A Few of My Favorite Things

I use my sewing studio nearly every day, so it is important to me to create a pleasant, well-organized room where I can be as productive as I need to be.

Today I’m going to highlight a few of my favorite things in my studio. Some of these things are organizers while others are just things that make my space fun for me.

First up is this tomato pincushion. If you’ve done any sewing at all, chances are you have seen these tomato pincushions in stores or in drawers. This particular tomato lives in the top drawer of the cabinet right beside my sewing machine. I used a hint that I found in this book by Nancy Zieman.

Using a permanent marker, I divided the sections of the tomato to correspond with the most popular sizes of sewing machine needles. Now, when I use a certain size needle for just a short time, instead of replacing it in its case with brand new needles, I stick it in the appropriate section of this tomato.

You can probably see the yellow head of a straight pin. I use that to mark the size of needle that is currently in my sewing machine. This one hint has saved me countless sewing machine needles over the years, and has made it easy to always use the correct needle for the project on which I am working.

Here’s a handy item for anyone who uses an iron. (And I do hope your iron is more presentable than mine is in this photo!) This iron caddy has saved me a lot of money over the years. Before strapping this onto my ironing board, I broke two or three irons by knocking them off of the ironing board onto the basement floor.

This is also great for those who iron with children around. I don’t know many people who iron besides those of us who sew, but if you do use an iron, you should have one of these!

Plastic Shoeboxes! What’s not to love about this multifunctional marvel? I use plastic shoeboxes for storing all of my fabric scraps. You can see them in the photo above on the left. These containers cost just $1, and I have enough to conveniently sort my fabric scraps by color. I don’t do a lot of scrappy projects, so when these containers get full, I toss some of the scraps that are least likely to get used.

In the photo on the right, I have some deluxe plastic shoeboxes which cost a bit more than $2 each. I use these babies with the locking lids to hold cut out sewing projects. I can fit the fabric, batting, pattern instructions, and any notions in one of those boxes, and that helps me to stay organized. This is a tip I got from the same Nancy Zieman book that I linked earlier.

Enough about organization ….. I want to show you some of the fun things in my studio that make me smile. On the shelf, you can see one of the latest photos of my mother who is no longer with us, and a small pitcher that was a gift from a friend who lost her battle with cancer. Hanging from the shelf is a special fingertip towel cross-stitched for me by my sister-in-law Pam with the words “So many projects, so little time.”

The sewing basket that you see there was a gift from my oldest sister Joyce when I was just a child. I’m not terribly sentimental, and this old basket doesn’t hold much, but I just can’t part with it! I remember when all of my sewing equipment fit into that small basket.

The light beside the basket has been fashioned from a large butter jar. I won that baby at TOPS one summer when I lost more weight in three months than any other TOPS member. Fortunately for me, the jar was not repossessed when I regained that weight. It was originally filled with potpourri which gives me a sinus headache. I tossed the potpourri and filled it with old sewing notions. I love the way it coordinates with the other sewing items in my studio.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of my workspace. If you have any questions or comments, please respond below.