Organizing Your Sewing Room for the New Year

Image via WikipediaIf you're like me, the first thing you want to do when the calendar rolls over to January 1st is to get organized. December usually plays havoc with my house. At first it's collecting presents and wrapping supplies for others, which usually temporarily take up residence in my sewing room; and then after Christmas when all of the presents given to my family fills up the room again.

When January hits, it's time for me to reclaim my most precious space and get it re-organized after a year of sewing projects, not to mention prepped for a new year's worth of crafty hobbies.

These tips will work whether you have a whole room dedicated to your sewing pursuits, half a room that shares time and space with the computer or home office, or a portable sewing machine that you hoist up on to the kitchen table whenever it's not being used by hungry husbands or children.

First, you want to map out your space and create stations for the different stages of your projects. Obviously you don't cut out your patterns in the same space that you put your sewing machine (unless you do everything on the kitchen table, that is). So determine the best space for cutting and pinning, sewing and serging, ironing and/or steaming, and a place for either your dress form or full length mirror (if you're your own sewing form, that is).

Image via Wikipedia

Then, determine what equipment and supplies you use most often for each station. This varies depending on the type of sewing you normally do; whether it's quilting, dress making, or home decorating. Whichever you decide are used most often, these are the things you want within arm's reach at any given moment. Nothing is more frustrating than getting all settled and in a comfortable position to cut, pin or measure and having to walk across the room to get what you need. If you're like me and sit on the carpet to cut and pin, you want your scissors and pins handy for that area.

Once you have your work areas mapped out, you need to focus on your storage area. I'm sure most of you have lots of "spare" fabric that you've bought on whims and need a place where you can see it. I've learned that fabric that's out of site is out of mind. That's why I like clear storage bins so I can see what I have at the proper moment when inspiration strikes.

You'll also want all of your sewing magazines organized so you can find them easily to refer back to an article that may bail you out of the hair-pulling predicaments that inevitably pop up in the middle of every project. Only keep the issues that you know you'll refer back to, though, or you run the risk of over-stuffing your space and possibly being featured on "Hoarders" (a girl can only dream, am I right?).

And let's not forget about your patterns. These I don't need a clear storage system for, I just need another room to house them all! These need to be organized in a file system that works for you. I like to group similar style dresses together so I can quickly look through them based on what project I know I'm about to dive head first into. If you're using a dedicated room, the closet is usually a good place to store patterns, although if you're like me you'll quickly fill that up and beg your husband to put a POD on the front lawn.

I think you'll find that having an organized space will increase your enjoyment of your hobby. It only takes a few hours once a year to get it going. Oh, who are we kidding? I have to do this once a month. I can be a messy seamstress! But start the New Year off right and get into the habit of straightening and organizing your area regularly to reduce stress and have more time for buying fabric.

Celebrate New Year's Day With Us

Everyone has their New Year's Day tradition. For some it involves a sofa, a pile of potato chips, and a marathon of college football bowl games. For others, it might be ample servings of pork roast and sauerkraut to ward off bad luck for the coming year. For us fine folks at The Sewing Studio, it's selling fabric, notions, trims and sewing machines at ridiculously low prices.

That's right, it's time for another great New Year's Day sale where your entire purchase, with a few notable exceptions*, will be 40% off the entire day, and that day only. 

Been eyeing some silk for a project but couldn't quite make the budget work? Now's the time to pull the trigger. Getting married this year and your Dad's freaking out about the price of materials? Cut the bill down to size by taking advantage of the sale. Are you a quilter that wants to stock up on the latest cottons from Kaufman, Hoffman, Amy Butler, and Michael Miller? Think of the creations you can tackle with all of those designers' work at deep discounts.

What's that? You didn't get that snazzy new sewing machine for Christmas that you dropped about a dozen hints for, but you still have all of the cash your parents and aunts dropped on you? Guess what? You can get a new machine at a discount, maybe even as deep as 50% off. Need a serger to finish off your garments cleanly and neatly? Now's the time to take the plunge (lots of seamstresses forgo sergers, but once you use one you'll never work without it again).

But most importantly, come down to commiserate with hundreds of like minded people as they spend the day sharing their love of creative needlecrafts, whether they be quilters, smockers, costumers, garment makers, or home decorators. It's a big ol' party just waiting for you to be the life of it!

* Yeah, it's time for the legal mumbo jumbo buried at the bottom of the post. To prevent us from losing our shirts and shuttering the store on January 2nd, the 40% sale excludes sewing machines, cabinets, Ott-Lites, pleaters, special orders, items on hold, previous purchases, and internet purchases.

Get to Know the Store: Machine Repairs

Anyone who walks into our store will immediately see our Machine Department. The ladies that work in that department are an invaluable source of machine knowledge and can help you find whatever bobbins, feet or software you may need for your particular brand of machine. But we'll highlight those lovely ladies another time. Today, we wanted to point out a facet of our store that many people don't know about: that we have an extremely busy and expert repair department.

And by department, we mean Andy.

Andy has been repairing machines for the Sewing Studio for years, which makes him the most knowledgeable person we know about the innards of sewing machines. He can, and has, repaired machines from half a century ago as well as the latest in computer controlled machines.

In fact, his eyes will light up if you bring in an old metal machine, as he claims that if you keep you mom's old workhorse in top condition it will continue to serve your grandchildren's quilting and sewing needs.

As with any machine with moving parts, yearly maintenance is recommended to keep it in great shape. But, be aware that due to his technical prowess Andy is often running two weeks from the day you drop off your machine until it's ready for you to pick up. He's just that popular!

So be sure that you can take a short vacation from your sewing projects while your machine is in the shop. But don't worry, when you have it back it will probably be running better than the day you originally unboxed it.