Sew I'd Like to Know Where You Got the Notions

I am many things. Organized is not usually one of them save for a few exceptions. My school things? Immaculately sorted. All the shoes in my possession? Ordered by color on their own shelves. My collection of vintage cosmetics? Cataloged like museum items. 

The unending piles of sewing things that have accumulated over the years? I was going to compare it to Chernobyl but really It's as if a high school's theater department threw up in my room but with less glitter and a different brand of angst. It's like a mole that has been there all my life but now it's raised, and growing rapidly so it needs to be looked at by a professional. 

Sewing is a special hobby. You start out making simple things like an apron or a pillow. At first, everything seems quite manageable. 1/2 yard projects, a couple of spools of thread, maybe a few patterns. And there is no one moment to pinpoint when it happens but you eventually find yourself in a crafting wasteland. Before you know it you've got unfinished projects stuffed into cabinets, a closet that holds fabric you bought months ago when you were feeling spicy and inspired, scraps tucked into poorly folded yardage, dozens of tools stored in five different locations, and shopping bags from JoAnn Fabrics that remain unpacked from last year's $1 pattern sale. 

At present, The Stash is taking on a life of its own to where there are stratigraphic layers of supplies and materials covering my bedroom and closet floors representing distinct eras in my sewing/crafting journey. There's my ethical fashion phase in which I bought only deadstock (unused) fabrics to reduce waste but everything I purchased smelled bad, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel phase where I wanted to make and wear exclusively late 1950s attire, the trips to New York City's Garment District, and the 2020 acquisition of 20+ yards of material because I thought quarantine would involve plenty of sewing but instead my mom and I watched all 32 seasons of The Amazing Race. No regrets. 

Also if I am to get funded for the corset project you all signed up to read about, I need space to make the thing. But everything is expensive, and buying the dream sewing furniture for a dedicated sewing area doesn't make sense for my life at this moment. Graduate school may be overseas and anything I buy now could be left behind next year. 

It's a mess. I'm a mess. And that's okay because I am fixing it!

This is how I handled the aftermath of Hurricane Rachel. Though, it is an ongoing process. Just know that I'm suffering for this project before I even know if I'll get the grant.

1.  Taking Inventory

• Each and every item was counted and sorted into categories, and then recorded in a document on my computer
• All the fabric had to be remeasured even if unused because the amounts were a complete mystery. I pinned a measuring tape to my ironing board and went to town while trying to be as accurate as possible with the yard by yard measurements. Counting is a challenge for me anyway and it did not help that I was half-watching RuPaul's Drag Race for most of it but by George, I did it! 
• Whilst I measured, I also grabbed swatches of each fabric I have. They are to be used in my costume bible which will be discussed later
• Patterns are going to be organized by the era of design. I have some self-drafted patterns but most are commercial reprints of 20th-century vintage patterns
• Other notions include zippers, buttons, hooks & eyes, needles, pins, ironing tools, pattern paper, measuring tools, drafting tools, cutting tools, embellishments, thread, and ribbons/trims. It's so much
• As for the fabrics, interfacings, and other materials, I sorted things into three categories: 
• Yardage = Roughly a yard or more of measurable, mostly unbutchered fabric
• Scraps = Smaller pieces of fabric that I feel can be used to make other things in the future
• Cabbage = An old sewing term meaning teeny little bits of fabric to be used in mending, or if I need to make an emergency covered button or something
• Supplies from other hobbies: Bullet journaling, embroidery, fighting crime, and hand-lettering

2. Storage

• My storage solution for notions and the like is pegboards.
• I have two Ikea pegboards and a lot of little cups and hooks that attach to them. Hopefully, my cups don't runneth over. 
•  I hand-made mini bolts out of cardboard for all the yardage and scraps. I put interfacing in the same box as scraps because there isn't a ton of it but it's still too big to be Cabbage. Cabbage is its own box. After carefully wrapping the material around the cardboard, everything fits neatly into the Ikea boxes I purchased for a few doll hairs. Looking into the boxes at the fabrics is now a delight and now I can see what I have easily!
•  I also wrote down the specific boxes the fabric/materials ended up in for the costume bible. More on that in a moment. 

"Mom, can you take a picture of me suffering?"

This one took twenty minutes to fold and it was almost the entire length of the hallway. Then my dog Ruthie decided to help and things got interesting.

This is what the fabric looks like on the mini bolts! I started with cardboard cut into weird spool shapes but ultimately resorted to cardboard squares without notches so it's easier to see.

• My dear mother let me use her label maker and it was revolutionary. I wanted to put stickers with descriptive custom words on everything and everyone. In one day things went from a pile of material in a corner of my room to clearly labeled "Fabric Box 1" and "Fabric Box 2."

3. The Costume Bible

A Costume Bible is kind of like a scrapbook where the materials used in the construction of each and every garment are recorded for future use. Usually, the costume maker lists where the materials were purchased, the cost per yard, and how much is needed for specific projects. I decided to adapt this idea to fit my own needs because it is incredibly helpful. 

• This idea is from Foundations Revealed. It's a community of fashion industry professionals that I joined this summer who focus mostly on corsets and historical costuming. It is endlessly helpful to me and I've learned so much from them. In discussing the organization of a sewing space, I found an article on their website which suggested making a costume bible to keep the materials straight. 
• These bibles are typically used in Broadway costume companies so that any future production of a show can reproduce costumes for new cast members. 

My Bible has swatches of each fabric in my possession, the new storage location, where it was purchased, the intended use/pattern I had in mind, the price per yard, and how much of it I actually have. 

I used a template from Foundations Revealed and sewed each swatch to the paper with a few basic tacking stitches. I placed two pages back to back in a plastic sheet protector and I can flip through and find information about all my supplies and materials in one convenient 3-ring binder. This will be invaluable to future Rachel. You're welcome, future Rachel.

• The bible shall also include sections on what patterns I have, future project ideas, and a list of storage locations for smaller bits and bobs in my inventory once everything is organized. I'm also thinking of writing down a few directional sewing things that I always have to Google. It will be its own section of the bible with little flashcards detailing how to evenly hem a skirt without crying, or what a backstitch is supposed to be. 

You guys! I can go into a fabric store with this absolute weapon of mass instruction and avoid buying something similar to what I already have. And I can color match thread and see what fabrics look like against other materials or trims. Hopefully, this leads to fewer panic attacks in craft stores in the future. There's something about having so many options in craft stores that can overwhelm my brain with too many ideas at once. It just goes into overdrive and I panic buy something I don't always need just to get out of there. Especially when there's a stupid good sale and everyone is fighting for heavily discounted fabric. And while this is one of my favorite tweets of all time, I do want to avoid public outbursts. 

I've rambled on quite a bit so I will leave you here. As soon as I have pictures of my costume bible and newly organized sewing space, I'll post them so you can see the finished product. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you aren't sweaty! 

-Rachel