Embroidery

Sewing Bags for my Linen Closet

household, Projects

I had been storing my bedding/linens in large plastic bins with lids. These were all stacked-up doing a balancing act in a reset in the hall. All was fine until I actually needed something from one of these bins. As luck would have it, the something needed was usually in the bottom bin. So, all the bins had to be taken down from the stack. What a back breaking task! I’d had enough!

This is where it helps to have a handy husband. My husband made shelves and really good shelves at that. Built-ins fit for a queen. (I’m the queen in this fairy tale.) Next came my part. I was through with the bins. I decided to sew lined bags made of linen. These I custom made to the size of the shelves and to the size of the linens going inside them. Some have zippers and some have draw-strings. Some are rectangular, some are barrel shaped which fit large comforters well. All are labeled with the contents with hand embroidery.

A drawstring ‘barrel’ shaped bag for a comforter.

Ah, it feels good for the linen closet to be organized at last! And, if we have an earthquake, I don’t have to worry about the bins toppling down.

As always, Happy Organizing!

Advertisement

DIY Needle Minder

Projects

Sick and tired of trying to keep track of my embroidery needles, I decided I needed a needle minder. However, the one I really wanted was out of stock on-line. I did not really care for any of the other designs. What was I to do?

I searched through my drawer and found a cute French button I had ordered but never used. The button was made of wood and painted with a sweet design. I decided to have this button made into my needle minder. I enlisted my husband to help. He purchased a very strong button magnet set and attached it to the button for me with epoxy. One magnet attaches to the button. This piece goes on top of the embroidery work fabric. The loose magnet is then put underneath the fabric and sticks to the other magnet holding the needle minder to the fabric. When taking a break from embroidering, the needle sticks magnetically to the button minder. No more lost needles! Thanks Honey!

As always, Happy Crafting!

The back of the minder. Just slip off the top magnet and place between the fabric.

How Not to Store Embroidery Floss

Projects

I think we have all been guilty of putting things away without care. Stuffing things into a drawer, closet, purse, under the bed, wherever it may be, without worrying to much more about it at the time. Later, sometime down the road, the snowball effect happens and things become out of control. This is exactly what happened to my little bag of embroidery floss.

Honestly, I should have known better. Stuffing embroidery floss in a bag is not a good idea. The strands can not keep to themselves. Soon there is a big party going on in the bag and they are all playing twister. Now it is up to me to untwist all the strands!

Oh, why does she bother, one might think. Well, I do not like to waste, so I feel obligated to save the mess I have created. Plus, the cheapskate side of me says this is not only embroidery floss thrown out but money as well. So onto my task.

This lovely bag of floss would have remained as is had I not recently decided to make some new projects requiring said floss. That is what led to my motivation. So I spent a good amount of time yesterday untangling the mess. I will admit that there were a few casualties, but that can not be helped as the floss was in quite a state.

After entangling the floss, I decided to properly store them on plastic bobbins that are meant for floss to be wound around. These bobbins have holes in them that can be strung unto clips for individual projects. Genius! Now I feel all organized and am ready to start on my embroidery.

As always, Happy Crafting!