My Corner of Shame – the brown box has UFOs. All the other boxes are full of fabric.

How I store my Burda magazines

My view when sitting at the machine – I pin the instructions on to the wall for easy reference if needed. The magnetic knife rack was a cheap buy from Ebay (£4) great value.

Mmmmm thats not…I mean….that is to say……I dont really have a problem. I assure you I have it all under control. It may look like fabric stash but it really isnt…its actually a closet-in-becoming.

Hubs kindly put up that shelf for me. Its an Ikea shelf that I repurposed for storing my patterns. The box caddies are also from IKEA. Milk and nappy boxes work well too. The red bag has all my muslins, the brown wicker basket and the blue laundry basket both have remnants (the nicer ones go in the brown – the less nicer ones in the blue).

Another view of my main sewing area. I have a vintage Jones machine which was my first machine bought on Ebay for £30 – I dont use it but I keep it around as a back up just in case. The overlocker lives between the 2 machines. I love my colour wheel and charts – they are very useful for coming up with different combos.

View from the door. The Cave is in the attic with a skylight. It gets really hot in summer but for the rest of the year I have good natural light during the day.

I got the rail and cups thingie from Ikea as well. My pens, pencils, seam gauges, rulers, small scissors, loop turners live in here where I can easily reach them while sewing or ironing. I made a silk organza press cloth and a cotton press cloth that also hang on there on a hook. The iron is an old one that has been replaced since these pictures (the steam function stopped working 🙁

The mini white board handles all my WIPs and short term sewing projects. Above it a monthly view planner tracks my projects.

These little cups cheer me up no end 🙂

The pattern stash – I counted the patterns I had – aprox 285 not including the Burda Magazines off course :-). Honestly I was very chuffed with that number because I thought it was way more than that. Whats your number?

The top shelf has my PDFS which are folded into large envelopes then stored in the old nappy boxes which are perfect size. All my vintage patterns are in the plastic box. 

Middle shelf has my sewing books, Burda and Ottbre Design magazines. My self drafted patterns are folded into freezer bags and stored in a magazine holder. The milk box at the end contains my large size Vogue patterns.

Bottom shelf: more Burdas and caddies. I decided to sort them but pattern company. Initially I tried to go with type of pattern but the problem was patterns that have skirt and tops etc.  In each caddy I have grouped like patterns together with card separators e.g. Vogue dresses then Vogue Skirts then Vogue Tops the Vogue Trousers Then Vogue separates.

My yarn stash………I need a separate post to talk through my issues here.

I keep my pattern drafting tool in a shoebox.

I am evangelistic in my belief of the Pomodorro technique. I have timers all over the house so there is no excuse – even my kids Pomodorro it :-).

This old piano stool came with house when we bought it but it was in disrepair and very dirty. Cleaned it up and fixed it – e voila! A stool with storage for my clapper, sleeve roll and tailors ham.

I made this double sided pin dish by gluing an old magnet to the base of  one of these cute little catering tubs from an airplane. I then glued the 2 bases together, tried being arty with my Sharpie and volia a very useful magnetic pin dish.

The previous house owner wanted to throw out the partners desk but I asked her to leave it – again it was in quite a state but I cleaned and fixed it. On one side of the drawers from the bottom – all my threads (incl overlocker cones). The next one up has all my trims, twill tapes, ribbons, petershams, grossgrains. The next one up has my large roll bias binding and all my elastics. The top one is miscellanious.

The left side of the partners desk. Bottom drawer: Zips. Next up has printed PDFs awaiting taping and my pattern drafting tools. Next up contains all my buttons, snaps and hooks&eyes. Top drawer contains the most immediate tools used during sewing ; bobbin case, point turner, bees wax, needles, wonderclips, seam ripper etc.