Saturday, April 10, 2021

Ready Thread Go

When I first moved into this house (almost 2 years ago now!), I unpacked my sewing supplies and called it done. But I really didn't organize a lot of it to my liking. Since I haven't been sewing regularly for a while, I just grimace through it when I do dust off the machines. But my thread was irritating me just a bit too much and I realized it's been a mental roadblock keeping me from sewing more. So I decided that today was the day I would finally tackle it instead of forever searching the rows for the right color, or more likely, just ignoring sewing altogether. 

It only took a couple of hours and it's not like I haven't been inside this house most of the last year with time on my hands, so I don't know why the procrastination, but I'm guessing we've all accumulated a lot of those feelings lately so I'm not going to offer any specific excuse except to say, oh well. 

I meant to take a pic before I started pulling spools off, but whoops. I did remember after pulling off the whites and browns. 
And here are the racks completely empty. Same as when I was in my rental house, I hung the racks using Command Velcro strips. I love those for this. First, no doors are harmed, and second (and almost as important), no measuring is needed to get everything lined up. I've found that using the Command strips on some painted walls hasn't turned out as well, but a wall is a lot easier to fix than a hole in a door.  
I pulled off all the spools and arranged them in groups of colors on a blanket pulled across my bed (which is about 5 steps from the door). Also, see my treadle makeup table? I really don't have room for it anywhere else but I also don't want to get rid of it. Makeup table it is. Although what IS makeup anymore?

And then I stared at the piles for a while, trying to decide how I wanted them to run into each other. 
In the end, I went with whites/beiges at the top, going into grays and then blues, greens, black, yellows, pinks, reds, oranges. I ended up with empty rows for expansion and weird stuff on the bottom row like nylon thread, fusible thread, etc. Because of my coverstitch machine, I tend to buy multiples of the same colors. For many of those, I use straws over the pegs so I can stack spools. For basics, like blacks, whites, grays, and browns, I keep them single so I have room to expand within a color range using the straws if needed but without having to move the entire collection of spools up or down. 
And since we're on thread, serger cones are kept in 2 drawers of an IKEA unit under my machine table. 
And bobbins in Bobbin Savers behind my sewing machine. 

 

And that's probably more than you wanted to know about my thread.

I have a pattern printed and taped together, but I don't think I have fabric in the house that is suitable. So, another small project today will be getting into some fabric bins in the garage. I actually got rid of a lot of fabric when I moved so I'm not even sure what's out there, but I really, really do NOT want to turn looking in those bins into another organization project. I think I'll take my phone out there and just take some general pics so I have some record of what's there and call it done. 

14 comments:

  1. Well done! We each organize according to our circumstances. I keep my threads flat in trays designed to hold packages of cigarettes (discarded by a local liquor store) and in clear plastic trays that were originally photo frames back in the 80s. I use the same bobbin holders as you do but hang them from nails. I think they're the best bobbin gadgets.

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  2. Organizing is the spark to get your sewing mojo in full swing! Such a teaser to no tell what pattern you have printed & taped! I’m curious!!!

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  3. I know what you mean about disarray in the sewing room sapping away all of your sewjo! Thanks for the tip about the Velcro Command strips for the thread racks. I'm currently brainstorming options for organizing all of my cones of long arm quilting thread but your talk about the fabric out in the garage has reminded me (uncomfortably!) of the piles of knit garment fabric that I have squirreled away in my guest room. I don't even know why I still call it the guest room -- there's so much fabric and sewing stuff in there that I had to take the bed out of the room. If anyone wants to stay the night at my house when both of my sons are home, they better bring a sleeping bag!! I'm looking forward to seeing what pattern you're ready to start on. Maybe you'll inspire me to take the dust cover off my serger and dig into that fabric stash!

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  4. I have my thread on one wall in the rainbow ROYGBIV Red, yellows pink green orange purple blue, then brown black and white

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  5. Hey there! I can't tell you how happy I was to take a shot and find you here! I've been following you for years, learned more than a trick or two, and always enjoyed your candor as well as your sewing skills. Nice to see you.

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  6. I kept my cones of thread all over the room and in a bin. I finally got plastic shoe boxes to keep thread from getting dusty and a bookcase from my daughter's room to store the boxes of thread. The boxes were clear, so I could tell at a glance what color was in the boxes. I bought a butterick cabinet that held patterns in a sewing shop and used it for patterns, laces, fasteners and zippers, and whatever. I never had to open box of bags again, rummaging.

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  7. I'm a messy person in general, but I have started picking up my sewing room at the end of each session once I realized it's a lot harder to go in there when stuff is all over the place.

    Love the back-of-the-door solution for the thread.

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  8. Well done! It’s a job we all could do I’m sure 😉

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  9. I love a good organization project. Enjoy!

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  10. I haven't been able to do much sewing in this pandemic. I have tidied up my sewing room quite often. I use command hooks all over. They have done well for me.

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  11. Sad to see no new blog post, but you have a wonderful blog list for me to peruse tonight! Hope the sewing is going well.

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  12. Happy holidays to you. Just wanted to let you know you are missed. I hope you and your boys are doing well. Thank you for sharing. Karen

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  13. I really miss your blog posts. Hope you are well.

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Thank you for each and every comment. I appreciate them all, but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm usually bad about answering questions. I hope you understand that there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

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