Storage solutions...

...yesterday felt like an evening for tidying...my sewing boxes had become such tangled, unpleasant places that no enjoyment could be had from rooting around in them. I'd been so busy and involved in the projects that I was doing that I'd become less than careful about putting things back neatly when I eventually fell into bed after midnight for the third week running (and less than careful about tidying away the pins that seem to fly around the room when I've been mid-sewing-frenzy...ouch! Sorry, Ian!). So here's a selection of some of my fabrics, all nicely folded and colour-sorted (thanks for the inspiration Jo, it was your talk of felt tips that did it!). Above, all my plains cottons and linings on the right, and on the left my yummiest, pinkest fat quarters (yes, that should have been left first and then right...my wires appear to be crossing).

Plaids and bits of randomness on the left and my felts on the right (back to normal again!).

Velvet ribbon...it has to be one of the best things in life, no? ....so here's some more.

...and some of my favourite patterned ribbons. Does anyone have any good ideas on how best to store ribbons...mine look fine now, but it will only take one small venture into their pot to find what I want and they'll be in a tangle again.

This is the tin where my thread lives...I would love one of those antique wooden things with little prongs on, so that they could all look lovely lined up and not end up creating a tumbleweed of thread. (Although I love the tin...it was once filled with some lemon biscuits from Fortnum & Mason that was a Christmas gift from friends...I sometimes delude myself that I have caught a whiff of their lovely lemonyness in the air!).

This is the box my mother bought me for keeping my buttons in...I love it and think of her each time I use it.

...and here are its contents:


All this...and much more...fits under our very low bed! Oh for a dedicated sewing room. Ian has told me to find out how much it might cost for us to take a corner off Zebra-girl's room and added on to our own, so that his body parts might be free from the dangers of the pin-infested space he currently inhabits at bedtime...but somehow, despite the fact that her bedroom is far larger than ours, I would feel horribly guilty and selfish about stealing part of what she considers to be her space, so I'm trying to think up better storage ideas instead.

How do you store your sewing things, those of you who don't have a sewing room? Or tell me how you store them even if you do have one, so that I can properly imagine how lovely that must be! I love storage and thinking about perfect storage solutions. How do you store your ribbons and threads?

Tomorrow evening? I will be tidying my upholstery-weight fabrics, which will be most therapeutic as the day times are to be dominated by 3 children's parties this weekend!

Oh gosh, look at that, Ginny! I appear to have done it again!!!

I hope everyone has lovely weekends. x