A few months ago, I decided enough was enough and it was finally time to completely clean up my sewing room. The place was a true disaster, half-finished projects and stacks of fabric lying everywhere, crumpled tissue patterns shoved in corners, boxes of supplies stacked on overflowing shelves. Even getting to the point where I could at least walk through the room without stepping over piles of stuff took quite a bit of work as well as fighting the urge to save every little scrap of fabric because this 2×6″ strip of black knit will totally be useful for SOMETHING!
But it was all worth it, because making costumes now is so much smoother and less frustrating. I have room on the floor to cut fabric! I can open my closet without kicking things aside! I can use more of my stash because my fabric is organized by type. I can iron projects because the ironing board isn’t covered in pants and dresses that need to be hemmed!
But most importantly, now I always know where my scissors are. Not being able to find your scissors is the worst. When I was a kid, my mom used to storm around the house demanding “Where are the scissors?!” and now I understand why. Not having your tools handy is frustrating and brings your creative momentum to a halt. So to help me keep track of my tools and solve the table clutter problem, I made a fabric wall organizer.
I used a heavy white canvas for the backing and a cool printed cotton for the pockets. I finished the pocket edges using my serger and topstitched them to the base. It’s based on this tutorial at Design Sponge (this post also has some neat history of the Uten.Silo). After working for three months on one cosplay, I wanted something I could finish in a couple hours, so I made this on a whim one night after googling around for organization ideas. I didn’t have a grommet kit at the time, so I just nailed it to the wall. I’ve been meaning to get some grommets, but leaving it this way I can hang my measuring tape on the wall! Now I not only know where my scissors are but my pencils, rotary cutters, awls, stencils, rulers…