DIY Day! Organize your sewing room on a budget!

By Clarissa C. of GreenBeansDiapers

I know many of our blog viewers are crafty and sew themselves so here are some cheap and simple ideas to make your sewing room look like something on pintrest!



*Disclaimer, my sewing room does not look like something from pintrest so I guess those that can't do, teach! As you can tell by the chaos!












Do you have lots of button, brads, snaps or other small items? You could use small tubs to put them all in and put them on a shelf or you can try something like a bolt organizer from Harbor Freight. I used spray paint for plastic to make mine blend in with the décor a bit more and then hung it on the wall to free up more work space.

     If you like to sew you probably have lots of fabric. There are many options for storing fabric, folding and putting on a shelf or under your cutting table if you have one, still on the bolt both like I have here. Or you can store it in clear totes under a work table, in the closet or even rolling under the bed totes for your overflow to keep it out of sight! Not that I'm admitting to that..... You could also fold your fabric on to comic boards to display them in a visually appealing way on your shelves. Comic boards can be purchased on Amazon.com or elsewhere online. Or you can try stopping at your local comic book store to see if they have extras. If you are really thrifty you can cut your own comic boards from cardboard boxes or empty fabric bolts. Here's a photo from thecottagehome.blogspot.com, looks much better than my fabric spilling out of the shelves.

   I also have lots of ribbon and Velcro so finding a way to keep it out of children and cats was a much needed solution for me. Not clearly visible in the first photo is a homemade shelf my husband made with dowels on the bottom for ribbon spools. Easy to make and used some scrap wood we already had, saving me more $$! Use a drill bit to put holes large enough for your dowels through two pieces of wood at the same height and mount on the wall parallel to each other. If you want something even prettier, use curtain rod hooks mounted a photo frame as pictured below. Get a wide enough frame and you can even use it to store rolls of fabric on. Another cute idea is to use a video shelf for holding DVD's or tapes for your ribbon.

 

Need shelving for all your tools, fabric board and jars of buttons or boxes of stamps and ink? I like cubbies from ClosetMaid. The cubbies themselves are easy to assemble and you can stack them in any configuration you want. I also use the fabric storage bins for hiding clutter like small toys and fabric scraps. These are relatively inexpensive but nonetheless, they are the most expensive and only "new" item in my room!

Hope you've found some helpful tips to organize your space or at least make your work area a little more functional, especially for those of you sewing at the dining table!