Space Camp Part 3: Audit Your Sewing Space

Show Notes

• 
  Click here to download the Sewing Camp Toolkit. It includes our sewing spaces freebie, exercises to help you upgrade your space, and a preview of our Style Workshop.


• 
  Upgrade Your Sewing Space Part 1: Explore. The first episode of this Space Camp series!


• 
  Upgrade Your Sewing Space Part 2: Strategize. The second episode of this Space Camp series!


• 
  Style Workshop: This hands-on workshop helps you discover your core style. It's free for Seamwork members and only $10 for everyone else!


• 
  Podcast listeners get half off an unlimited Seamwork membership when you use this link, plus you get to keep that price as long as you’re a member!


• Tell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!

Podcast Transcript

Sarai:
You. I'm Sarai.

Haley:
And I'm Haley.

Sarai:
And this is Seamwork radio. Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy. Welcome back to Seamwork Radio Summer Sewing Camp 2023. So during the months of June and July, we're going to be embarking on a journey together to refresh our sewing spaces in June and then our personal style in July. In today's episode, we'll be discussing a strategy for auditing your sewing room. So, as we've mentioned the last couple of episodes, when we hear from Seamworkers, one of the biggest obstacles that we hear about is managing the sewing space. So whether you're in a small space, a large space, or an in-between space, you probably have noticed that sewing comes with a lot of stuff, and managing all of that stuff in a way that makes it easy for you to sew can be a real challenge. So last week, we worked on creating a strategy for our sewing space, and now that we're clear on what we want to accomplish, we can do the real work of going through all the stuff. But we're going to share a strategy today, so this process feels a lot more manageable because it can be very, very overwhelming to think about going through all your stuff.

Haley
Yes, but the reality is that when you are doing any kind of big space reset, you have to make a really big mess before you can make things tidy again. And this is the mess portion of things.

Sarai:
Yeah, it's like the Marie Kondo thing, right? You take everything out into a huge pile and then figure out what sparks joy.

Haley:
Yes, that's what we're going to be doing. So what we are going to encourage you to do this is a very action oriented prompt that we're giving you today, and we are going to ask you to pull everything out and make five piles. So I should give this, like, a little bit of a caveat of make sure that you are still keeping in mind your strategy and your goals for your space. So, for example, I am working specifically on my closet, so I'm not doing this with every single thing in my sewing room. I'm doing this with my closet specifically. And maybe you'll be in a similar situation, maybe you're doing the whole thing, but make sure that you're keeping in mind all of the work we've done in the two weeks leading up to this to make sure that you're really focusing on your biggest pain points and working towards your final goal.

Sarai:
Yeah, absolutely. Whereas I am working on much bigger goals because I'm moving my sewing space into another space, which is my backyard sewing shed. So that's going to require going through pretty much everything, I think.

Haley:
Yeah. So I'm going to ask you to pull out everything in the space that you are going to be focusing on, and you are going to make five piles. The first pile is fabric. The second pile is patterns. The third pile is tools. Fourth is notions. And fifth and final pile is Trash. And what we're going to be working through is a series of questions for each of these piles to help make sorting them just a little bit easier. I want to start out with fabric because I feel like fabric it's the big one.

Sarai:
Absolutely.

Haley:
For me, it is. I think for a lot of people it is. And I have some questions that you could ask yourself to make auditing your fabric stash just a little bit easier. My first question is, can you envision yourself wearing it? I think a lot of times that it's really easy to buy fabric because of the fantasy, because we think it's like, pretty in an isolated way. But can you imagine yourself wearing this fabric? I don't want to encourage you to get rid of everything and anything. It could be as simple as can you envision using this as a lining or using it as a pocket? It doesn't have to be a head to toe ensemble. Can you picture yourself using it? The second question is, do you have a plan for this fabric? Even if it's a plan you do not plan on executing anytime soon, can you envision some kind of project for it? The third question is, is this fabric sentimental? Because I am not in the business of telling you to get rid of some fabric that your grandma gave you. And the fourth thing to consider is the condition of the fabric.

Is it in usable condition? Is it sun damaged or moth holes? And if so, is it damage that you're going to be able to work around either by creatively cutting it or doing some creative mending?

Sarai:
Yeah.

Haley:
Those are my questions that I'd like you to ask yourself. And something I want to ask you, Sarai, is when was the last time you audited your fabric?

Sarai:
Oh, I think the last time I did it was when we moved. That was about two years ago. That was the last time I kind of took everything out and decided what to keep and what to get rid of because I had to reorganize everything. But now I'm really overflowing the space that I have. You can see there's a big pile of fabric sitting on my cutting table right now, and there's a pile in the basket on the floor. And a lot of it is stuff that I'm planning to use for things around the house, not for clothing, which I just never seem to get to. So it has been accumulating, and I do need to do another de-stash pretty soon, I think. Another question I would append to your questions, or maybe it would be like an offshoot of one of those questions is how long you've had the fabric?

Haley:
Oh, good one.

Sarai:
Because I have fabric in my stash, and I have bins in the garage with some additional fabric, and there's stuff in there I've had for 10, 15, 20 years. Maybe? If you've had fabric for 20 years, that doesn't have particular sentimental value to you, and I'm saying this to myself, like, why? Even though I've done a clean out in the last couple of years, I don't know why? Because you still like it, I guess. But if you really haven't used it in 20 years, you're probably not going to use it and somebody else probably will.

Haley:
Totally. I totally agree with that. I am definitely due for a de-stash. I think that the last time I went through my fabric stash was in early 2020. We did a series of videos for Instagram in the very beginning throes of the Pandemic, and it was just like some organization and at home kind of tips. And I went through my stash in the video and that was the last time I did it. I've moved since then and that I just literally taped the drawers that I keep all of my fabric in shut and put them on the truck. Yeah, I'm in dire need.

Sarai:
This makes me think that we should do a big Portland Seamwork sewing get together and swap or something like.

Haley:
Oh, my gosh, my dream.

Sarai:
It would be really fun.

Haley:
It would be.

Sarai:
I did a big fabric swap when I released my first book at Powell's. We did a get together there and I did a reading and we had a fabric swap to go with it. And I think I don't know, it's fun. You get to come away with new things and get rid of old stuff. It'd be fun to do, like a picnic and fabric swap or something like that.

Haley:
Oh, my gosh, I love that. Adding it to the list of ideas - for the local chapter.

Sarai:
Yeah, we're just getting started with local chapters at Seamwork, which I'm so excited about. I just love this idea of getting together with people in person in the community from Seamwork, and I know people are already starting to do it in different areas. It's just so exciting to me.

Haley:
We have our first local chapter meet up, I think, next week.

Sarai:
Yeah, I can't go because it's sold out.

Haley:
That's the same thing happened to me. I kid you not. I was out of town when we opened up the sign ups for it, and then by the time I returned, all the spaces [were taken].

Sarai:
That probably sounds crazy to some of you, but it's a tour of the Pendleton factory, so there's a limited amount of spaces. It's not because we set an arbitrary number. No, we can't go. That would be weird.

Haley:
No, I was just in San Francisco when we opened up the sign ups, and I totally missed it and was like, kicking myself.

Sara:
I think I was out of town, too.

Haley:
But you know what? Next time. All right, so the next pile we're going to be sorting through is our patterns, which I know for me is maybe my second biggest pile. So I have three questions for you to ask yourself as you look through your patterns. First question is, is this a style that you like wearing? Like, would you ever wear this? I think it sounds like a silly question, but I know that there are patterns that I've accumulated, especially, like, vintage ones over the years that I just realistically would never wear. But they're cool, and that's okay to keep as kind of like a catalog or a collection, but it's something to consider and do so intentionally.

Sarai:
Yeah.

Haley:
The next question is, is the pattern in your size? And if it's not, are you willing to do the work to make it your size and grade it? This is another place where I insert many vintage patterns that I have. And then the third question is, have you made the pattern? And if so, did you enjoy it? Do you plan on making it again?

Sarai:
Yeah, that's a big one for me. When it comes to digital patterns, I don't mean the digital files, but I mean the printouts that I've already made. So I don't keep them unless I really think I'm going to make it again.

Haley:
Yeah, I have the same strategy. If I don't see myself making it again, then I will recycle it instead of putting it in a pile and then recycling it in three years from now.

Sarai;
Yeah.

Haley:
Which is what has happened in the past. When printing PDF patterns was like a newer thing, I think that I kind of treated them really similarly, but now I only keep the real hits.

Sarai:
Yeah, me too. I have a little in the corner there. I have some rolled up ones that are things that I'm going to be making, hopefully in the near future, and then a couple that I've kept that I really liked that are often quick and easy patterns that might be in between other things that I'm sewing. Just whip something up. So those are the ones that I tend to keep around. Vintage patterns, for me, are kind of another matter. I have a sealy nose and can see from here. I have quite a number. Yeah. All organized by type of garment and decade and tagged.

Haley:
It's a thing of beauty.

Sarai:
It's very organized because I love them, but they are mostly in my almost all in my size. I've gotten rid of ones that are really not I'm never going to ever use.

Haley:
They're beautiful, and we used to have them in the office, and it was like such a great library of things to, as a designer, browse through to get inspiration.

Sarai:
It's a great archive. Actually, I have one I want to show you after we're done here today.

Haley:
Oh goodie!

Sarai:

It's so pretty. I'm going to make it this summer so you guys all see it on YouTube, I'm sure, too. But yeah, I have a hard time getting rid of patterns, but that's okay. I think that's another thing is like, if that's something you want to collect and it's intentional, that's totally fine. It's up to the individual.

Haley:
And that's like, definitely the key word here is intentional, is that if you're holding on to something, do so with intention, not just because you forgot it was there.

Sarai:
Yeah, absolutely. All right, so we talked about fabric, we talked about patterns. Those are the first two piles. Now let's move on to the third pile, which is tools. We talked about tools a lot in the last episode, and I think that is another area where we can tend to kind of accumulate a little bit more than we need, although I think not as much as fabric and patterns. But here's some questions to ask yourself about the tools you have. Do you use this tool? So is this something that you actually use? And if so, how often? Because sometimes you might have tools that you used one time and then you forgot about it and you never used it again. So it's good to revisit that. Do you need to upgrade this tool? This is a really good one to think about. If you have a tool that is maybe it's doing the job, but it's not quite as good as the tool you might purchase in the future that might do a better job. Sometimes if something frustrates you, we've talked about this many times, if you have trouble with something, it's often because you're not using the right tool or you just don't have the right technique.

So tools are a big part of that, and oftentimes you just need a little minor upgrade. And then the third question is, do you have duplicates? And when I say duplicates, you can think about this in a couple of ways. First, you actually have multiple tools that are exactly the same, and that can be a good thing. Sometimes it's good to have them scattered around like a seam rippers something. I like to have multiple seam rippers. I like to have multiple thread snips. So if that's helpful to you again, then you're being intentional about it. If it's not helpful to you and you just have duplicates because you went to the fabric store and forgot you already owned something and bought it again, then it might just be clutter. So that's a good thing to think about. Another way to think about duplicates is whether you have different tools that do the same job. For example, if you have a ton of marking tools but you only actually ever use one or two of them, then you might consider the other ones to be duplicates. I know I've experimented with a lot of different marking tools, but I have my favorites that I pretty much always use.

Obviously, you might have different ones that are good for different circumstances, but I use one or two tools for almost everything. So anything else that I have in my drawers is pretty much just a duplicate, and I can get rid of it. I think duplicates are something you can think about in terms of your wardrobe, too, honestly, what you have more than enough of. So those are some of the questions you can ask about your tools. I think tools are probably less of a problem for most of us than most of these other categories, but it is still something worth visiting just because of that. I think we don't think about it as much and don't audit it as often.

Haley:
Yeah. And I think that going through these things is going to really help you in the next step, which we'll talk about next week, which is organizing all of it. And when it comes to tools, I feel like the organization of your tools and how easy they are for you to access is a huge thing.

Sarai:
Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. And I think that'll probably reveal some holes as well for you.

All right, the next category is notions. This is pile number four. So this is a hard one. I do tend to kind of accumulate notions because you never know when certain things are going to be useful. So with notions, the questions to ask yourself are, is it still in good condition? Is it enough to do something with? Or, for example, is it like some kind of two inch scrap of lace that you're actually never going to use? You just think it's pretty, and you have a hard time getting rid of it. So that's a big red flag, when it comes to notions, how much do you need to actually do something with? And then Haley has a half yard rule. You want to explain that, Haley?

Haley:
Yeah, it is exactly what it sounds like. When it comes to notions, I try not to keep something that is less than a half yard. So, like, less than a half yard of trim or elastic or something like that, because I just feel like there's so few scenarios in which you can use less than a half yard of something. And I feel like if I kept everything that was under a half yard, I would be just, like, buried, buried in notions. I also kind of do this with my buttons, too. Buttons for me is one of those things that you go through your buttons and you're like, cool, I have one of all of 20 of these types of buttons. That can be a challenging one.

Sarai:
Yeah, that's hard. Especially when the buttons are pretty. Like, if you get a set of vintage buttons, you use four out of five of them, and you have this fifth button that's really pretty.

Haley:
Something I did a few years ago is I went and I sewed my duplicate buttons to the inside of the corresponding me made garments like they do and ready to wear. Yeah, because I just was like, I feel like I'm going to lose them.

Sarai:
Yeah, that's really smart. That's a good tip for all of you. Do that with your buttons. I'm going to write that down. And then finally, is it something you can see yourself using in the future? And does it match your style? So kind of similar to fabric. Is this something that you think you're probably going to use in the future? Certain things are functional. And if you have more than a half yard of something like elastic, I have just a ton of quarter inch elastic because it's used in so many different projects, and I know I'm going to use it. So that's one thing. But then I have other things that are like bits of trim that I've used most of that I used on a project, like years and years ago, and will probably never use again. So that could probably go. So I think that's one of the key questions to ask yourself when it comes to notions. And then finally, we have your trash pile. So with trash, obviously pretty simple, you can divide this into two separate piles, your actual trash, so the things that actually need to be gotten rid of completely, and things that could be donations or gifts, or you can give them to somebody else who might actually use them.

You might have a lot of stuff that fabric. For example, you might find a little scrap of fabric that you realize you're never going to use. Put it in the trash pile. And then it might be something that could be donated or given to a friend that you know would love it. So not everything that you get rid of has to go into a landfill. Just remember that. All right, so those are the five piles we've created today. I'll recap real quick so you can remember these. So the five piles were fabric patterns, tools, notions, and trash. And then we went through each of those piles and we asked questions to help decide which of these things you should keep and which of these things you should get rid of. So that's what we talked about today. And if you want even more great information about how to revamp your sewing space, be sure to snag all the goodies that come with summer camp by visiting seamwork.com/go/sewingcamp and camp runs all of June and July. So be sure to grab those freebies while you still can. And there's tons of great information in there, and a lot of what we covered in these episodes will be included in there in a format you can use again and again.

And if you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a review. It really helps other people to discover the podcast. So if you like it and you think other people might like it, that is a great way to kind of give us a little ritual high five and let us know. And you can follow us on YouTube at Seamwork Video. And you can follow us on Instagram at Seamwork. And if you'd like to join us at Seamwork and become part of our private community, plus get access to hundreds of sewing patterns and dozens of sew along classes, our podcast listeners get a 50% off lifetime discount when you join at seamwork.com/Go/podcast50. That's seamwork.com/go/Podcast50. And that does it for us this week. I'm Sarai.

Haley:
And I'm Haley.

Sarai:
And this is Seamwork Radio.