Organizing Your Creative Space - A Guest Post From Stitch Rabbit

Hello Make It Dear readers!! Thanks to Mandi for inviting me to guest blog for her!

My name is Carli and I blog over at Stitch Rabbit. I write about sewing, knitting, and life with my two little rabbits, Frankie and Charlie. Come visit me anytime!

So I thought I would talk to you guys about sewing/craft room organization. As anyone with more than a pair of scissors and glue will know, keeping your crap in order can be overwhelming, leading to frustration while you're trying to work and can't find the measuring tape yet again.

This is my creative space, my studio, sewing room. It also houses our computer and office supplies and all the crap that comes with it, as well as some winter coats and linen in the closet. So it could easily become a nightmare. We have a tiny house, and frankly the space could be used for something else (uh - like another bedroom?!) but while my kids are young and I am home a lot I find it absolutely vital to my own happiness to have a space where I can create. It's also a room in which I can shut the door during the day when the pins and scissors have taken over the floor, and nobody will mess with it, or stick their sister with a pin. If you don't have a nook of your own I highly suggest you do it!! Lugging machines onto dirty dinner tables makes for a total lack of motivation!

Another idea if you really aren't finding the space to lay out, is to consider finding or making a station that can roll from a corner in your house to a table you can work on. I do this with all my paper crafts. The cabinet is a vintage metal dentist rolling cabinet and it houses paper, card and tag making supplies and all my stamps. I love this because since I don't have the table space in my own little studio, I can wheel this out to the kitchen table and stamp my little heart out. I prefer those typewriter key stamps and anything with scissors on it.

Okay - onto the organization.

Rule Number one in my mind: Keep your crap in stuff.

It's simple, it's effective, and you can make it really, really cute. I use everything from wire baskets to vintage suitcases to cosmetic cases to old metal filing and office boxes of all types. I think my favorites right now are vintage metal tool boxes. It can take a minute to gather a collection of stuff to put stuff in, but every time you hit the thrift store you just keep in mind "Storage solutions - make it cute, make it work." And the fun part to, is that as you keep finding these treasures, your craft/sewing room will be constantly evolving and changing, like art.

Now - here's the thing. What have you noticed in all of these photos?

Labels!!!

Taken straight from a page in my good friend Erin's book, I truly label everything. The label maker is your friend. You can make cute tags, but the label maker is the best because you type it, you print it, you stick it. You never lose your crap again. Do you think I'm crazy? Labeling everything? Well let me ask you this. What would you think was in those suitcases if they weren't clearly labeled?

Exactly. I wouldn't know either.

Let's talk about tools. Keep em close! If you're sitting at a sewing table keep the things you use the most in arms reach. Scissors, thread, rippers, needles and pins. You'll save a lot of time if you don't have to get up and fish around in a drawer or box that's stuffed in your closet every time you need to change your bobbin!

And finally, what do you do with all those works in progress? I like to stash mine in - you guessed it - stuff I can put stuff in. I keep a couple of big baskets under my ironing board full of things I'm working on, because one project is never enough. I keep knitting projects in baskets and I hang half-made clothing on hooks in plain sight, so I don't forget to finish them!

And don't forget you can make your own storage solutions! Check out this tutorial on my own blog so you can make yourself a knitted basket! I hope you enjoyed my guest blog post on organizing the creative space in your life. If you have any of your own ideas we'd love to hear what they are in the comments section below and feel free to drop me a line over at Stitch Rabbit!

And don't forget to enter to win a super awesome Chevron friendship bracelet from Mandi here at Make It Dear.