Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed my upcycling and recycling of everyday items in the sewing room in last week’s blog post. As promised, I have more for you this week! I hope you continue to share with me the items you put to good use in your sewing room. There were some pretty good things shared last week in the comments. Remember, the drawing for two of my patterns will take place on Monday, December 28th. I’ll be choosing the winner from the comments of both this week’s and last week’s blog post…. you still have time to enter!
So here we go ….
Item #1
In the comments last week, someone said they use empty prescription bottles to store sewing needles or to dispose of used or broken needles. Great ideas! Here’s how I use my bottles:
These prescription bottles are a great storage solution for bobbins! And since the bobbins are stacked in the bottle and can’t move around much, there’s no unraveling of the thread. You can also pre-wind several bobbins for a project you are working on and store them in the bottle for easy access as you are stitching. No stopping to wind a bobbin!
Item #2
Sticking with bobbin storage, if you do not have access to prescription bottles, I have another fun solution. Toe separators!
Yes, you read that right! I picked up a few extra of these pedicure supplies at the drugstore and put them to good use in my sewing room:
As you can see, the bobbins fit nicely into the separators. And because these are made of a soft material, they can fit any type of bobbin and secure them nicely. The second photo shows how they can be stacked to fit neatly in a sewing box or drawer.
Item #3
If you are a golfer (or know one!) and you have a lot of extra tees laying around, you can do this:
This is a great way to keep a bobbin of thread paired up with the spool of matching thread for quick access.
Addie approves of these last two items!
Item #4
Moving on from bobbin storage. Let’s look at something that makes sewing a bit more comfortable. What can you do with this?
You can adjust your machine for optimum ergonomics while sewing with a pair of door stops from your local hardware store. These will slope your machine at the degree you want, depending on how far you push them under.
This has actually relieved some of my neck and back strain that comes from hunching over the machine. Now I can see what I am stitching better because it’s angled towards me and I do not have to hunch over to see my seam.
Item #5
Here’s another item that I keep in my sewing drawer:
I use this to mark the line on my ruler for cutting strips. This is really helpful when I have a lot of strips or pieces of the same size to cut. It helps me find the mark on the ruler faster and cut accurately.
So that’s 5 more of my upcycling or recycling ideas. Trust me, I have many, many more of these ideas and I will share them in upcoming blog posts in 2021. Next week’s blog will be on finishing the 2020 BOM!
Like I said above, share some of your tips in the comments and be entered in my drawing for two of my patterns: Marbles & Jacks lap quilt pattern and Loop-d-Loop table runner pattern!
The drawing will be on Monday, December 28th so you still have a week to enter! **We have a winner! Congrats, Donna Schulz!**
Happy Quilting!
Deanne
We just bought a new dishwasher so I saved the silverware rack from the old machine to use in my sewing room for my rotary cutters and other items.
Good idea!
Love your tips, Deanne; especially the painters tape on the ruler! Merry Christmas!
Thanks! Have a Merry Christmas too!
Another back reliever is using a short footstool to place your foot feet pedal on the stool with either shelf liner or mouse pad under it to keep it in place. It takes the stress off the back.
That’s a good idea. I might try it.
Thanks for sharing your tips. I enjoy knowing how others are recycling/upcycling everyday items. I will be adding the tape to my ruler(s) too. Also, I will ask Santa to include the door stoppers in my Xmas stocking.
There are some awesome ideas here, but the tape on the ruler, definitely caught my attention. WHY WHY WHY did I not think of that myself. I love it. It is so hard to see the lines on these rulers at times and especially when your working with a dark fabric or a busy print… Thank you, I’m definitely going to put that to good use. Personally, I store my bobbins in a case specifically for bobbins but I loved the toe separator also.. That’s cool.. prescription bottles would be hard for me as you’d have to open them to actually see the proper color values in the containers.