Well my decluttering continues…

Day 5 was patterns, it took quite a while! I did have rather a lot, some many years old! I found one that was size 6,7,8! It’s definitely a LONG time since I was a size 8! I went through them all pulling out the ones I’ve never used and looking to see if realistically I was going to make them. I also pulled out ones I wasn’t happy with for whatever reason. I ended up with quite a few that were surplus to requirements, many were freebies off magazines or off swop tables at meet-ups. I’ve a pile for the charity shop and a pile for the bin.

I’ve got three little plastic baskets and one wicker box for my patterns at the moment. I’ve tried before to sort them into type, like all skirts together and so on, but so many have different garments in one pattern it wasn’t totally successful. I decided this time to sort them into make or designer. So I have a basket of Vogue patterns, the other two plastic tubs have patterns from the big companies such as Style, or Newlook. I then put all my independent designer patterns together in the wicker box, it’s looking much more organised.

I also subscribed to the Stash Hub app, I discovered this app a few months ago, initially it was free whilst they tweaked the website, it’s now about £3 a month once you go over a photograph limit, which I obviously did fairly quickly! Stash hub is an app for recording patterns, fabric, any plans for future projects. I’ve uploaded photos for each of my patterns, one of the front and one of the back. You can enter what garments are included, type and amount of fabric, notions alteration, issues etc. What I like is that I can now search for say skirt patterns and scroll down to chose one, rather than getting out all my pattern baskets. It also means if I’m out shopping and spot some material I fancy, I can check what a pattern requires.

The fabric listing includes amount, type of fabric, colour etc, you can also link a pattern and a length of fabric for future projects, I’ve only just started to upload my fabric stash, there’s also a scary button you can press to see your total stash in metres…maybe that’s not a good idea!

I’ve also bought two new flappy bins, one in pale green and a grey one, these replace my big round one which everything got thrown. I’m now trying to separate my recyling stuff striaght away. green is for paper etc, grey is for scraps for fabric to be sold by a charity shop as rags.

Day 6 was archives, such as stuff you keep from an old project, I don’t tend to keep that kind of sewing archive, I use this blog to jog my memory regarding patterns etc, so an easy day for me…and day 7 was a day of rest 🙂

The next challenge is scissors and snips. I have to confess to a weak spot for pretty embroidery scissors, I have rather a lot so this could take a while!

I also counted up my embroidery hoops..I’ve got about 25!!! All various sizes from 3″ to 24″, I’m just trying to work out the optmum number of hoops I require!

In the meantime I’ve had a big move round in my sewing room today. Here in the UK we have a bit of an energy crisis with prices for electricity and gas rocketing, so everyone is turning the heating down and trying to use as little power as possible. I was fed up with being cold in my sewing room and my OH pointed out that with my sewing desk in front of the radiator any heat was being blocked. I worked out a layout that would leave my radiator clear and today I started tackling it. This was my sewing room as I started the declutter challenge…

As you can see it’s a straightforward plan with just two rows either side for my sewing machine, cutting out and ironing area etc. The radiator is under my pinboard.

I’ve moved everything to an E shape, it’s not perfect as I’ve lost my long stretch for cutting out dressmaking projects, but there’s always the table downstairs!

This is my rooms at the moment…

My OH rather rashly said I could always move it back when it warms up…not with the effort it takes!