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Click the video player to view the tour of my sewing room. It may take a few minutes to load. For those of you with a dial-up connection, you can “view” the tour by reading my description below.
This is a series on sewing room organization and storage, complete with videos! Over the next few weeks, I’ll share ideas for fabric stash organizing, thread storage and cataloging embroidery designs. Be sure to visit my blog every week or sign up for my newsletter for the latest issue!
I’d love to hear the many ways you organize and store things in your sewing room, so leave a comment with your favorite sewing room ideas!
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Unfinished projects and finished projects: how do you store all of them? There are many ways to store all these projects, but let me give you some ideas as to what I do.

Unfinished projects: Most of my unfinished projects I don’t store in my sewing room because I have so many, but I do keep a few things I am working on or continually working on in my sewing room.

Remember those pizza boxes? They make great storage boxes for project! Large pizza boxes are 15″ square and 2″ deep. They are great for storing 10″, 12″, 14″, 15″ quilt blocks with the threads you are using and instructions. You can also store fabric sashing pieces, binding and other smaller pieces of fabric.

Label the ends with mailing labels and you know what is inside. I keep smaller projects in these and store the boxes above my bookcases of fabric. Many of them contain projects that I am always making more of such as potato bags.

You can go to your local Pizza Hut and ask for a couple large pizza boxes. Medium and small boxes also work well, but don’t give you as much room. Cover the boxes with cotton fabric and your box is ready to be filled up. These boxes work great for keeping blocks flat as well as carrying projects back and forth to class.

The majority of my projects I keep in 6″ deep totes. They are just the right size to store everything project related inside: fabric, batting, threads, embellishments and instructions. The easiest thing to do is keep everything related to that project inside so that I can grab that tote and start working on what’s inside. That way I don’t have to go looking for the instructions, threads or other parts and pieces to finish it.

The totes are easy to stack and easy to carry around. Label the end of the tote with what is inside and you’ll be able to see at a glance where your projects are.

Finished projects: Granted, I have many more unfinished projects than finished ones. But, I do have finished projects as well. They definitely need to be stored in such a way that will preserve them for years to come!

Store your finished projects in pillow cases instead of plastic bags. If at all possible with smaller wall hangings and projects, store them flat. For larger wall hangings and quilts that can’t be stored flat, roll them instead of folding them. This will keep delicate areas such as printed photos, embroidery and embellishments from being folded in the wrong place. Roll it so the embellished areas are to the inside, keeping the top of your project clean and protected.

For more info on storing finished projects, see here.

Stay tuned next week for a quick and easy way to cover pizza boxes using your iron!

How do you store your projects, unfinished or finished? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Clear Zip-Lock bags have a definite use in your sewing room! They can be used to organize threads, buttons, scraps, patterns and fabrics. Available in different sizes, these clear bags make organization so easy with a sealable closure.

Sort buttons, beads, sequins and crystals in smaller bags. They can be organized by color, type or size. When these items are placed in clear plastic bags, they are easy to find and stay together. Be sure to completely seal the bag shut, so the contents cannot be dumped.

Medium size bags are a great way to organize your sewing, quilting and embroidery threads. Sort threads by colors, keep variegated, metallic and specialty threads together. Seal water soluble thread in air tight zip-lock bags to keep the threads from slowly dissolving. Your threads will be quick and easy to find. Keep the thread and bobbin together in a bag for a continuous project you are working on. You won’t have to hunt for the right color of thread and bobbin when you start and stop on a project.

Keep fabric scraps, remnants and pieces in zip-lock bags for short term use. This will keep them together and clean, ready for use. Store quilt blocks that you are working on in zip-lock bags. When shopping for thread or fabric color matches, place your fabric scrap or quilt block in a zip-lock bag. It will stay clean as you are looking for the right color and the raveling threads won’t be all over in your purse.

Store stitched out embroidery designs in zip-lock bags. Make extra lace butterflies, 3D designs, paper dolls or designs stitched on felt for future use. Keep stitched out lace designs and flowers on hand to use when needed. Store water soluble stabilizers such as aqua film and badgemaster in zip-lock bags. These stabilizers will become stiff and brittle if exposed to air for long lengths of time.

Keep projects pieces, patterns and supplies together in a clear bag. If you are unable to finish the current project you are working on, pack it up – thread, fabric, supplies, etc., and store it in a zip-lock bag until you are able to finish it. This will keep all your supplies together so you will not have to hunt for everything; you can just start sewing. Keep cut quilt blocks, pieces and borders in plastic bags to keep the edges from raveling until they are ready to be attached to the quilt.

Have I accomplished what I set out to do? Well, yes and no. Yes, I have stayed on track, not started anything new except for a couple things I needed for classes and have been able to get a few projects finished. I finished up several wall hangings and fixed a pile of alterations that have been sitting in my sewing room since last fall. I was also able to go through my spring/summer clothes and alter the skirts, tops and jackets that needed changed or repaired. I found two spring skirts that I cut out last year and finished those.

So, yes, I made a dent in my pile. But the dent seems oh-so-small! I have a huge, almost tumbling over pile of class samples and half finished ideas to complete. I store most of my projects in totes as you see here with all the pieces and info so it is all together when I am ready to work on it again. I have two stacks of totes this high with projects in various stages. This is only one pile that I am temporarily storing in my sister’s room while she is away at school. I am hoping to reduce this a little since she will be home in three weeks!!!

Why do I have such a pile? Excellent question!! It’s not that I just start something and never finish, although that happens on occasion. Over the past five years that I have been teaching, my teaching samples have piled up. For each class I teach, I stitch multiple ideas plus several of the same thing in various stages so I can show how to complete the project step-by-step.

I like to have as many visual samples as I can for every class I teach. It gives everyone more ideas and shows how many different themes and projects can be accomplished with just one idea. Plus, it helps me and guides me through the project as I am teaching to have multiplies in different stages. And of course, I only start out making one sample and soon my mind is flying with possibilities and I just have to stitch out some of those ideas! I get myself into trouble when I start asking myself, “What if…?” :)

With multiple classes a month, all different, my samples and in progress projects have just grown and grown! I try to finish some of them each month after I have taught that class, but it usually ends up being filed away in a tote. That is a big part of the reason why I have such a toppling pile of UFOs!

There are always those projects that I start, have a brain freeze and just can’t seem to get past it. If I put it away a while and then get back to it, I usually can think of several ways to accomplish whatever I was trying to do. Sometime I will be looking for a certain fabric or notion to complete the project, but haven’t found it yet, so I will lay it aside. And there are times that life interferes with my embroidery projects!

I will keep chipping away at my pile, but new ideas are just starting to bloom in my mind! I have been staying up way too late with a pen and paper sketching several new ideas! They are just sketches now; I’m not sure how long I can put off putting them into fabric and thread, but I’m trying.

I’ve started ideas for a quilt in memory of my mom who passed away last November, a new embroidered quilt that I may teach in a local class and few other ideas. For now I am content to doodle on paper and plan out fabric, embroidery designs and quilt blocks. But it won’t take long to switch to fabric! :)