Simple Simon & Co. New Years ReSewLution…

January 12, 2012 3 Comments


2011 was a good year for Liz & Elizabeth from Simply Simon & Co. – they not only entered the blogging scene, they made a huge splash! And with good cause too, because they are simply fantastic! Their modern take on the vintage look is exactly what we love. Combine that with their flair for photography, and it is no wonder that we cant get enough of these sisters!

Whether it be a tutorial, a vintage pattern, a $5 Friday project, or one of their Art of Homemaking posts – they are always inspiring.



The goodness just doesn’t end, browsing through their Tutorial Page takes me at least an hour, I love it all!

As we all know, Liz & Elizabeth are also the Seasons 2 winners of Project Run & Play…

…but what you may not know yet, is that they are now running the show over there. With Season 3 in full swing, you have simply got to check it out!

What could this dynamic duo possibly have up their sleeve as their New Years ReSewLution?!! I am so excited to find out…

Welcome back Liz & Elizabeth!!!




So when I read the email from Jessica about her New Years ReSEWlutions series I didn’t even have to think about what my resolution would be….what I needed to do was too obvious…

ORGANIZE MY SEWING PILE OF DOOM!!!

Really that’s what it is—a pile of doom. AND it’s taking over my entire house! Seriously I have fabric or thread or lace or buttons everywhere! The time has come to get it under control. So I am starting with the 2 items that take up the most space. Fabric cut from the bolt and Fat Quarters.

Let’s start with fabric cut from the bolt. Here’s the solution I just finally came up with:

Up until now my fabric has been all over the place—in storage bins, folded on shelves, left in the bags from the store…whatever. (Piles of doom remember?)

But last week I was with my mom fabric shopping when she spied a pile of cardboard bolts on the floor. As the lady at the counter cut our fabric my mom asked what they do with the bolts—and we discovered that they just throw them away!

So my mom (who can read my mind) asked if we could have them. I brought them home, chopped them in half and wrapped my newly purchased fabric on them. BEAUTIFUL.

Now two things about this: #1—Why did I chop them in half? Because that way I get twice as many bolts out of the deal and because they make a more manageable size (they fit perfectly into the set of square shelves that I got at IKEA) and #2—I’ve found out that many fabric shops will give away the left over cardboard bolts if you just ask and that other shops sell off theirs for very little money.

Why haven’t I discovered this before? Am I the only one who didn’t know you could do this?

I don’t know. All I know is that this is awesome—fabric problem solved.

Now on to my other space consuming problem—fat quarters.

I have no idea how many of these little babies I have. I love fat quarters. They’re just so cute. And for not much you get a tiny pile of color and pattern and texture and oh, I just love them. Anyways…I’ve got a lot and they have become a problem.

Until now they have been living in some cubbies that I used in my classroom when I taught junior high and it works but hasn’t been ideal. Then the other day I realized something awesome…

The fat quarters that you buy at JoAnn’s are the same size as a CD which means they fit perfectly into the CD containers from IKEA (that I happen to have a million of). SWEET!

So I pulled out the fat quarters and stuck them inside. Perfection.

Unfortunately these aren’t all my fat quarters (they are just all the fat quarters I have from JoAnn’s) so I”ll be taking the rest of them, giving them a quick fold and putting them into the containers.

And because I have a million I’ll sort them by color—all the greens in one box, reds in another and so forth. Then I’ll label the boxes. It’s going to be awesome.

Is my New Year’s ReSEWlution complete? No way. I still have A LOT of work left to do…more bolts to round up, the rest of the fat quarters to fold and sort and then there are the piles of elastic, trim, and other notions. It will be a process. But one that I think will be very worth while.

Thank you Jessica for running this series and helping me to get the ball rolling with my piles of doom!

Feel free to stop by our little blog anytime to see what we do with all this stuff—and to leave me any good suggestions on how to store all my other stuff!

-liZ

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All I can think of right now is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom…background music included! HA! And what a fantastic tip about picking up those cardboard fabric bolts from the store. I am definitely going to be asking next time I am there, genius!

Thanks so much for being a part of the Series and sharing your organization tips. I guess I cant just keep shoving my fabric on the shelves, because pretty soon it is all going to explode…and it wont be pretty.

You can find all things Simple Simon & Co. at:
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Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time…Happy Sewing!


Filed Under: new years resewlution, simple simon and company

Comments

  1. Bratling says:
    January 12, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    Ha! Sounds like me… only I had a black hole! Which is mostly contained now!

    Reply
  2. Missy says:
    January 12, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    This is something that I am tackling right now myself – my problem is more of a “where in the world do I put everything?” issue though. I don’t have a dedicated space for my sewing projects and have to haul out my machines (which I keep in the dining cabinet) every single time I want to sew. That’s fine but now that my collection of fabric is growing where in the world do I put that?? LOL

    Your solutions are lovely. Love the fat quarter idea. Smart – will keep everything dust free and out of the sunlight too. Very nice.

    Reply
  3. Emily says:
    January 12, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    Great resolution! I also have multiple piles/bins/stacks of doom. I’m thinking an armoire to contain them/give me a limit/make it easier to see what I actually have.

    Reply

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