And everything in its place. Hi, I’m Susan from Sewfeet.com and today’s post is all about sewing room organization. I am in the process of designing a new sewing space, so I’ve been researching and shopping for months now. The goal is to make my space as functional, efficient, and beautiful as possible. In other words, I want it to be my dream studio.
Thread Organization
One of the first things I worked on was how to organize and store my thread. I’ve tried several ways over the years-thread boxes, drawers, and thread racks.
What I have used the most are thread racks. I like being able to see my threads and quickly select them when I need to. In my former space, I had a total of 10 racks to accommodate my threads and they were useful and functional. But I’ve never liked the way they looked. They seemed bulky and messy. Here’s a photo of my thread racks from my previous sewing space.
New Thread Organization
So, I went online and after a lot of surfing, I landed at RNK Distributing. Not only did I find a thread rack that I love but I also picked up a few more organizational pieces that I’m showing you in this post. But first, the thread racks. These wooden racks are a light color and have a very clean look. I think the frame offers a boundary, minimizing the messy look, giving a sleek look to the racks. They are easy to hang on the wall-only 2 screws, which are included. Each rack is 22” x 22” and holds 60 spools. I now have four racks that hold my 40-wt. polyester embroidery thread plus my 12-wt. polyester thread and all of my serger thread. You can go to THIS SITE to read about the RNK products (and watch videos), but RNK Distributing sells wholesale only to their retail dealers so CLICK HERE to see who sells their products in your area.
Thread Box
I have other types of specialty thread and on this same website I came across some thread boxes that are a great option for storing my specialty threads. I’ve had thread boxes before but found it inconvenient to have to go into the boxes to get thread. Here’s why I
think these will be different. First, they are compact and look good on my countertop. Others I have tried were larger and I never seemed to have a good place to store them. The drawers come as a two-drawer set, holding 15 spools in each drawer for a total of 30 spools. Another thing I like about them is that they are pull-out drawers, so the thread is easy to access. And there is a “lock” to keep them from accidentally opening. To “unlock” the drawer just squeeze the tab on the front as you open it.
Even though I have these drawers to hold thread, I appreciate that the thread spindles can easily be removed. Just one piece to lift out of the drawer so it can be used to hold other tools and notions instead of thread. The spindle piece can be placed in a cabinet or table drawer to store your thread. You can also purchase plastic separators that divide a drawer into 3 sections to keep notions and tools organized.
Ruler Rack
I have a new accessory that I keep on my cutting table, and it is incredibly useful. It's a wooden ruler rack that matches my thread racks. I have about 6 of my smaller rulers in it and it will hold 6-8 more depending on the sizes. It is so handy to have these racks on my table where the rulers are easy to find as I’m cutting. There’s also a version that has wider grooves to hold ruler work rulers. I don’t have one of those yet, but it’s on my wish list!
Two big pluses to these racks are the trays they have–one in front where I keep my rotary cutter. The other tray is in the back, and I use it to hold extra blades and my handles for my rulers.
Stabilizer Racks
One last organization tool I gave up a long time ago looking for a way to keep my embroidery stabilizers arranged and organized in a way that make them easy to find and use. I usually stacked them on a shelf or crammed them into a too-small drawer. The thing I struggled with most was telling them apart. Most of them are white rolls of similar material and if I forgot to tuck the outer wrapper into the tube, it was often a guessing game to identify them. But this ingenious stabilizer rack not only helps me organize the rolls but there is a way of labeling them. The rack has two separate pieces made from the same wood as the thread and ruler racks (I love it when things match!). The two pieces of the rack are screwed into the wall about 7” apart. There are 5 “shelves” with curved indentations that hold the rolls, and you can store a total of 15 rolls on this rack.
Now, about those labels. You can purchase end caps separately from the rack for the stabilizer rolls and then download labels from RNK at no extra charge. You print the labels using Avery 6450 labels and add those to the end caps. Love it–no more confusion!
These new organizing tools have gone a long way to help achieve my goal for an efficient, pretty, and organized space. If you are looking to spruce up your sewing room and make it more efficient, I would start by exploring these items at RNKdistributing.com.
To learn more from and about Susan Beck, visit SewFeet.com. Happy Stitching!
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