This episode is highly topical.

After Christmas, I looked at my sewing room and realised how drab and lacklustre it looked, not to mention how inefficient it was.

Every day I stitch, so this area needs to be appealing, vibrant, efficient and safe.  I also need to ensure the space is used wisely because it is small.

Revamping a sewing room is a huge job, but the enthusiasm’s there, so where did I start?  Keep listening and I’ll tell you.

I thought this would make a great Stitch Safari episode because there’s nothing worse than walking into a cluttered, disorganised and sad sewing room.

Where’s the motivation to want to design and stitch?  Also, where’s the room?

We’ve all been there, haven’t we?  In stressful times it’s too easy to make the sewing room a dumping ground for works-in-progress and newly acquired items.  I also have a profound bad habit of not returning items to their proper places – a habit I’m constantly trying to curb.

So I sat down and pondered how to turn a small area, overflowing with bulky and teeny-tiny sewing items necessary for my work, into something welcoming, visually pleasing, sparkling with interest and that uses the space available efficiently, effectively and safely.

If possible, I want to utilise things I already have such as baskets and boxes for storage, but I will concede to buying several stackable storage boxes to utilise the one space I have – and that’s height.

Having moved eighteen months ago, this is the time to get it right and make my sewing room sparkle and glow with the beckoning invitation to create.

I did some research thinking I’d find a thundering amount of information.  Sadly, that wasn’t the case, so I wanted to address the issue.

Let’s welcome a new year with a determined spirit to make our sewing rooms glow and sparkle.  Let’s lift them from the dull and transform these spaces into vibrant, attractive areas for us to work in.  We can transform the stale and insipid into a jaw-droppingly good area that inspires and implores the creation of sizzling new work.

No this isn’t a cooking podcast, but a sewing and stitch-related podcast that will inspire change for the better.  We deserve to take the time to make our sewing rooms singularly special.

Come on, let’s do this.

The trick here is in the planning.  Don’t rush.  Be cool, considered and ruthless.

To do this job properly, you have to start from scratch otherwise you’re just scraping the surface and you won’t get the results you wanted.

The first thing is to appraise the space available and the items that need to fit in there – look at the size and orientation of your space and where you’ll place larger items such as sewing tables, desks and bookcases.

Think of the space and the work you need to do there.  Coalesce the two and make it work for you.

For instance, do you work primarily with a sewing machine?  Do you create hand embroidery?  Do you have a large library and boxes and boxes of threads, beads, fabrics and embellishments?  What about your design work, patterns and administration paperwork for your business?

This is the stage to plan where those big items will sit in your workspace, things like that sewing table, the desk, bookcases and shelving.  Most of this can be done on a budget by repurposing pre-loved furniture and utilising fairly inexpensive boxing systems.

The trick here is to try to unify the space by using repetition such as good-looking boxing systems.  Ikea and Amazon offer useful and easy-on-the-eye shelving and boxing systems at different price points, it just takes a little time to find what you want.  Measure everything so there’s no disappointment and take your time in setting everything up.  Slow and steady wins the race here, for sure.

Also, look at things like lighting and power outlets.  You can’t work without good lighting so bring in some desk or standing lamps to avoid eye strain.

Power outlets in my experience always seem to be placed exactly where I don’t need them, so assess whether you need extension cords or a power board to link your lighting or sewing machine.  These are important issues best addressed before furniture is moved into the space so you don’t have to crawl around or under furniture.

I didn’t move the large furniture items or my sewing table – they’re set in stone, but if moving furniture gives better results, do it.  Get some help if you have to.  We don’t want injuries.

OK.  That’s not so hard, but now it’s time to break everything down again for all the teeny-tiny items that make up a working sewing room – things like the threads, embellishments, tools and rulers – and this is where things become more complicated.

The only way I could break this huge job down to something workable was to organise small zones and attack one daily.  It made the work bearable.

The other tip is to create a system of categories so that each time you go through a box, similar items can be grouped.

I started with my machine threads.  I have a truckload of myriad threads on different-sized spools.  Most live in a standing unit, divided into twelve pull-out cane drawers, but even that’s not enough.  I’ve had to store other threads in other cane boxes near my machine.

The area on top of that unit now holds baskets for stationary – things like sticky tape, a hole punch, pens and pencils, glue, some paintbrushes – you get the picture.  These are highly visible and easily accessed.

It’s a good idea to think about the usage of items before restoring them to your sewing room.

Store lesser-used items at the back or on higher shelving.  Heavier items need to be stored where it’s easy to lift them.  For those items used daily, store them where they’re easily accessed.

Think efficiently and consider safety because that’s important too. High-traffic areas should be kept clear at all times.  We don’t need trip hazards.

At some point, you’ll need to assess your storage areas and the amount of items you need to fit in there.

Be ruthless.  If you haven’t used it in a long while, donate it to someone who will.

Choosing the right storage solution is essential for easy retrieval ensuring the most efficient use of your space.

Currently, I have patchwork fabrics in colour-coded piles on shelving, but these are too easily messed so I’m going to use one of my new acquisitions.  There’s a clear plastic visibility panel to help locate the colours I’ll be looking for.

My hand embroidery threads and some beads are stored in large, see-through plastic bags in two large baskets – one for threads and the other for beads, so when I’m working I can easily choose a colour from each basket and select what I want.  Other beads are stored under my desk in large plastic bins.

My desk is my son’s old bookcase.  I turned it on its side and used the compartments underneath as storage areas for folders, large drawing books and two large bins of beads.

The table top came from Ikea and the whole area now works perfectly as a desk, storage and work area.

There’s no way I could live or work without my books, and although I downsized from three to two bookcases, both now reside on the wall directly in front of my desk.  The space between the bookcases and my desk is tight, but I can still access much-needed storage on the other far wall.

So if you’re like me and books are important to you and your work, factor them in.  They are such a useful resource it’s worth including them in your planning.

As you go through all your bits and bobs, declutter as you work.  Donate and recycle unwanted items, but most importantly, group similar items together and choose sensible storage solutions for what you have.

Separating my sewing room into zones made this job so much easier.  Rather than looking at the whole as one large job, the focus comes down to those small areas.  The result is that I do a better job organising smaller items in that small area.

This information was hard to find on any of the sites I researched, however, when it comes to pretty-pretty ways to store sewing notions, I found stitch nirvana.

It was like the heavens opened, and I was looking at sewing heaven.

This is the icing on the cake, the bling that makes it sing, the cherry on top and the crowning achievement.

This is what will bring your sewing room together.

I mentioned repetition before – well, here it is.  Repetition is pleasing to the eye, we all look for it and just as in our design, it unifies.  It’s the same here.

There’s nothing wrong with pretty-pretty.  It’s charming and welcoming just ensure it’s your style and your aesthetic.

Here are some of the eye-catching items I found that I thought were useful and pretty:

• Pegboards to accommodate small tools like scissors, rollers, rulers, rotary cutters and paintbrushes
• Magazine holders to store patterns, designs and paperwork
• Are you a button collector?  Store them in glass bottles so they’re easy to see.  A pretty and sensible way was to use an old spice rack and colour-code the buttons in each bottle
• Clear plastic shoe organisers that hang on the back of a swing door make a great storage solution for small items
• Ice cube trays for bobbin storage – this depends on the size of your bobbins, but I’ve found Ikea ice cube trays that are simply rows rather than cubes hold my larger Bernina bobbins extremely well
• Pin cushions and needle storage – mason jar pincushion top with storage for small items underneath
• Thick see-through plastic zip-lock storage bags that fit inside a drawer for all those teen-tiny items
• A large and pretty vase of glass bowl to hold machine-thread offcuts
• Don’t forget to re-use clean plastic takeaway containers for small items such as beads and sequins

What about what I wouldn’t include in my sewing room?

• If you’re a serious machine embroiderer I would not look at wall-mounted machine-thread storage.  These are impractical for a larger stash of threads and do not accommodate larger spools.  They look pretty but take up a lot of wall space, so that’s where it stops for me.  It makes a lot more sense to colour-code your machine thread storing them in units or tubs that will accommodate your entire thread stash in one place.

The secret to organising and maintaining a working sewing room constantly in use is to constantly maintain it and not let it get out of control.  Yes, very easy to say, but sometimes not so easy to do.

All I know is that it’s much more welcoming and enjoyable to walk into an area where I plan to work for the next 3-4 hours with everything available at my fingertips, rather than spaces that are overwhelmed with fabrics, threads, books and paperwork.  It’s now a place where I can sit down and simply begin.  I like to work fast, so wasting time looking for items is irritating in the extreme.

Be prepared.  Think ahead.  Plan your space.  Then beautify it by using good-looking storage options, painting re-purposed furniture in pretty colours and then adding some glitz and glamour.  Anything that makes it feel like a space of your dreams because dreams are a source of inspiration.

Sometimes you need to create a mess to fix a mess and that’s exactly where I’m at, although I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Know what I’m going to do after recording this episode?  Fill another storage bin with patchwork fabrics.  I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to know that they will be kept in better order from now on.

So I hope this episode gives you some ideas on how to turn a drab sewing room into something truly delicious.

We’re all visual artists, so visually the space we work in has to be pleasing too.

Good luck.