The sewing room is indeed a strange place, in fact I enjoy shopping at hardware stores for sewing supplies almost as much as I do at my local fabric store or haberdashery.
Today I wanted to share with you my favorite top ten, most unusual supplies that I use in my sewing room.
This one is very simple and straightforward, I keep glass jars to help me to keep my working space organised. Gone are the days of searching among the piles and scratching in boxes, everything that can be organised into a jar is, and my life is much easier for it.
Again, this is for basic organisation, mostly of my buttons. These bags come in very handy, where before I used to have a box of, literally, thousands of buttons, and I used to find myself wasting hours scratching through it trying to find matching buttons.
- Packaging polystyrene sheets
Along with the zip up bags, I use polystyrene sheets that come with any form of box packaging, along with blunted pins, I am able to sort out my buttons and see what I have on hand, this also prevents me from unnecessarily buying more buttons simply because I cannot see what I already have.
Lids from jars are also wonderful for helping to keep my work room organised. I love using these for the smaller items, such as chalk, or things that roll away or get lost easily. And as you can see, I love to use Marmite lids to store my measuring tapes, and they stack neatly on top of each other. No more twisted, stretched and disorganized measuring tapes.
- Lids and foam from medicine bottles
The small round pieces of foam that come in tablet or vitamin bottles get glued into small lids to create perfect, cost effective, make shift pin cushions!
My pliers are possibly one of my favorite tools. They help me to pull out pins stuck in thick fabrics, as well as helping me to pull through sewing needles that struggle to go through thick or hard fabrics. Holding onto boning while I push it through the casing, closing covered fabric buttons etc. These are just a few basic uses, but I promise if you invest in a small pair of pliers you will find a good number of uses for them while working on a sewing project.
I use these as pattern weights. They really get the job done, and you can add or remove nuts to your bolts to make them lighter / heavier.
I have a feeling that I may not be the only dressmaker with a few meters of washing line lying around in her workroom. This makes for a really good filler on piping, especially for outdoor furniture covers and cushions.
Yip, cable ties of all lengths and thicknesses. Sometimes you may find that when creating a garment, that it could do with a little boning for extra support, but standard ribbon boning is too thick and bulky to get the job done. Cable ties are generally a little more lightweight and flexible, and work great for projects that require just a little boning.
Because your hair should look great while you’re working... not only that but hairspray works really well towards helping to combat static. Especially when you are working with layers and layers of fabric and everything just becomes a huge static mess... sprits on a little hairspray to help reduce static and make your job so much easier.
You don’t want to overdo it with the hairspray though, just a light spray should be sufficient.
Pattern of the week
If you’re like me and you value comfortable, non tight fitting workout clothes, then you will love these. Not only are these yoga shorts incredibly comfortable, but they are
extremely easy to make. you can make yourself several pairs, in a variety of colors in just one day... I did!
This year we are raising funds for various animal rescue centers by selling these really awesome gifts cards.
Each
gift card is valued at
$10, which the recipient can use for anything on our website, but you only pay
$2 for it, so buy as a spoil for yourself or as a gift for the knitting or sewing fanatic in your life.
All proceeds from the sale of these gift cards will go towards animal welfare. Follow our
Facebook page for updated posts on monies raised and charities helped!
