marbles, tone on tone pieces and Christmas fabric. I do also have some polyester ultrasuede and felt, which I use for stitching embroidery designs on the top shelf. Otherwise all of the other fabrics are 100% cotton.
The fabrics are sorted by color - whites, blacks, ivory & tans, pinks, purples, yellows & golds & browns, maroons & reds, blues and greens. Each pile of color is sorted by lighter to darker shades. The bottom shelf holds my Christmas fabric which consists of reds & greens, ivory & golds and blues & whites.
The second bookcase holds all my prints and flannels. Flannels are on the bottom two shelves. They are grouped by solids and prints. The next shelf holds two piles of novelty prints such as butterflies, apples, leaves, quilting, hearts, etc. The third pile on this shelf holds baby and kids prints such as bears, bunnies and Noah's ark.
The fourth shelf has a pile of western & farm prints, a pile of geometric, stripes, checks & borders and then starts my pile of florals. The fifth shelf holds the majority of my florals sorted by color: purple, green, ivory & white, blue, red and yellow.
I love my fabric covers that cover my bookcases because I can raise them and keep them open while I am looking for the fabric I need or I can stuff everything inside and close the shade and no one can see my vast collection of fabric!
How do you store your fabric? What are some of your favorite storage ideas! I'd love to hear your comments! :)
Stay tuned next week for how I made my bookcase fabric covers!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can "view" the tour by reading my description below.
This is a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I'll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the lastest issue!
I'd love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love to use totes and drawers in my sewing room to store and organize my notions. I have a stack of different size drawers in the center of my room against one wall where I store many of my notions like pins, scissors, marking pens, rotary cutters and small rulers. All the drawers are labeled with what is inside.
The top drawer has safety pins and t-pins for sandwiching quilt layers together. I keep the pins in ziplock containers, so I can take them with me wherever I'm pinning the quilt layers together.
The next drawer holds binding clips in a ziplock container and quilting gloves. One drawer holds my extra machine feet and accessories. I keep my most frequently used feet next to my sewing machine, but those feet and accessories that I have to have like a circular embroidery tool, ruffler foot, gathering foot for my serger are not feet I use everyday or even every week. So I keep them in this drawer. Most of them are in little baskets inside the drawer.
The next drawer is where I keep my rotary cutters and extra rotary blades. I have different kinds of rotary cutters - Olfa knife, circular cutter, different sizes of cutters like 18mm, 28mm and 45mm. Some I just try out to see if I like something new and some have different uses. For example: I have two 45mm rotary cutters; one I use for cutting paper and templates and another I use for cutting fabric. This way my fabric blade does not get dull so easily by using it to cut paper. And I'm always careful to shut my rotary cutter blades when sticking them back in the drawer; you don't want to stick your hand back in that drawer with an open blade!
All my marking tools are stored in one drawer. Things like Miracle Chalk, water soluble markers, air soluble markers, heat soluble markers, tack-it tool, permanent fabric pens, glow tape for rulers, tailor's chalk, tracing paper, etc. I also keep my Simflex gauge for marking buttonholes and Embroiderer's buddy for marking embroidery placement inside. Anything related to marking fabric is inside this drawer.
Cutting mat accessories and scissors are stored in the next drawer. My binding miter tool, Add-A-Quarter ruler for paper piecing, Add-A-Eighth ruler, buttonhole cutter, applique scissors, embroidery trimmers, etc. Even though I do keep a pair of scissors near my cutting table and snipping scissors near my sewing machine and ironing board, I have specialty scissors in here that I don't use quite as often.
A large drawer near the bottom holds my markers, colored pencils and crayons. No, it's not for coloring, but instead I use them for fixing and repairing embroidery designs where the bobbin thread has pulled up or I've used the wrong color of thread. Also, I keep my larger machine accessories inside like my Cd-Rom that connects to my machine and any other feet or extra bobbins that don't fit into the drawer up above.
The last two drawers hold all my cones of serger thread. For serging, I keep basic colors of thread on cones since sergers use large amounts of thread. I also have some specialty thread like wooly nylon and pearl cotton for fun serging projects.
Clear drawers are an excellent way to store notions in your sewing room! Try combining small and flat drawers with larger drawers and you will be able to organize many of your things inside.
How do you store your quilting notions? I'd love to hear your ideas!
Take a peek into my sewing room - Journaling Projects & Ideas
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can "view" the tour by reading my description below. This is a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I'll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the lastest issue! I'd love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One thing that helps me a lot is to take lots of notes, write to-do lists and plan out my day for what I am doing. I have day planner which almost live by. I make notes of what I need to do today and days and weeks in the future. If you are working on projects that have deadlines, it is a good idea to plan a month or two ahead of time what you need to do each week to get that project done by the deadline.
Also, if you write down and make a list of your unfinished projects and then schedule in those project over several weeks and months, you'll be much more likely to get those projects done if you're continually reminded of them on your calendar.
For the quilt classes that I am teaching, I keep all the information I need in notebooks with sheet protectors. All of my written handouts are inside, plus template for pieces of the quilt and some fabric samples inside reminding me how to cut out pieces or finish certain techniques. As an example, for the MarJen for Error class I am currently teaching, I have all my written handouts, plastic template pieces, notes for fabric yardages and thread colors, some fussy cut fan fabric pieces for the dresden plate and decorative stitch samples.
You can do the same with classes you are taking or projects with multiple parts and pieces. Keep your directions and templates all together in a notebook or folder. If you are taking it to class every week or month, it's easier to tote back and forth and keeps all your instructions together. Plus if you decide to do this project again, you'll have everything together.
I keep clipboards with college ruled notebook paper everywhere. This bookcase is their permanent home, but they usually end up anywhere in my sewing room. They are great to carry from my machine to my computer to my cutting table, writing notes on something I'm creating.
Many times these clipboards will be filled up with notes and references for the last couple months of projects I have stitched. Every couple of months I will sort through the papers, deciding which ones are trash and which ones I want to keep for something in the future. I keep notebooks for journaling. I always carry a notebook with me when I'm traveling to classes or our local quilt quild. I always can jot down notes with ideas whether it's from the teacher who's speaking, show and tell or other ladies in the same class. There's always something I need to write that I will want to refer back to in the future.
This is especially helpful when you travel and visit quilt shows. Usually you are so overwhelmed with so much information that it is impossible to remember everything you hear or see. Keep a notebook and pen with you and you can always make notes wherever you are. Also, be sure to carry your camera to take pictures. Some quilt shows will not allow photography, so you may not always be able to use it. But your camera is a wonderful way to remind you of ideas that are of interest to you.
I use an inexpensive, college ruled, spiral bound notebook for notekeeping, for journaling my finished projects and for storing ideas for future projects. You could purchase more eleborate notebooks or journals to store all this information, but I have found that school notebooks work very well.
One notebook holds websites and blogs that I want to look at. Many times I will run across various quilt companies, websites or blogs as I'm frequently on the Internet, but don't have time at the moment to investigate them further. So I will jot down the web address and keep it for when I have time to look at it more in detail. I also jot down notes of blog topics, my weekly newsletters and Monday giveaways on my blog.
I have one little themed folder that has doll clothes in it that I stitched and sold when I first started sewing. I took photos of all the clothes, pasted them on pages in sheet protectors and wrote descriptions. There's about 8-10 pages in this folder of only doll clothes.
Another notebook holds past projects I have made. There are photos of a vacuum sweeper cover I made in November 2004. I have the Simplicity pattern I used along with the fabrics such as denim for the dress and a Christmas print for the apron.
My camp quilt I made in the summer of 2005 is listed in here. I have some notes listed such as I made three quilts in one month (I don't have the note written down that I won't EVER do that again, but I won't do that again - 3 heavily embroidered quilts in one month is just too much!). I have listed some of the fabrics and supplies I used in the quilts, how many hours it took to complete the quilt and some of the embroidery designs and packs I used in the blocks.
There are photos of hooping some of the blocks, embroidering them on the machine, laying out the quilt and then the finished quilt. I also took one of these quilts to the local county fair, state fair and a local museum for display. There are photos of the quilt in each of those places as well.
Take photos of your finished projects and keep them for reference in the future!! It's so neat to look back several years and see how your sewing has improved. It's also fun to see what you made, when you made it and who you made it for. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate - post a photo, jot down a few notes like the date, who it was for and a few details and you're finished!
I don't do as much journaling with photo prints as I used to, mainly because all of my photos are now digital. I can always print those photos off or send them online for prints to be made, but most of the time I store my photos and notes that correspond with them on my computer.
For example: I have some details photos of my camp quilt and I have all of them grouped together in one folder. Then I also have a text file with notes about the quilt and photos in the same folder. I use Notepad for my text file, but you could use any word processing program such as Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. Then be sure you have all that data backed up, so if something would happen to your computer, you still have all that info!
It's great to photograph and journal your finished projects, but it can take a lot of time. With doing electronic journaling, I can usually get my past projects photos grouped together and notes written faster than putting everything in a notebook. But a hard copy is fun to have and flip through as well. Whatever you do, go ahead an journal your projects, but don't spend so much time doing it that you're taking away time from your sewing!
Then I have an idea notebook with photos and notes of projects I have seen and like and want to do in the future. For example: While in Chicago for a Bernina training in 2005, I saw a tote bag with some neat decorative stitches that I wanted to try stitching. So I have a photo with a note saying, "I love the decorative stitches and the ruffle at the top."
Remember that a picture is worth a thousand words and that really is true. If you have a photograph, you'll usually remember that project more than if you just have some written details. Take pictures, date your entries and write what you like about that idea and keep it for using in the future.
I have another idea notebook that I keep my ideas and sketches in. So often I run across ideas or someone will give me an idea that I want to remember, so I jot it down. I keep class notes and ideas in here as well. I will probably have many more notebooks full of ideas than I will ever be able to stitch, but they are there if I ever need them!
That's where I keep all my journals and ideas and how I store them in notebooks. I really encourage you to keep a journal of your sewing and quilting projects. You'll feel so encouraged several years from now when you look back and see how much you've improved in your ability. Plus it's also a great way to keep ideas for future projects.
The next shelf holds my quilt and machine embroidery books - some by Alex Anderson, some by Jenny Haskins and many others. I also keep my machine and embroidery software instruction books here. I often use post-it tabs to mark pages in my instruction books that I frequently refer back to. I also have a couple of pattern books and embroidery design catalogs.
My collection is not as big as others. I do a lot of my research on the Internet and that is where I get a lot of my information. I have lots of information stored on my computer such as text documents and ebooks that I download from the Internet instead of being in printed book form.
How do you journal your projects and ideas? Or store your books and magazines? I'd love to hear some of your thoughts!
Several of you have emailed me asking for a source in reference to this post for purchasing an external hard drive to back up embroidery designs and photos from your computer. I have purchased several hard drives from here and been very pleased with what I have received.
These have an AC plug-in plus a USB cord to plug into your computer. There's no software to install. All you have to do it plug it in and flip the switch and your hard drive is on and you're ready to start sending files!
I would recommend getting around 200 GB for hard drive space. This will give you plenty of room for designs, photos and videos. Digital photos and videos take up lots of space, but this should give you plenty of room!
I would like to do several guests posts featuring your sewing room!!! I've had many emails from you during the last couple of weeks sending me photos and descriptions of your sewing room and it has been a delight to read each one and see the photos you sent!
Would you like to share your sewing room with others who read this blog? All you have to do is take several photos and write a short description of your sewing room and email it to me (info AT embtreasures.com).
It does not matter if you have a whole room dedicated to sewing or just a little corner of your dining room; you are sure to have your own organizing and storing tips to share!
It can be as long or short as you would like it to be. You can include one photo, several or none at all. Your description of your sewing room can be a quick overview touching on your basic tools you use or a detailed description of every single thing you have inside.
Don't think that you have to describe your sewing room in detail as I have done...you can make it short and simple. Show us what you enjoy most about your sewing room and why you love spending loads of time in that room.
I'd love to see and read more of your sewing rooms and I'm sure others would love to see your ideas as well!
Any questions; email me (info AT embtreasures.com)!
Take a peek into my sewing room: Embroidery storage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can "view" the tour by reading my description below. This is a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I'll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the lastest issue! I'd love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I first started stitching machine embroidery designs, I would purchase a design or card every so often and it was easy to keep track of where my designs were and which designs I had. As time went on, my stash of embroidery collections continued to grow. It soon became a problem of knowing what I had and since I didn't want to purchase duplicates, I had to come up with some method of cataloging my embroidery designs. Then I would know what I have, where they are and could easily get to them.
In my bookcase I keep all my embroidery cards and cds plus notebooks of thread charts. I also have a copy of every design from my cards and cds on my computer so I can easily get to them. My embroidery cards are stored in a plastic toolbox. What I have done is taken all the designs on each card and put them onto my computer. All the designs on each card are stored into folders on my computer. This makes them easy to access and send to my machine.
For example: If I want to stitch some paper dolls from this card, I would take the card, put it into my machine, upload the design from my machine to my computer, edit the design (editing designs in your computer software is much quicker than doing it on the machine) and send it back to the machine. With my designs already on my computer, I have eliminated a couple steps.
When embroidery machines first came out, the only way you could purchase embroidery design were on embroidery cards. You would insert that card in your machine and then you could access the embroidery designs. Technology has improved and so has machine embroidery and the software to use with it.
What the embroidery companies started doing is putting their embroidery designs on cds. They would package thread charts with the embroidery cds. With some machines you could connect the cd through a cd-rom reader into your machine. You could also insert the cd into your computer, open the designs in your software and send the designs to your machine.
Embroidery cds were a much easier alternative for me because I was taking all the designs off the cards and putting them onto my computer. With cds, it was much faster and easier to copy them to my computer.
I started taking the cd out of the jewel case or cd sleeve that it was in and storing them in a cd book. The reason for that is jewel cases take up much more space than a book of cds and the cds would sometime slip out of the sleeves that held them. Plus this kept my cds cleaner and easier to take out the cd, put it in my computer and return it to the cd book. They are also easy to take places if I need to.
I have several books of cds, organized by companies where I have purchased the designs from. One contains Great Notions embroidery cds. I have a misc. cd book which contains downloaded designs that I have put onto a cd and Sue Box designs. My third book of cds had my cd designs from Bernina and OESD.
I still have taken the designs from each cd and stored them onto my computer. When I am working on a project, I'll think of a design I have, but finding it could take quite a bit of time if I had to sort through all my embroidery cards and cds. But since I have all the designs on my computer, I can quickly click through folders of designs or do a computer search for the design I am looking for.
The newest kind of technology that embroidery design companies are using to store embroidery designs is a USB key or stick. You can put that key or stick directly into your sewing machine and open up the designs. You can also put it into your computer to bring up the design in your software and then send it to your machine. I store my USB keys in a drawer. I also catalog all the designs on my USB keys into folders on my computer.
The advantage with USB keys is that they are the latest technology, they are much smaller than cds, you can store a lot more on them and they are much more reliable than cards, cds or floppy disks ever were.
Many times you have the option of purchasing a USB key, cd, or card for design collections. If you have the ability to use a USB key, that is the best way to go. If not, go with a cd if you can use that with your software/machine and lastly choose the embroidery card.
Every machine is different and some machines will only take cards and you may not have software to open a cd or USB key to sent the designs to your machine. But if you have the ability to use a USB key or cd, that is the better choice and can be the less expensive one too. Embroidery cards are usually more expensive for companies to make rather than cds or USB keys.
Now that I've shown you where I keep my embroidery cards, cds and USB keys, let me show you where I keep my thread charts. As much as I love working on computers and am sitting in front of one almost 24 hours a day, it seems at times, I still like to have a printed thread chart so I can see the detail of the design.
Most often I will change the thread colors, so the thread color numbers mean nothing to me. I don't care what thread colors are on there; I'm going to change them. But I like to see the thread order and the design detail, so I want a printed sheet to take wherever I am working. With each collection that I get, I take my thread chart out and file them into notebooks with sheet protectors. I keep my notebooks of thread charts on the bottom shelf of this bookcase.
I have all my designs from my cards, cds and USB keys stored into notebooks by theme. One notebook contains florals, which has all the floral design collections in it. Animal design collections are in another. Baby and kids design fill a third notebook. One notebook contains Sue Box designs and designs that came on my machine. Another notebook contains lace and quilting designs. Christmas and holiday designs are filed in one notebook. Whimsical, cute, unrealistic design thread charts are stored in another. The last notebook I have is a misc. notebook where the collections that can't find a home elsewhere go.
I put all the thread charts into sheet protectors to protect the paper charts. My notebook is usually sitting next to my fabric, hoop and 505 spray adhesive. If I get any excess spray adhesive on my pages, I can simply clean off the sheet protector and my thread charts are still protected. I label the ends of the notebooks for the theme that is inside, store the notebooks in my bookcase and they are right there when I need them.
I store all my embroidery designs on my computer so they are easy to get to. I always have my backup copies on my embroidery cards, cds or USB sticks, but I like to have them all on my computer for easy access.
There are many ways to catagorize embroidery designs on your computer. You can group them into folders by the company your ordered them from, by design collection or by theme such as florals, animals, Christmas, etc. Everyone has their own favorite method, but the important thing is to keep the designs together in one place and store them in a way that is easiest for you to find them.
Let's zoom in on my computer and look inside my embroidery design folders. My designs are stored in a folder called My Embroidery Designs. Everything is grouped into folders to keep them organized. Don't just put your designs on your computer; organize them into folders so you know where they are and can find them.
Embroidery designs that I have created/edited/used to create a project such as the Beyond the Color Purple Quilt, Latte Quilt or MarJen for Error Quilt each have their own folder with their designs inside. I can further organize the designs so that the designs used in each block are in a folder under the project folder.
I also have a folder named, Embroidery Designs by Company. I have separate folders such as Embroidery.com, Sue Box Downloads, OESD Downloads and Amazing Designs. These are designs that I have purchased and downloaded from each company and they are stored that way. I don't have a huge collection under this folder, just a few designs here and there that I've bought online and downloaded.
I have a folder called Embroidery Cards that has the designs from each embroidery card in a separate folder. For example; the folder called, Mrs. Mouse's Sewing Treasures, has all the designs from the card in that folder. I can click on the design and open it in my software. Then I can do any editing that I need to do and send it to my machine to stitch it.
This is a much easier way for me to search through my designs than flipping through notebooks full of thread charts or looking at cards, cds or USB keys full of designs.
I always keep a backup copy of all the designs stored on my computer. If I took the designs from a card, cd or USB key, I already have a backup copy, but there are designs I have digitized, edited or grouped together for a project that I don't want to lose. If something happened to my computer, like my computer crashed, the files became corrupted or the files were accidently deleted (yes, it does happen!), you want to have a backup copy of those. Trust me; I know! :)
I used to store all my backup copies on cds, but since then technology has improved and the best thing you can store your embroidery designs onto is a USB key. You can get USB keys with various amounts of memory - 128 MB to 40 GB. You can store thousands of embroidery designs on USB keys. They are easy to stick into your computer and send the designs to them.
I use an external hard drive instead of a USB key to backup all my designs and my computer data. The external hard drive plugs into your computer via a USB cable. The computer recognizes the device and all you have to do is highlight the folder or files you want to send to the drive, right click and select Send To...then select the drive to send the files to.
The advantage of an external hard drive versus a USB key is that you have much more storage space. You can back up your entire computer if you needed to. The advantage of a USB key is that it is much smaller.
I really recommend that you back up your embroidery designs. You never know when something could happen to your computer and then those designs will be lost. Some companies will let you download the designs you have purchased again and some won't. But if your designs are backed up, you know you have a copy of them if something happens.
An advantage to a USB key or external hard drive is that you can switch designs from computer to computer if your sewing room is in another room where your Internet-connected computer is located. For example: Your office computer is connected to the Internet, but your sewing room is several rooms away. Download the design from the Internet to the computer, load onto the USB key/hard drive, plug it into your computer in your sewing room and open your design.
That's how I catalog my embroidery design and thread charts, where I store my backup copies and how I store my designs on my computer. There are many ways to store and organize embroidery designs and you will find you prefer one way over the other. This is what works well for me!
How do you store your embroidery designs and thread charts? What works well for you?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can "view" the tour by reading my description below. This is a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I'll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the lastest issue! I'd love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is my ironing board area. One of the things I use the most when I am in my sewing room is my ironing board and iron. There are a couple things I really like about this ironing board. The first being that it is really sturdy. Most inexpensive ironing boards tend to be wobbly and flimsy. They don't tend to hold up as well and give you the support you need when you are ironing or pressing.
The other thing I like about this ironing board is that is wider and longer than most average ironing boards so I can press more fabric at a time. The end of my ironing board is unique. Right now it has an extension on the end of it which makes a complete rectangle of the board. So I have the full width of the board the complete length of the board.
I can take off that extension so I have a narrower rounded end, which is easier to press garments and smaller projects. But for pressing large pieces of fabric like backings and borders, it is so nice to have a long, wide board where I can press a large amount of fabric at one time.
Another advantage to my ironing board is that there is a iron stand on the end so I can set my iron on the stand and not have it on my ironing board, using up some of the space. The fabric cover on my board does have a Teflon protective cloth at the end, so I could lay my iron down on it and keep it there. But most of the time, my iron sits on the stand so I have the full length of the ironing board to use.
(BTW, my ironing board is from the Reliable Corporation. I looked at several when I was in Houston last Fall and really loved this one the best. I do not for one second regret purchasing it. Previously I had looked at some less expensive ones and they were so lightweight and unsteady. My old board which was one my mom had for oddles of years gave more support than the newer inexpensive models I tried. I would really recommend if you're looking for a new board, that you check out what Reliable has to offer. You can see what's available on their website, but they only sell through dealers. Email me if you'd like more info and I can send you some details. Click here for a few more details.)
My chalkboard message board is above my ironing board. I did a class on chalkcloth and how to make message boards using this unique fabric, so of course, I had to have one for my sewing room. You can actually write with chalk on the black cloth and there are two pockets for holding chalk and accessories. To see a closer view of my chalkboard message board, see here.
The theme of my sewing room is green. I found the dogwood print floral fabric and loved it. So everything in my sewing room has the dogwood green fabric theme.
A bulletin board also is above my ironing board. I can keep notes, phone numbers or addresses there and quickly glance at them when I need to. A pincushion also is attached to my bulletin board which holds a few straight pins and my handwork needles. Most of them are threaded with thread so the needle doesn't get lost in the cushion, but they are easy to get to and out of my way when I'm not using them.
The thing I love most about having a bulletin board above my ironing board is the tools I keep at the bottom. I have a small pair of scissors, a seam gauge, a point turner and a pair of paper scissors. These are the most helpful things you can have by your ironing board!
If I'm pressing something, I have scissors where I can clip a loose thread. With my seam gauge, I can take it off, measure what I need to and hang it back up. Most of the time I use my point turner when I'm pressing something - pressing out corners. It's right there where I use it most. And then my paper scissors are there when I'm cutting paper-backed wonderunder or other paper projects. If I have a pair of scissors there for paper, I will be less likely to use my good scissors.
Many times I have my hands full with my projects and having my tools right at my fingertips is a helpful solution. I am so used to relying on those tools being there, that I'm really at a loss if I reach up there and something is missing!
My magnetic Grabbit pin cushion sits on the end of my ironing board. If I could discover a way to hang it up on my board, I would, but for now its home is right next to my iron. (If you have any ideas on hanging it up, I 'd love to hear them!) I have magnetic pin cushions all over my sewing room and use them frequently when I'm sewing.
So often I will have a piece of fabric or part of my project exactly in the place I want it and if I move to find my pin cushion, I'll have to reposition my fabric. I don't want to let go of my project, so I always keep pin cushions handy and my pins are there when I need them. It also keeps your pins contained as well. So often I will unpin things at my ironing board before I press something and instead of the pins lying around on the board and then falling off, they are stuck to the magnetic pin cushion.
The bookcase next to my ironing board holds things that I use in conjunction with my iron. On the top shelf I have a couple of baskets and a roll of freezer paper. You can use freezer paper for creating templates when you're quilting and you have to fuse them on with your iron, so that is where my freezer paper stays.
The two baskets hold fusible interfacing and wonderunder scraps. Whenever I am cutting something out from interfacing or wonderunder, I will always keep the scraps and throw them into these two baskets. That way if I need to mend something, I can cut off a small piece of interfacing and use it. It's the same way with wonderunder - if I need a little piece to fuse a placemat shut and I don't want to hand tack it shut, I can put a small piece of wonderunder or stitch witchery in there and fuse it shut. And it's done!
Those little pieces really come in handy. They will save you from cutting off of a bigger piece. These baskets do start to overflow, so when that happens I do have to throw some away, but I always have some available.
A box on one shelf holds iron off cleaner, glue and fray check. It also holds my pressing mit, a rough piece of twill to use for cleaning my iron and some fabric scraps that I use to test the iron on before pressing my project if needed. The other thing I have is my applique pressing sheet, rolled up and sitting on the shelf ready to use.
I have another box with water, cleaners, starch and various other liquid bottles. A spray bottle of water, different consistencies of starch, static guard and hand lotion are right in front. I also keep my Bubble Jet Solution and Bubble Jet Rinse Solution there for printing photos on fabric. The permanent home of my 505 spray adhesive is there, but it often is moved to wherever I'm hooping my stabilizer and fabric. 90% alcohol is there for cleaning 505 over spray marks on my fabric.
My tools and bottles are right there, I know where they are and they are by my ironing board where I use them the most!
How do you arrange your ironing station? What things do you keep near your ironing board? I'd love to hear your ideas!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can "view" the tour by reading my description below.
This is the first of a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I'll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the lastest issue!
I'd love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to my sewing room! I'm so excited that you're able to join me on this tour in this special room where I love to be so creative and where I spend a lot of my time. Not only do I do all of my sewing, quilting and embroidery here, but it also serves as my office, so I have to have all my office supplies right along with all my fabric, threads and notions.
I'd like to show you around my sewing room and maybe you can gain some ideas for your own room. I like to keep everything as organized as possible. That helps me sew to the best efficency that I can - get as much as I can accomplished in the little time that I have. I know - keeping everything organized and in its place is the hardest thing to do in a sewing room, but that is my goal. It doesn't always get accomlished, but that is my objective.
And I have to admit, when I'm currently working on a project, especially if I have a deadline for it, I will have fabric all over the place, my instruction books and journals are scattered all over the floor, I have threads out, I have notions scattered, everything is completely a mess. But as soon as I have time and am done with that project, I put everything back in its place, so when I start something new, I'm starting with a clean, fresh slate. And I know where everything is in my sewing room again.
I'm very privilaged that I have a large sewing room where I can store just about everything I need in it. Not everyone has that. And I have to say, when I first started sewing, my room was very, very small. The advantage that a small sewing room has is that you can stand in the middle of the room and reach just about everything. If I stood in the middle of my old sewing room, I could reach my sewing machine, fabric, threads and books just by streching out my arms.
When you have a larger sewing room, you have to be a little bit more organized so your tools and notions are handy to get to. There's different ways that you can accomplish being organized and I'm going to show you some of the ways and some of the things I have done. These are my ideas, what I like to do and what works for me. Some of them may work for you; some of them may not. But hopefully you'll be able to get some ideas that you can incorporate into your own sewing room.
We're going to briefly go around the room and I'm going to describe to you where I keep everything in my sewing room. Later on, I'll go into detail and show you how I did everything and why I like it where it is.
So, come on and take a peek into my sewing room!
Let me give a quick 360 degree view of my sewing room. The first thing is my ironing board, then two bookcases, a stack of clear drawers for storage, two more bookcases with totes up on top, a stack of totes with projects, large closet, cutting table, thread racks on the wall, computer and desk, embroidery machine, sewing machine and serger.
The first thing that you see when you walk into my sewing room is my ironing board. I have a really wide and long ironing board, but that makes it very easy to press large pieces of fabric. I can shove it up against the wall for storage or bring it out into the room to use both sides of the board. Above my ironing board, I have a chalkboard message board and a bulletin board where I store notes and tools that I'm using when I'm ironing.
Next to my ironing board, I have two bookcases. Above the first bookcase, I have a cd/radio player and store my embroidery cards and cds in protective cases. On the top of the second book case I have totes that store some of my frequently used sewing supplies. I designed the bookcases with a fabric cover so I can close them and hide everything inside, but I can also open them and easily get to things on the shelves.
My first bookcase holds computer cds, scraps of interfacing and wonderunder (ready to use next to my ironing board), office supplies, cleaning products, starch and reference and supply books. The second bookcase holds my magazine to-read pile, handwork sewing basket, project notes that I'm currently working on, class notebooks, notebooks and journals, machine instruction books and magazines I've collected over the years. The totes I have on top of my bookcase are easy to take down and use the tools inside and then stick back on the shelf.
My stack of clear drawers next to my bookcases holds notions such as quilting supplies, rotary cutters, straight pins, cutting mat supplies, scissors, etc. The drawers are easy to get open, get what I need and put it back when I'm finished with it. My grocery bag holder is on the wall next to my drawers. I line my trash cans with grocery bags which makes it very easy to empty the trash!
My next two bookcases are covered with a fabric cover and hold my fabric stash. Up above the bookcases I store smaller pieces of fabric in a couple of totes - pieces that are too small to put on my shelves of fabric. I also keep beads, sequins, 3D embroideries and a few current projects in totes and boxes on top of these two bookcases. On the shelves of my bookcases, I have prints stored on one and solids stored on the other. The great thing is that I can get into my fabric easily and if I need to hurry and get things cleaned up, I can shove all my fabric on the shelves and drop the cover of the bookcases and everything is enclosed and hidden. It looks nice, keeps my fabric clean and protects it from the light.
Right next to my fabric is a little corner where I keep all of my quilting rulers and cutting mats. It was dead space and of course, there can't be any dead space in my sewing room, so it became the quilting ruler stash wall. It's just a few steps from my cutting mat and easy to reach over and grab a ruler.
I moved a stash of totes filled with unfinished projects and pillowcase full of finished projects into my sewing room to show you how I store all my projects. I normally keep all my projects - finished and unfinished in another storage room, not my sewing room. That way they are out of my way and I can bring them into my sewing room when I'm ready to finish them.
Right next to my stack of projects I have an over-the-door hanger where I store lots of totes, plastic bags and things I need once-in-a-while. The next thing is my closet - every sewing room has to have a closet, in my opinion! I can store fabric on hangers that I've just pressed or I also use my closet for storing garments that I'm sewing. Because I want to use every inch of space in my sewing room, I have clear drawers below my closet where I store ribbons, garment notions, buttons and embroidery stabilizers. The drawers are convenient and easy to reach.
My cutting table is next to my closet. I usually keep my large cutting mat on the table along with three large stacking baskets toward the back of the table. In the baskets, I keep pins, scissors, fabric and things that I'm currently sewing and I don't have to have them cluttering up my cutting table. Below my cutting table I store my embroidery thread, zippers, shoulder pads and patterns in totes and drawers. Also underneath my cutting table is my trash can, fabric scrap bag and totes for class projects.
A table holding drawers with computer supplies and my printer sits next to my cutting table. Underneath that table - because you know, every single inch of space must be used :) - sits extra paper, new samples and projects to try and a tote full of extra computer supplies and accessories. And most importantly my step stool which comes in handy to reach those high things in my sewing room!
Above that table is where all my sewing thread is stored on racks under a fabric cover. I can lift the fabric cover, hook it into the ceiling and pick out the thread I need. Then I can lower the cover when I'm finished. This keeps my thread clean, protects it from the light and makes my sewing room look neat.
The next table is my computer table that holds my computer and accessories, Another table sits next to my computer table which I use for many different things. It's lightweight and I can move it around for the different projects I am working on. It holds paperwork, fabric parts and pieces for quilts, notions and tools I'm using at the moment and also serves as additional space when I'm quilting a large quilt - whatever I need it for, it's there.
On a six foot table, directly across from my computer sits my two sewing machines - one set up for embroidery and one set up for sewing. So I can sew as I'm stitching a design and keep and eye on both projects. Toward the back of my table sits a lazy susan organizer and clear holder where I store machine feet, needles, scissors, rippers, markers, etc. I also have a small, decorative thread rack on the wall which holds my frequently used embroidery threads and bobbins filled with bobbin thread. My serger sits on a smaller table right behind my sewing machine.
Thanks for taking a peek into my sewing room! I hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed showing it to you!
Over the next few episodes, I'm going to show you some of the aspects of my sewing room in detail. I'd like to show you how I made my fabric bookcase covers, how I store my different threads and why I store my projects the way I do. Hopefully you will be able to gain some ideas from the things I'm able to show you from my sewing room.
So be sure not to miss a single episode - I sure wouldn't want to! I'll see you then!
How do you arrange your sewing room? I've love to hear what your room is like!
