NEO: Creative Storage

Judging from the response to Once Upon a Thread: Chapter 3, I think we all need to get started on our projects!  It makes me happy that so many of you are playing along and feel inspired (even while you're reading those bedtime stories to your little ones!)  Fun.  Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.  Remember you can always add your projects to the OUT Flickr group.

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Meanwhile, it's been far too long since I've shared a Never Enough Orange project with you.  My NEO Sewing Studio has been in such disarray lately, that I'm trying to get it all organized so I can actually use it without spending more time clearing away things and looking for supplies than I do sewing.  I thought I'd share some of my storage solutions and would love to hear about yours.

➀ Beads: Instead of looking in my usual places at the usual "storage" solutions, I browsed places like etsy and ebay.  I found this on ebay, a vintage flour canister.  

This is what it looked like originally:

I removed the labels (but saved them for templates) and with a little "pumpkin" spray paint, I painted the yellow canisters a lighter orange to keep the alternating pattern.

For the labels, I used some white electrical tape (found most anywhere) cut in the same shape/size and wrote on it with a permanent marker.

Voila. I like that it's not only functional, but it's fun to look at, sitting on my table, and as I'm normally a form over function kinda girl, this is like a cherry on top since it's both.  

At first I thought they might be too small for my beads, but I have found they are shallow enough that it doesn't take too much digging to find what I'm looking for.

➁ Patterns: With a line-up of 5 girls, I have the chance of using the same commercial patterns multiple times.  Often times I will trace out the size I want to use so I can use the pattern again for another size.  I also like to use Japanese patterns that requires tracing since the printed pieces are overlapping on the sheets. These patterns were NOT organized well.

I would usually end up tracing it again because I didn't label them well or the smaller pieces got lost.  I found a hanging file box (orange, of course) and have started to re-organize my hand drawn patterns.

I label each piece: what it is (front placket, neck bias, etc), the size, and (if applicable) what book/magazine it's from.  I fold all the pieces and clip them with a paper clip and draw on the front what it looks like.  In they go, all neat and tidy!

Maybe one day my girls will go through the box and want to make some of these for their own kids.  :)

➂ Buttons: a friend sent me a link to this beauty on etsy and I was smitten.  You might know by now my button obsession (the other b.o. ;).  I love to browse ebay for glass buttons and there is such a beautiful array online that it is really depressing to go to a regular fabric store and see the plastic cat buttons glaring at you and the rest of the dull collection.  It might be a sickness of mine, but at least it's an awfully charming one.

I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for when I saw that it had little dividers inside each drawer.

I like that the drawers come out easily enough that I can take the whole thing out to really decide what lovely button will be adorning my current project.

If you don't want to spend a lot of time looking for something used and just right, the tiny Bisley drawers are perfect for small items like buttons, beads, and thread.  They even have inserts you can buy, depending on how you want to divide things up.  And they come in some very fun colors, even orange!


What are your creative Storage Solutions?  Speaking of getting organized, I have my behind the scenes helper doing some tidying up around here.  Did you notice my recipes tab all organized and my fancy new address?  I feel very official, which is sometimes a very nice thing to feel!