My Creative Space

I am going to try to play along with the My Creative Space idea over at Kootoyoo.

My space is an absolute mess! I am in the process of totally re-organizing my studio because I couldn't find the top of my cutting table, and I need room for 3- 10 year olds to cut out their projects. The fabric had taken over! Here are some shots of my basement studio during this upheaval-


These desks are my main work area.

Thread storage and machine supplies on the wall by all the machines. This had to stay organized or I would never get anything done!

The empty wall space here was covered in a floor to ceiling shelf filled with fabrics and bins of yarn, ribbons and other materials. The shelf, and all it contained have been moved into a new area of the basement, where I get to have a fabric room! Wa-hoo!

I thought these black bins ( on the wall over the industrial, above) would be a big help, but I hate them. Even though they are labeled, I can't see what is in them. I need to get more clear boxes, like the ones the threads are in, so I can see things.

It's really important to recognize, and work with, your idiosyncrasies when you are putting money into storage organization. I have learned the hard way that baskets, and other cute things just don't do any good for me. Lesson learned. If I had paid more in the beginning and gotten the shelving I really wanted, something that was very flexible and easy to rearrange, I would have saved a lot of cost in redo's, and down time while re-arranging, and my walls would not look like Swiss cheese! Also, I would have saved the cost of re-buying items I know I have, but can't fine. I'm doing this on a non-existent budget, so what I have has to work.

Too many things piled on top of other things. When I was laid off from my teaching job last year, so much stuff that I had brought to school had to come back home with me, and I have not been able to find space for it all. That's on top of all the stuff that has just never found a home when I was moved into the basement in the first place.


For the last week, I have been working on wrapping all of the fabrics onto half bolts (just a long flat piece of cardboard) and moved out of the studio (Thank God!!!) into a new area of the basement where I am making a fabric room- pictures are clockwise around the fabric room-

Yarn and ribbons in bins. These are the shelves that were on the wall in the other room (above and below, left).

Fabrics waiting to be wrapped onto bolts. The book shelf is temporary, until I figure out what to do with the pieces that I can't wrap on bolts.


The result of 5 days of wrapping fabrics on bolts! This is the start of a beautiful fabric room, where everything is visible all the time. I've rearranged the shelf arrangement on these shelves at least 4 times. A ratchet is a wonderful tool! So is a power screwdriver.

More bins with quilt parts, and a rack for rolled fabrics, finally! I have to thank Sewloutions for the idea of horizontal storage for rolled fabrics; also for the inspiration to get this started. I was just so bogged down with stuff that I wasn't getting anything done, until I saw her post on her studio redo. What she has done with a small space is just wonderful, and extremely usable. I have the space I need for classes, but had no available space to do it.

My plan is to have this finished by the end of the month. Posting this is my way of holding myself accountable to someone other than myself, and I thank you all for that. I will post new pictures when I am done.

How do you store your fabrics? And, even more important, how do you sort the fabrics? Color, type, use? I am open to all suggestions!