Fabric Organizing Idea

I’ve been keeping all of my material in a big bin for a while.  I kept the different fabrics separate by just tying a knot in the original bag from the place I got them from.  Well, last week as I was sorting through material looking for scraps to make a quilted pillow for Christian’s bed, Christian came in and announced “Mother, you’re making a giant mess!”  This was partially true though everything was organized by material type.  I guess he decided that he could help make my mess worse so he rolled around in all of my material just like a cat and started throwing rainbows of color and texture in the air and swatting at them.

I was pretty frustrated as I started re-bagging the material.  It was then that I realized there had to be a better way to keep my material easy to see and easy to get at without making a disaster every single time I looked through it. 

So, I decided to bag my material in clean zip-lock bags and placing a paper inside on top that has an explanation of what the bag contains such as fabric type, color as well as amount.  This way, I can see at a glance what is in each bag and how much I have so I’ll know if I have what I need or if it’s time for a shopping trip.  Another nice thing about the plastic bag idea is that it’s pretty compact and I can push all of the air out of the bag and so they fit a little better in my bin.  The largest amount of material I had was 4.5 yds which fit great into a 2.5 gallon bag for other sizes I used anything from lunch size, quart size and gallon sizes.  Safeway was doing a special this week so all of my bags together were under $5 and I have a clean

Here’s a grocery bag filled with all of the various satins that I have..it’s a mess I know and it used to take at least 5 minutes if not more to figure out how much of each material I had…if not more.

  

Here are all my satins sorted and in bags…I know what I have at a glance!

 

It did take some time to measure everything, fold it, label it, and push out the air, but it is so nice to now open my bin and find what I need very quickly.  I love it!

Lavender Little Girl Dress with a Little Detail

A year after my back surgery, I told Jared that if he wanted to have kids, I would need a sewing machine.  I just felt like if I was ever to have a little girl I would want to make dresses for her.  So he took me over to this special they were having at Big Lots on Necchi sewing machines with all metal parts and bought me one.  I love my sewing machine and I’m so excited that now I am actually going to have a little girl to sew for!  I decided to practice my sewing skills and made this little dress for my friend’s daughter since she’s in a bit bigger size and sometimes bigger is easier than smaller.  My favorite thing about this dress is are the little fux pearls I added to the already darling trim.

 

It’s all in the details!

Red Crafter’s Apron

After the ease of making my purple crafter's apron I decided to try it with a contrasting pocket.  I made this out of a pillowcase that I got for my wedding but never had anything (sheets or otherwise) that matched. Then I found a fun scrap of red with white polka-dots.  This reminds Jared of Mini Mouse but I think it’s pretty cute and kind of has a vintage feel with the dots.

Newborn Baby Bracelet

When I made the green bracelet a while ago I cut the cord a little too short so I decided to make an infant bracelet.  The standard size for infants in 4”- 4.5” so I just made it 4”.