Hudson Valley NY Chapter American Sewing Guild: Musings on Space and Time

The topic was organization; specifically, how do you keep track of your sewing stuff (assuming you do) and how do you maximize your sewing time and output? A lively discussion ensued among the group about sewing space and time.

Most of us have sewing rooms that were carved from an extra bedroom or basement room in our homes, so our spaces were not designed to be sewing studios. As a result we've had to make-do with imperfect lighting or less-than-ideal configurations. Many of us have hit upon similar solutions to the problem of storing supplies and organizing projects.


Variety of clear storage boxes and drawers

Two favorite things cropped up in our talk: clear plastic, whether as bins, bags or envelopes; and office supplies repurposed for sewing use. Peggy uses a desk carousel for a sewing tool caddy. Maura likes the Really Useful Boxes brand storage containers that come in various sizes from tiny to large to organize drawer contents and shelves. Quite a few of us use the rolling carts with clear drawers to give us extra storage near our sewing area - they are a good size to hold sewing and ironing supplies and often fit under a table. Clear storage bins were popular for storing fabric (because then you can see what's in them) and clear plastic sheet protectors (sleeves) for patterns. Clear plastic bags are great for packaging all the elements of a project: pattern, cut-out pieces of fabric, and notions.

Beyond these items, Mary Ann uses a flannel back tablecloth for a quilt design board. It can be hung on the wall or laid flat on a bed or table. She lays out her design on the flannel side. If she needs to move it before it's done, she just rolls it up and the plastic side protects the whole thing. She also finds that a pegboard on the wall is a great way to keep a lot of sewing tools handy.


Labelled fabric swatches

Judy deals with the seasonal aspect of sewing garments by sorting her fabrics according to season, so spring and summer fabrics are stored separately from fall and winter fabric. Then she can rotate them in and out of her sewing room as needed. She also keeps binders of swatches labelled with fabric content and yardage to stay aware of her stash.

Kathia found that having a sunny room was important - dark rooms require extra lighting which can heat up a room uncomfortably and take up valuable space. And natural light is important for quilters to be able to see the true colors of fabric.

Another part of the discussion was about making time to sew. Some of us have scheduled times (often early morning) to sew; others fit it in whenever they have a few moments. Some set goals, which can be as varied as sewing an item a week to sewing one seam before dinner. Some of us make lists of projects we want to make; these might be prioritized by season or need.

At the end of the meeting we had discovered that although we all have adapted similar ideas to aid our sewing, there were enough differences to give us all some new ideas about maximizing our sewing time and space.

There were a few Show-and-Tell items. Next month Peggy will be presenting a program on making Dorset buttons.