HI everyone,
I received an email from Sissy and she is wanting to know if there is any interest in the fabrics she is wanting to pass on to someone else. She’s tried selling a lot of it and now is at a point like me; weeding out has become a necessary must so she’s decided to let the Sofa Sisters have first dibs on it, and… JUST FOR THE COST OF THE SHIPPING! (if she has something really special you’ve been looking for, you might include a tip!) That was just from me… not her. She may have her fabrics grouped in lots like colors… blues, reds, greens, etc… and some might be in specific kinds of fabrics… velvets, flannels, novelty prints, etc.
I told her I would be glad to put the word out, so I’ll be adding her email here and you can get in touch with her yourself. You can work out how you’ll see things from her and then decide on a way to pay her for the shipping. I bought some small print corduroys from her last Fall, I think, and they were wonderful… no surprises from Sissy! You can trust her and she knows a thing or two about fabrics! :o)
If you want to get in touch with her, here is her email address… marshrat@darientel.net
Well, I’ve decided to share a little snippet of what I’ve been doing lately in any spare moments I’ve had each day. I was talking to my sister, Cindy, who was also weeding out in her basement and we were trading ideas on how best to get things done. She has an antique booth in PA and keeps stuff downstairs, rotating things every once in a while. She also stores things in her basement when her booth is full, until something big enough is sold to make space for something in her basement. She says it’s kind of like a store down there.
Anyway, she saw something on You Tube about a lady who was overwhelmed by all the clothes she had in her closet. So, she decided to break it down by categories… Tee shirts, long sleeve shirts, etc…Then she decided however many she had of each category, she would get rid of half! If she had 20 tee shirts, she’d have to get rid of 10, 20 long sleeve shirts… get rid of 10. When she did it that way and only had to deal with a small section at a time, she discovered it was much more doable. She discovered she had 4 red tee shirts that were exactly the same… it was easier for her to eliminate things when she knew she already had one or more of an item.
Hmmmm… breaking job tasks down to something more manageable. I decided to try something… I took a piece of paper and started writing down all the categories of things I have in my sewing room… doll patterns, buttons, lace, trims, hat molds, hat braid, wool felt, gingham fabric, linen, patriotic fabrics, leather tools, leather, doll shoe patterns, tulle for slips, stretch lace… and the list went on and on and on. After I looked at my list, I texted Cindy and just sent her a picture of list and said, “Good Grief!”
Here is my list I’m working from.
For some reason, seeing the things written down individually made it seem like sorting and weeding out that particular category wasn’t too big of a deal. I didn’t just start at the top of the list, but I jumped around doing things using the time I had available… If I had something on the stove cooking, I could do something quick… or if I had more time, I could tackle something bigger like sorting my leather into colors and putting it in clear containers so I could see it.
I’ve been circling the things on the list I’ve gotten done! I’ll show you a few pictures, so you can see how it’s been working. I guess I’d say it’s like taking little bites one at a time instead of being overwhelmed with looking at the big picture and not having a clue where to start. That WAS me a few days ago. I’d just turn around in my room and look at all the stuff that needed to be gone through and sigh!
My “elastic drawer” was a disaster drawer. It was even worse than this picture because I had taken the elastics out of the drawer and dumped them into this box and had already started sorting them. The drawer was filled to the top and I really had no idea what I had underneath. Dumping it into a larger box and sorting it out was a real eye opener. I’m talking… “Well, here I am at Joann’s… do I have that elastic I need? I’m not sure… I guess I better get another one… I sure don’t want to get home and not have it!”
Before:
After:
I put all the same kinds and sizes in a clear bag so they don’t get all strewn in the drawer. Best decision ever!
I forgot to take a picture of my “doll wigs drawer!” It was a big disaster too… not any more… Now it’s all organized and goes from smallest wigs on the left to the larger ones on the right.
I sorted through my “Patriotic fabrics” and eliminated half of my stash. I’m not a big fan of hard and stiff fabrics and it seems like so many of the red, white and blue fabrics for the 4th of July are that way. I did the “feel” test and only kept the ones that felt good in my hands.
I had a container for my Sulky Machine Embroidery threads and it was taller than the height of my bookshelf, so I always had to lay it on its side and that made it stick out from my bookshelf farther than I liked. I was going to empty the spools into the clear container in the front that you see here, but I caught myself and asked, “Hey, I thought you were putting “like things” together!” I had to ask myself where are my other machine embroidery threads. I did know where they were. I the middle box on the top of my fabric shelf. I got it down and there they were… all the bigger spools of embroidery thread. So instead of putting my Sulky threads in “another” place, I bagged them up and put them in the same box! Well, how nifty was that idea? :o)
My embroidery floss was everywhere! In containers, in baggies, and in all different places in my sewing room. I wasn’t thrilled about doing this one… boring! But I needed to do it… it was taking up too much shelf space in too many different areas. Just for an example: I had 27 skeins of this certain DMC floss in a dark green. What will I ever need 27 skeins of green floss for? So I eliminated 24 of them and kept 3! It was like that with many other colors too. I weeded out 6 baggies full of floss… someone else can have 24 skeins of green floss, but not me! I rearranged and got ALL my floss in these 2 containers.. They are double sided and can be opened from either side. They fit perfectly on my bookshelf now, laying down.
I had this wooden dowel rod “thingy” that was almost like a pan holder in your upper cabinets. It was about 20″ long and had 2 rows of dowel rods about 2 inches apart and spaced about every 3″ the length of the wood bottom. I’m not sure what it was used for, but I am now using it to store some of my leather on. Each one of the pieces of rolled up leather is on a 6″ peg and they just stand straight up. I can see what I have and they don’t get smashed laying down or folded. I should have taken a picture of it before I put the leather on it.
You can see them a little better in this picture.
I used to have my leather in ziplock gallon size bags and they were sitting in shallow boxes to keep them from sliding all around on the shelf. I had bought some of these 12x9x6 (I think) clear zippered containers and found they are wonderful for keeping my leather pieces in. I cut a snippet of some of the colors in the bag so I’d know “sort of” what colors would most likely be in that bag. Then I taped those little pieces on the outside of my bag. It’s like my color guide.
I also needed to sort out my stickers drawer. It was a mixture of Valentine’s Day, flowers, Easter, wedding, etc… you name it, it was mixed in there. It took me forever to find something I was looking for, so getting this drawer organized was great. I only kept the stickers in this top dresser drawer that I knew I would use for the summer… flowers, butterflies, etc. I then put the holiday stickers in a gallon ziplock bag and put each holiday in a slide out 3 drawer cabinet. I have Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas in their own separate drawer.
If you are the kind of person who’s sewing “stash” fits in one of those sewing baskets you used to see at Joann’s, you probably have to be asking yourself, “Why does she have SO MUCH STUFF?” Well, for starters, I’ve been sewing a LONG TIME, and have accumulated stuff. I have been GIVEN lots of stuff. I have bought stuff in LOTS and sometimes that comes with LOTS of extras and duplicates. It’s nice to have a great inventory, but I have gotten to the point, that, IF I need to go buy something I don’t have, it’s okay! I don’t need 15 or 27 of everything! :o)
Well, I’m going to have to get to bed… I hope this will do you for now! I still have a ways to go, but I’ve done more than just the pictures I’ve shown, so hopefully I’ll be done sooner than later!
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Wow, Jeanne, the reorganizing bug has really hit you!! Again! I don’t think I have quite as much elastic as you do, and I’m quite sure I don’t have 27 skeins of one color of embroidery floss, but I’ve been sewing since 1956 and have lived in this house since 1974, so….draw your own conclusions!! 😂
That dowel rod thingy might have been used for drying mittens and/or boots. I’ve seen something similar with two rows of dowels. You put the boots (upside down) over the dowels, or slide the mittens over them, so it kind of holds them open a bit so they can dry faster. But I think your use for it makes perfect sense, and it’s nice to see all those pretty rolls of leather–sort of a functional decoration in your sewing space.
I have been doing a little clean-out in my own sewing room. The other day I found a quilt top I had completely forgotten about!! What a surprise!! 😂 It’s just a lap size but still….so now I’ve found a fabric I can use for backing, and I guess I’d better get started on putting it together. That’s a total of five quilt tops so far that need to be finished! And I know there’s at least two more hiding Somewhere!!
Rosemary asked about any bicentennial memorabilia. Well, in 1976, I got a pattern and made a “Dolly Madison” style dress. I just used fabric that appealed to me–a cream-color satin with pink roses–rather than studying to find out what would have been appropriate for that era. Ron was so impressed, he had me get my portrait taken, and had a large print made and it’s framed and hanging in our living room! Sadly, it has faded some in the past almost 50 years, but I do have some smaller prints that have not faded. I also had that dress on display at the fair in our 4-H barn about 3 years ago, when we had a 4H alumni display. I understand it made rather a big hit with some! I will have to see if I have a picture on my computer and send to Jeanne, if you are interested in seeing it. I still have the dress, of course, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get it zipped up any more! 😢
Good for you Charlotte on starting to clean out in the sewing room. We have been in our house for 50 years come October, so you can imagine the stuff here. We’re almost tied in years at one place. 🙂
We sure are, Joy. Ron actually bought this house brand new in 1968, so he lived here even longer than I did–and did Not bother to clean out very much of his stuff before he died!
Charlotte, I would love to see a picture of your dress and one of you in it if possible. How wonderful Ron thought you should have your portrait taken in the dress. There are places that will “freshen up” pictures that have faded and maybe you could do that.
I may have to take a picture of the picture, Barbara. I will see. But that is easy enough to do. Thank you.
You certainly have been busy, Jeanne, but when you circle another thing on your list, doesn’t it feel great? I do not have even 1% of what you have in sewing supplies, since I don’t sew much at all anymore, but I DO have close to the amount of sewing supplies that you have in doll clothes and accessories!I do have things stored in what WAS an orderly fashion, clothes on hangers, sorted by timelines, clothes in containers, clothes in drawers, accessories in bins, and containers, things in boxes, etc. But what happens is they somehow get disorganized and I am back to where I started! So every summer, during slow time, whatever that is, I redo everything. I even find things that I thought were lost, and find things I forgot I had! I will be doing that shortly, and hope to find things that I can’t find when I need them!
The same thing with my recipe “system”! I cut out recipes from the newspaper, magazines, have handwritten cards from my mother, aunts friends, etc., all stacked in my recipe drawer. What would be easier to do to find certain things would be to put them on my computer in categories. It doesn’t happen because I don’t want to bother with that, and besides I love the handwritten cards from people like my mother, and relatives and friends no longer here. It’s just “cozier” or something, so I waste time going through them to find what I want. Oh well! Doll clothes and recipes are two different things, but I have a lot of each!
I too have tons of recipes that have never been organized. The ones we use often I keep all together but I’m not a cook or a baker so anything that I’ve don’t especially for something gets lost in the shuffle of life. David asked me the other day where the Cinnamon Apple Jello recipe was because he wanted to make it sometime for a church potluck. I had no clue so I guess I’d better start looking.
I had to Google your Cinnamon Apple Jello and found quite a few recipes. Only took a few seconds and if one matches yours, no need to go searching, just print. 🙂
Okay, I feel really very very good right now, looking at your struggle to maintain the supplies. You are not the only one with a massive stock of inventory to work with. I have a lot of notions and fabrics too. Mine are not neat and tidy but getting there.
“the move” has helped me somewhat, (with a lot of agonising) to let go of some things.
Happy Tuesday everyone.
A lot of my supplies look like your before photos.
Your thread storage is good, Jeanne. I usually like to have my threads closed up in a viewable place, but not out getting dusty. Same with flosses. Your embroidery floss looks good now. Well done all around Jeanne!!
Wow, Jeanne, Your sewing room is looking so great! If I can get rid of a lot
of fabric maybe mine will finally look good.
Sofa friends, I am serious about wanting to give fabric away to friends rather than giving bags of it to Good Will. I have given so much to the local Dorcus
group they don’t want any more for a long time. If any of you would like to
see some I would happy to show it to you and send any you like with just the cost of shipping.
Let me know any of you who are interested and I will let you know what I have to share.
Sissy, I’m going to be checking in with you to see what fabric you have. I am realizing my stash is inadequate in some areas and I want to check with you before I buy anything else. About the sparklers, sorry about your foot. Maybe some therapy would help you get over the “fear of sparklers”. Just joking, but we do have to pay special attention to where we put the spent sparklers. I usually put them by the side of my chair to be picked up when we clean up after. We keep an eye on Azure while he does them and take them from him as soon as they’re done. Dionne buys the long kind and they are easier to manage than the smaller ones.
Barbara, I am so glad you want some fabric. I got your email and answered it, so send me a little more info and I will show you photos.
Thanks for the encouragement, Jeanne! It is great you are getting things more organized. It is time to go through clothes with the girls, which is a long process. I liked your ruler organizer yesterday. Beautiful material.
Has anyone heard from Barbara? I have been concerned that we haven’t heard from her since that terrible flood in Texas.
I was wondering the same thing! Hope she is ok!
Hi, I’m here. The area with the serious flooding is west of me so we weren’t involved. We have more of a problem here when the rain is north of us and the Brazos River to the east of us overflows. There are subdivisions that have serious flooding then but the only time the Brazos overflowed enough to reach the town of Sealy was during the hurricane of 1900 that nearly destroyed Galveston and I think the river has changed course somewhat since then.
Hi Barbara,
I know I’ve said it before that I have Texas roots from my maternal great grandparents (my grandmother’s parents) who immigrated through Galveston. My maternal grandfather and his parents/siblings came through Ellis Island.
Anyway, their farm was in Beasley, where they moved after my grandmother was born in Welcome. My one great aunt lived in Galveston a while, then in Houston. Another lived in Pasadena, my great uncle lived in Rosenberg. I can’t recall where my other two great aunts lived, but the one who lived in Houston moved to Kerrville after she married, so I know where Camp Mystic was. My grandmother was the only one of the six children to leave Texas and move to Cincinnati when she married.
My grandmother was born in 1903, hence my love of the Edwardian era and her parents recalled the Galveston 1900 hurricane that drove straw into the fence posts. She remembered later ones.
When I first moved to Texas I lived in Pasadena for several years. With each move I went further west till now I live just north of Rosenberg. My grandmother was born in 1896 so I love the Edwardian era too. I loved the clothes. Especially for little girls.
I certainly agree with Barbara. According to an article on Wikipedia, Mystic has two one-month sessions (750 girls at $4,300 each = $6,450,000) and one 13-day session (750 girls at $2,150) and that was the fee in 2011 ! $8,062,500! And they wouldn’t put in a warning system! Your anger is certainly justified. Texas remains the Wild West when it comes to protecting their citizens. Beware of buying a house before checking US Geological Survey Maps for flood plain information before deciding where to buy. Selling off the South 40 that floods first to developers is a common practice. Jeanne might decide not to publish this and I would understand.
I knew they had 1-month camps but I didn’t know the cost. I’m not sure they’ll have many takers in the future. And you’re right about watching out for the flood plains when you buy here. We have 25, 50 and 100-year flood plains but flooding is flooding. I think you have family in Cypress. Our son is south of 529 in Katy which is near there (Dionne’s grandfather used to live in Cypress). David and I were returning home Sunday on 529. We noticed for months they were building up the land but we didn’t know for what. Turns out it’s housing but at least they are trying to get them above the floodplain. Maybe they have to do that now.
Well, Jeanne’s sewing room is looking much better. I can honestly say that the creativity there is evident. Those items are so needed to make the wonderful things that appear from Jeanne’s always humming mind. Keep up the good work, and I hope that some of the tidying up rubs off on the one writing here. I keep hopping from one thing to another as something of more interest pops up,
leaving a trail of items loosely scattered behind. Is there hope? Don’t know.
I did get a laugh when I saw Jeanne’s elastic stash. One day, I needed some very narrow elastic and took a look in my elastic box high on a shelf. When I opened the clear box,, I as surprised to find that some of the elastic was actually degrading and giving off that rubbery smell. Not a clue how long I’ve had it, but it had lost it’s stretch. That was tossed. 🙂 The rest is fine and still in it’s box as is the size I use all of the time. Of course, there is a package on the coffee table and maybe some in that box with that pair of doll pants that are yet unfinished. Ha ha Definitely need to to a huge toss and reorganization here. But, not today.
Today, I hope that we can finish the fence project that finally got underway yesterday. The bottom kick board of one of the side fences had been pushed over and made the fence come apart. Not our current neighbor’s fault, but the neighbor before who piled dirt up above the top of the kickboard when it shouldn’t have had any at all. It was always flat on both sides of the fence when we put it in. Anyway, the neighbor’s side needed to be dug out and the board pushed back. Not an easy project at all with our rock hard adobe soil. Our side was clear and a little gravel up to the fence in that area, so I raked back gravel and then other person got involved. He tried to shove the board back, but there was too much weight on the other side. Our neighbor Becky had managed to dig out a small area on her side so that we could move the board, but it wasn’t enough. So, we put up the ladder and another ladder on the other side so other person could get to the bottom of the board. Actually, it was much easier to go over the fence rather than drag tools out across the front lawn around Becky’s house, and down the hill to the other side of the fence. So many roots and a water line for the sprinklers as well. I fished tools through the six inch hole in the fence and other person worked on digging out down to the kick board. Winnie, the pup next door, was helpful too as was Callie cat who managed to grab any root that appeared. So, it was 6:30 when we finished up and put everything away. Today, we hope to find some brackets to put the fence section back together. All the old nails had pulled out, so we’ll probably have to use screws to hold it together. Hopefully, it will look great when it’s all done. 🙂
Now that I’ve read your comment, I’m going back to bed. Just reading about all you do tires me out. I don’t know how you do it. I’m impressed.
Thanks Barbara. We do tend to fix things around here rather than hire someone. As long as we can, we’ll keep it up. 🙂
Good grief, Joy, your summer just seems to be work, work work, except when you get together with family. I don’t know how you found time to sew! Did you get rid of the yellow jackets?
Yellow jackets are still in the second location. Buzzing around this afternoon. I didn’t have a chance today to get close to the first nest. Haven’t seen much activity there, but I don’t want to take any chances. I’m going to take a look when that area is in the sun and they are more active. I doubt that they are gone like other person thinks. He was never able to spot them in the first place.
I remember a joke I heard once. “How do you eat an elephant?” “In bite size pieces of course”. I guess it could take a while but you’ve got to start somewhere and eventually it (the elephant) will be all gone. That’s what came to my mind when seeing Jeanne’s sewing room reorganization in progress. It does seem that the more organizing I do in my sewing room, the more it needs. Once is not done. And once the storage room is complete, I will be at it again since some of what I’m tripping over in my sewing room now can be stored in there.
Something came to me the other day when some of my Sofa Sisters were discussing downsizing their fabric stashes. I realized that cannot be done with mine until I have departed this mortal coil. See mine is more the result of a deep seeded fear of not having clothes to wear. Sounds silly in the writing but when I was growing up the only time we got anything new to wear was for the first day of school and Easter and that was a struggle. Most of our clothes were hand-me-downs from cousins and aunts. But my grandfather worked at Bancroft Mills where they finished fabric, and he got to take home damaged bolts of cloth. After cutting out the bad parts he divided the fabric among my mom,, my one aunt and my grandmother. As a teenager I made many of my clothes from this fabric so as long as we had fabric and I could sew I knew I would always have clothes. Hence my huge stash because I know as long as I have fabric and can sew, my family and I will have clothes. Plus, fearing the unforeseen, I also have a treadle machine. I will sew no matter what.
Asking for prayers for all the people impacted by the horrible flooding here in Texas. So many camps were involved and so many children lost. But in some ways it makes me angry. This has happened before. The Guadalupe River is known for flash floods at this time of year and a few years ago a church camp was devastated by a flash flood. While a beautiful area, this is definitely a bad spot for camps. Several of the counties along the river have installed siren systems so when the water reaches a certain level the sirens go off and people have time to move to higher ground. Plus there is always a flash flood watch and warning alert on news reports. Unfortunately Kerr County, the county most involved in the loss of life this time, decided they didn’t want the sirens when they had a chance for a grant to get them. They decided they might go off when there wasn’t danger so they opted for a cell phone warning system – in a county where cell coverage is spotty. Totally irresponsible and the outcome of this bad decision has been horrific. And now that they are considering a siren warning system they have no chance for a grant. A worse case scenario of locking the barn after the horse is stolen. How these people could even go to bed with that threat hanging over them I don’t know. When we’re on hurricane watch here we don’t sleep until it’s over.
Thanks for the great explanation of the warning or non warning systems in the area. Hopefully, such a tragedy will never happen again.
Barbara, a lady from that area wrote on FB about just what you are talking about. I am glad she put the word out to those who have been watching the news about the tragedy and let us know the reason no one was prepared. Such irresponsibility is just unbelievable!! I am glad that you are not living in that area.
I don’t know where people’s minds are on these things. We had a warning about Pearl Harbor and chose to ignore that too. I always believed in “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” so I guess you could say I try to be proactive. Maybe parents sending their kids to camps along the Guadalupe should send them with a life jacket telling them to put it on when it starts raining because it seems they’ll be on their own.
Please see my reply higher up on another of your Comments about the tragedy in Texas.
That is exactly how I organize. Tackle one small piece at a time. I’m also a fan of putting all similar items in ziploc bags or small plastic boxes.
Well, you are a doll collector in your own right. you don’t have clothing, but you do have accessories and an incredible number of wigs!! LOL
Soon you’ll have everything together again and a new doll on the cutting table.
Thanks for the inspiration. I needed it.