Craft Organization

My craft shelf has been driving me crazy. It would be amazing to have a nice and neat organized craft room, but I have my shelf in my room and my sewing machine in the living room. Luckily my wonderful husband doesn't mind.

Here is what the shelf looked like before:

Notice the big pile on the top, that is old clothes that I haven't decided what to do with yet. The rest is just a mess!

Now look! Yes, the big pile on the top is the same, I just couldn't get to that. Maybe I will have lots of new underwear soon. Some things I sew just don't get shown on this blog. So, I haven't posted in a while, I've been sewing private stuff. :-) Anyway...

Look closely, the bottom is so nice and neat. All piled up, but I can see everything now.

Remember the before?

That basket shelf was getting a little messy too, but much better now.

Now, I can sew. I have a few projects in line.

Laundry Bag

We have this laundry drop in my husband's parents trailer that we use all the time. But it drives me crazy. It is hidden so nicely and out of the way.

It's a great little basket and in a great spot, but it has the huge gaps in it. These gaps are perfect for letting underwear slip through to the storage compartment below. I really don't like the idea of my father-in-law grabbing the barbecue with my underwear attached to it because it fell through from the last trip. I also don't like reaching in to grab someone else's underwear that used the trailer before us. I don't know, maybe I have an underwear issue.

So, here is my solution. A mesh laundry bag. It works great. Breathable and underwear can't fit through those little holes.

Well, that's what I've sewn this week. I needed to get it done before our next trip this month. Now, I can go to JoAnn's to use my lovely gift card that my son's t-ball team got me. :-) I'm so excited!

Kristen

Car Organization

Here is a project I have had in mind for probably about a year. I finally got so annoyed with stuff all over my car that I set out to actually do the project this weekend. With L being sick sleeping most of the weekend and C with is grandparents, I had plenty of time. 

I use to have these ugly faded seat back covers. I always thought they needed pockets in them, but they were also a bit too small and the ties at the top were a bit too far apart. See how it pulls and makes it bunch up? So, I decided to make custom seat back covers.

L went shopping with me Friday just before she got really sick and picked out her fabric. She was totally set on this pink with polk-a-dots. It actually was great because it went well with the black for the cover. I picked C's fabric, blue and black are his favorite colors. But, I really don't think it matters because he is just so excited to have pockets. He LOVES pockets.

Look at that mess on the floor! Then, look how nicely everything has it's place.

Again, another mess in-between seats where the jackets are kept... Until now, there is a nice pocket just perfect for that jacket.

Here is a picture of both seat back covers. C's bottom pocket is a bit heavy, so I may add some boning to the back behind the bottom pocket.

Yes, L has tissue and C has an extra pocket for toys because L is constantly asking me for a tissue. She can't stand having anything in her nose and blows it probably about once every car ride.

Look what I made with just some of the scraps of fabric...

Isn't it lovely boy bias tape? Plus, I still have a ton of fabric left over.

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Sew Much Ado

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Baskets

I love baskets! 

They are perfect to store things in while looking nice, neat and cute. I could use them for everything. When Mr. C made my craft shelf, I wanted baskets to organize everything. But, since we are on a budge I couldn't just go out and buy them so I had to make them. Also, I do like everything in my craft area to be made or reused.

So here are a few pictures of what I did...

The newspaper basket I lined with fabric because I didn't want the newsprint to make the ribbon dirty.

Homemade baskets are perfect because you can make them the exact size you want. I think it's time to make a separate one for my homemade patterns. This basket is getting pretty full.

We have a 2 bedroom house, so my craft shelf is in our room and my sewing desk is in the living room. Up until a week ago, it was on the fire place and I sat right down there on the floor to sew using my knee on the presser foot. It worked for me, but it wasn't very sightly when people came over having all my sewing stuff on the hearth. I have a wonderful friend that was getting rid of a desk, so here is what I put inside my sewing desk shelves. It's the stuff I use most often when sewing, or projects I need to get to.

Here is my entryway basket, it was made from scraps of fabric. I love the way it turned out, it's imperfections and all.

For this basket, I just braided my strips of scraps, wound it and zig zagged sewed on the machine. When I get enough scraps again, I will do a tutorial for this. My sister actually wants one for her house. Usually people hand sew these together, but little old me hates hand sewing anything. I will avoid it at all costs. Well, almost all, I'm not actually going to ruin a project.

These two are just weaved with some ribbon added to make them cute. One is newspaper and the other is magazine. Magazines are cool cause if you want, you can pick out pictures with specific colors in them. It looks really nice like that.

This basket was made from some paper scraps we got from the bamboo shop we bought the bamboo at for my craft shelf. They gave it to us for free.

I used the wider pieces to weave the individual shelves on my craft shelf. That was a pain, tore my hands apart, but I love the way it turned out. Now you need a picture of this also. This view is from the bottom of the top shelf.

With the bottom paper stuff in the basket above, I made a trash can for the craft room. Very imperfect as well. So imperfect it's kind of sad looking.

Well, there are my baskets, I hope you are inspired to organize as green as you can. :-)

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