Monday, January 30, 2017

Ajaire's Sewing Space


Hi guys! I'm Ajaire and I'm super excited to be here sharing a peek behind the scenes of Call Ajaire. While my studio is a constant work in progress, I'm so lucky to have an entire (huge) room dedicated to this work I so enjoy. The studio is in the basement so there is no natural lighting which is a shame, but I'm so fortunate to have a room to myself, which more than makes up for it! 

 
When you first enter the studio you see the giant cutting/work table my husband built for me. This is the best thing in the entire room. I wanted to make sure I had a large enough working space to baste a full size quilt and since the room is fairly large we went for it. We used three of these 9 cube organizers in a U shape to form the base of the table. The top is a large piece of heavy pine that my husband custom cut to size and then sanded to be smooth. I wanted it to overhang the storage units enough to be able to clip down the edges of a quilt to baste, but not so much that it made it awkward to move around. At the back, in the middle of the U is where I have a high barstool chair to sit in while I'm working. More often than not, that's where you'll find me these days. 

 
As we move to the left you'll see the table where I keep my active sewing machines. I use all three of these on a pretty consistent basis, so it's really nice to be able to keep them in a row like this. Hanging my thread on these spool organizers helps to keep the thread in order, but it's also a nice way to add to the decor of the room. I love seeing the colors out on display. 

 
Next is my two Ikea pull out drawer organizers. I've had these for probably 15 years and have used them in many configurations through the years. Some of the drawers still need a good organization update, but overall it's amazing to be able to have a drawer dedicated to different categories. You can also see my tiny scraps bin is overflowing at the moment. Scraps and serger runoff don't go to waste around here (see this, this, and this post), so when the pile gets to be this big I know it's time to either sort them by color and add them to the ziplock bags I have of scraps or simply use them up! 

 
For example, this is my drawer of "closures." You see how organized the buttons are, but the bin just to the back is scattered full of snaps, safety pins, hooks, and for some odd reason clothespins. It clearly needs an update. 

 
The Ikea rolling cart is a newish organizer for this space that I've completely fallen in love with. I use the top shelf for whatever sewing project I'm currently working on AND to hold my ipad in case I need to look at instructions or a tutorial. The middle shelf is where I keep the projects that are cut out, but not actively being sewn. I do a lot of bulk cutting while my daughter is around because I can cut things out on my kitchen island while she's in the living room instead of sequestering myself down here. The bottom shelf is used to house the cut out pattern pieces as I go along. That way the paper pieces are out of the way, but still available in case I need to reference a dart, notch, or other marking on the piece itself. 

 
Before I used this space for a studio, we used it for storage which explains those metal shelves. They're currently used to hold my stash, fabric scraps, and clothes that are needing to be upcycled. One thing I seem to have trouble organizing is my stash of interfacing and specialty fabrics like stabilizer. You can see them on the third shelf from the bottom on the right in the above pic. If you have any suggestions about how to store those types of fabrics I'd love to hear it! 

 
You can see in the back corner there are a few shelves in the alcove where I have the rest of my fabric stash. It's a total disaster back there right now and my next organization project is to get back there and dig through everything to unstash some of it and get the rest under control. It's the most depressing part of the room at the moment which is always a tell that it needs to be reworked. This pic shows another side of the giant table and the storage bins. I have to say I love these particular bins and use them throughout the house. They're nice and sturdy and a great price. They come in other colors, but since I use them everywhere and swap them around on a whim I stuck with a basic neutral. One of these days I will choose a bright color to spice up the room a bit. 

 
This is the back corner of the room and that wall is the same size as the wall where we have the metal shelves. I have big plans for that back wall and reworking a desk area which will have shelves all the way around. That should be done by summer and I'll make sure to post an update on Call Ajaire when it's ready. For now I'll leave you with my favorite organization tools: my file cabinets. 

 
Once I've printed out a PDF pattern, I make sure to make a label with my P-Touch and assign it a file folder. I keep my printed patterns in alphabetical order with drawers for child patterns, adult patterns, and my own Designs by Call Ajaire patterns. Putting the patterns away and organized like this was a game changer for me. 

 
The Brother P-Touch I use is this one. It comes with a few sample styles of label and you can purchase replacement tapes easily in bulk. I'm not sure exactly why, but my brain really enjoys seeing the same label style on all of my folders and it makes opening up the file cabinet so pleasing. Is that weird? Haha! 

 
In case you're not familiar with how a P-Touch works, you type in the words you want on the label into a template (I use the pattern name on the top and the designer on the bottom) and then simply print it. 

 
The paper backing peels off really easily and then you use the sticky side to adhere it to the folder. 

 
Is anyone else as into doing these small things to get your space organized? It's unbelievable how much joy it brings me. Even just using colored folders vs the plain manila ones brings me so much happiness. Speaking of happiness, if you've read this far down then you deserve a treat! January has me feeling super organized with a blog move from blogger to wordpress complete AND a full clean-up and reorg of my studio after the chaos of Santa's workshop the past few months, so I'm celebrating with a giveaway! Over on Call Ajaire I go into even more detail on some of the areas of my studio and there's a giveaway where you can enter to win a brand new Brother P-Touch of your own (open to USA only) OR my entire Designs by Call Ajaire collection of patterns (open to everyone who has an email address). Thank you so much for taking the time to explore my ever-improving sewing studio!
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Thank YOU Ajaire, for sharing your very organized sewing space! If you want to follow Ajaire, you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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That wraps up our sewing room tours. I hope you had as much fun as we did.  Last chance to link up your sewing space in our link up this month. We want to see where YOU sew.
 
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4 comments :

  1. Filing your patterns is GENIUS!!! I have to do something like this. I currently have fully printed patterns and traced pieces and NO CLUE what to do with them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Filing your patterns is GENIUS!!! I have to do something like this. I currently have fully printed patterns and traced pieces and NO CLUE what to do with them.

    ReplyDelete

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