Hang on, here's a notion: Upcycled Notions Organiser

My sewing area is a mess. It doesn't help it's in the smallest room in the house which is used to store all of our "stuff". Being a small room there's not much space to store things and storage is the one thing I need for all my notions - snaps, velcro, zips, elastic and other random bits.

Whilst perusing the interweb I found this great tutorial from the Make It Love It blog for making a hanging notion organiser http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/08/hanging-jewelry-holder-space-saver.html. Being a tight arse this was right up my alley as forking out $40 for one of these at the shops is not an option.

Being a tight arse I also began thinking about what I had around me that I could reuse for this project. I found an old plastic storage bag the type that blankets/doonas/quilts are sold in. I had planned to cut this up and use it as the tutorial suggested and then decided that I could save myself some time and effort...and so I created my own hanging notions organiser.

Here's how I made it:

1. This bag had originally had a zipper at the top so that was cut off.
2. Next I took a pencil and drew a grid for the pockets. These ones are roughly 3.5inches square, but I think next time I will do as the Make It, Love It tutorial and have some small and some big. This size is the smallest that I would do, and then I'd go bigger.
3. The next step is to add the tabs. Take a couple of strips of either the plastic or material and fold them in half and attach them to the top of the bag. These will be used to hang them.
4. Now, using an overlock stitch or zig zag stitch, sew along the gridlines. These will make your pockets.
5. Once your gridlines are sewn it's time to make the pocket openings. Carefully separate the top from the back and gently cut a slit at the top of each pocket. I found it easiest making a tiny snip and then using my seam ripper to enlarge the hole.
6. That's it. Your notions organiser is ready to hang and fill.

I plan to add to this by attaching more bags to the bottom and I have an alternative method for storing long lengths of elastic and velcro...but that's for another post.

Rags to Riches - Making a Rag Quilt Part 2

With my rag quilt design completed I got to cutting out the squares. I always dread cutting. I think it's because by cutting into a piece of fabric you lose its potential. When it is a whole piece of fabric it can be whatever you want it to be but once you cut it that potential is gone - even though you have something perfectly functional that you've made out of it. I get the same feeling when cutting into a piece of clothing when upcycling (even if its no longer useable).

Three things that make the job of cutting so much easier and almost fun are a rotary cutter, quilting ruler and cutting mat. For those who do a bit of quilting this is probably a no brainer but for the uninitiated these things make life so much easier!

With all my squares cut out the next step is to put the pieces together. At first I numbered all the squares of one side of my design and then reversed the numbering on on the other side and started putting the pieces together... Big Fail. It all got rather confusing only 10 squares in. I figured the easiest way to make sure the right pieces when together was to lay them out on the floor.
Helpful Hint #1: Make sure that you lay out one side in reverse before you top it with the other ;)

Now time to start sewing. Grab two set of squares. Facing out the layers that you want the rag seam to be against (so facing together the sides where you want the seams to be neat) and sew. Keep doing this until you get to the end of the row. Rinse and repeat for all the other rows.
Helpful Hint #2: It helps to lay out the rows on the floor as you complete them so that you can ensure that 1. the seams are all on the same side and 2. that you have the squares in the right place - this is more important if you have a pattern, but if you are doing random squares it's not that big a deal.

Once all your squares have been sewn into rows, it's time to sew your rows together. Make sure that you open up the seams so that they are even and that your seams are lined up (if you're anal like me, but you won't really notice once it's done). Go slow and watch your needles. I broke 4 needles when putting this together =( but it was worth it =)

Once all the rows have been sewn together you're almost there. The next step is what I call "sit and snip". It does take a while, make sure you have sharp scissors (or rag quilt snips - I didn't have these so scissors it was) and start snipping the seams. Careful not to cut through the stitching....a couple of hours later all your seams are snipped.

The last step is to wash and dry (on hot if you have a dryer). This gets the seams nice and ruffled but produces LOTS of fluff, which I'm still finding coming out of my washing machine a few days later. Based on the advice from others I definitely recommend shaking your quilt out after washing, half way through the drying (making sure to clean your dryer filter at this point) and at the end of the drying cycle.

Below is my finished quilt. I think it turned out a treat and is quite toasty warm too!