More on the Studio

I figured as long as I was doing a head to toe deep clean in the studio, I might as well update a few things.

If you have a cutting mat you use regularly you know it gets worn out. You can see the worn area above on my mat. It's a blob of gray. The mat is very large, and covers most of my worktable, which is about 39" tall by 51" wide. The rest of the mat is in terrific condition, so...

I detached it from the table (it was held in place with double sided adhesive tape) and rotated it so the worn part is at the top. then stuck it back down again. I can't reach that worn spot, so I'm good. I bought the mat about five years ago, so I have another five years before I'll need to replace this one.

You can see where I do most of my ironing on my ironing table. If I don't replace this soon, the worn area will start to crack and tear. I could simply rotate the table top, but that won't really work. I've ordered some heat resistant ironing board cover fabric, and will replace this in the next few days.

Trays are useful for organizing. I keep all my business cards and postcards together on the bottom shelf of on of my bookcases, but when I want to get at them, I have to get down on my hands and knees because invariably something has fallen to the back of the shelf. Now I have put them on a quarter sheet pan and when I want them, it's easy to get the whole stack.

My sewing machine table is directly behind my cutting/work table. Because the work table is at an angle, I often place my rotary cutter on the sewing machine table directly behind me. It's normally OK but sometimes the rotary cutter gets knocked to the floor, and we know that can sometimes be hazardous (not just to me, but to the rotary cutter blade.) I now use a one-eighth sheet pan as a tray for the small tools I find handy to keep there. As you can see I also keep a pair of snips, a seam ripper, and a pencil and eraser there as well. The tin holds small safety pins.

I put another one-eighth sheet pan directly to the right of my sewing machine. As you can see I have snips, seam rippers, a ruler, bodkin, tweezers and other tools I use the most often. The chocolate tin on the right holds bobbins of colored thread.

You can't always see it, but underneath the long wall of windows is a shelf that extends the length of the room. I keep all kinds of good stuff there.

While my sewing machine has an automatic thread cutter sometimes the needle unthreads itself when I use it. Many of my students complain their sewing machines do the same thing, and it doesn't seem to matter what kind of machine they have. So rather than piss and moan about it, now at the end of each seam, I run it through a scrap of fabric. I keep those in the yellow plastic bin. 

You can see my small container of bobbins threaded with gray thread. They are within arm's reach. Normally I keep the little container closed, but I left it open so you could see.

I'm the kind of person that if I don't see something it doesn't exist, so the empty blue cone is a reminder that I need to order some more of my favorite thread for piecing. When I order the new thread I will throw away the empty spool. Unlike many quilters, I do not feel the need to collect empty spools of thread.

Well that's it for now. 

Organization... What?

I was surprised by some of the reactions to my "studio tour." I didn't think my studio was worthy of all that praise. It was simply a room I have arranged to help me work better.

Then I remembered something that happened at my very first job. I was asked to do something - I think it was stuff envelopes with about five or six different items.  They were all spread out on a table in front of me. "So how do you work?" my supervisor asked. "Left to right, or right to left?"

I had never thought about that before.

"Arrange everything so it suits you. So it makes sense to you and you're not expending excess energy."

It was a piece of advice I never forgot. Arrange your tools so it's easy for you to get the job done. It sounds so simple, yet in our belief that there is A place for everything, we think there has to be only ONE place for anything.

Example One:

I am five feet tall, so it stands to reason that I can't reach things that are very high up, so I have a step stool. Mine lives behind the hallway door. Which means it's a real PITA to walk halfway through the house and lug this thing back to the studio use it, and put it back.

So I keep a small step stool in the studio. It's a small price to pay for convenience.

Example Two:

Probably every household has a measuring tape and many have painters tape. You can usually find them in the tool chest. Usually those are in the basement or in the garage or some other place in the house. I have them there too. But I also have some that live IN my sewing studio. Because it's a lot more efficient to have a set in the studio than run all over the house. Besides, a sixteen foot measuring tape is more appropriate for a sewing studio than a thirty foot one normally sold in hardware stores. And mine is a lot lighter to carry.

Example Three:

I didn't show you on the tour, but I have three wastebaskets in the studio, each of them at arm's length from each of the stations where I work - the cutting table, the sewing machine or the small cutting table.  Why?  Years ago I read a book on organization that suggested there be a wastebasket in every room in the house. The rationale was that it would keep the house cleaner. This works in the sewing studio as well, with a wastebasket within arm's reach. The key point is, I don't have to move to get to one of them.

It's the same with the spray bottle and the measuring cup full of water in the studio. They are always there, always ready. I don't have to do run around the house to chase them down.


I  may have some good ideas that work for me. But every one of us is different. Don't just slavishly follow my organizational ideas. Figure out how you work, and adapt your workspace and your tools  accordingly.

One final thought... When I'm done working, I put my tools away. Every. Single. Time. Sure, I leave fabric strewn about, but my tools are my bread and butter, and if I can't find them when I want to work, it's just a waste of energy. So when I'm done sewing for the night, I put the rotary cutter back in the drawer, hang the templates where they belong, empty and unplug the iron and put the pin tin back in the cabinet. 



***BTW, the grey thread I use is Presencia 60 wt cotton thread, color # 352. It is a 3 ply 100% mercerized Egyptian cotton. I buy a cone of 4882 yards.