Episode 8, Konmari Komono: Sewing Supplies

Clean out your sewing supplies (or whatever type of craft you tend to hoard!).

If you are a crafter, you know how hard this is. Crafts typically have an emotional attachment that goes far beyond just "I really like this." There's that added guilt of "I was going to make this for so-and-so," or "This fabric reminds me of ______."  These things can fall dangerously close to being sentimental rather than simply functional.

I sew a little, but I think about sewing a lot, and my fabric stash shows it.

I had two boxes (2'x2'x2') packed full of wadded up mystery fabric.

As always, step one is to gather everything of one kind into one place.  I have a sewing machine in my bedroom, but there isn't really a place in my room for sewing supplies. So I had to search all over my house in every nook and cranny to find my stash of fabric and sewing supplies.  It turns out I had fabric hidden in EVERY closet in EVERY bedroom of my house!

This little dresser was hiding in my daughter's room and packed full of old (30+ years) needle point projects.

I found all my fabric. I found all my needle point. I found every little would-be project I'd set aside over the course of my entire life.

What I also found, that was entirely more difficult to deal with, was sentimental clothes. I often save old baby clothes thinking I will one day make baby quilts out of them. I have made four quilts in the past 20 years. So it's not completely impossible that I might actually use these clothes to make some future quilt. But I don't actually have any babies (or grandbabies at the moment), so this fabric has no current use. Still I couldn't part with it.

These are the adorable matching dresses our girls wore to Disney Land 15 years ago.

This is a stained onesie. What was I thinking? 

So I also have a habit of saving old (not special clothes) just in case I ever need scraps of fabric for some random project. These have come in handy many times when I needed to make a quick puppet or costume. But the amount of garbage clothes I have saved far outweighs the amount I've used. So I bravely said good bye to most of these.

Maternity shirt, circa 2001. I cannibalized the sleeves for some past project.

In the end I sorted all my sewing into four piles. Big pieces of fabric, small scraps for quilting, needle point projects, and general supplies. When they were sorted into these categories, it was easier to see what was worth throwing out. And once they were sorted, it was easier to put them away. I could fit most of my fabric back into the desk where my sewing machine sits. And now I'll be able to actually find things like needle and thread when I need them because they are sitting in a convenient location next to my sewing machine.



TIME OUT!

I finished, and then.... I wasn't finished.
After I proudly put all my sewing stuff away, I found more. A lot more.

Another bag of quilting scraps.

And another bag of large fabric pieces.

On the plus side, now we have plenty of extra fabric to make our Covid 19 masks!

I still might have a bit more fabric than I need (that sounds like blaspheme!), but it's at least manageable for now. And that is a lot better than it's ever been.

My sewing desk, clean and sorted!