Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Still Organizing after all these years

I have been designing and sewing as a business since 2006. You would think I was organized by now. But it is a never ending process. I feel like I am finally finding what will work for me. You will be glad to know that my fabric library was free for me to make, it just takes time. For quite a while I kept all of my fabric in bins, organized by color. That required digging for fabric, and it was usually a bit of a mess, but at least I knew it was there. I used what I had sometimes and only ordered something I already had a few times. When I moved the studio out of the house, I took the fabric out of the bins and had it in color arranged piles on a rack. I used what I had more frequently, never re-ordered what I did not need, but it would still get messy.  Now that I am back in the house, I dedicated a small office (10 feet square) to fabric and supplies. Since I have so much fabric, It is my goal to use more than I buy this year. For the last week, I have been getting empty bolts from JoAnn's, cutting them in half and wrapping my fabrics onto them. Mom came for a visit and helped me get started - it really does help me a lot to have a helper. Looking for an intern right now. This is how I want to keep it, always. So far, I have not bought any new fabric to make multiple versions of my newest pattern and I love every one of them. I am carrying the purple one now.  So I did buy new fabric Ari picked some up at IKEA for me and I got in some oil cloth (waxed cotton) to make my new sling back pack bag in a mens version - but the finished bags, 4 of them so far and 2 more on the table, are all done with fabrics I already had. One of the oil cloths is truly purple and that is going to be fantastic. This one shown with the bag face and a flap over the phone pocket is supposed to be red. I can see that it is going to get more red as it ages, so that is going to be cool. I may have to break-in the waxed canvas versions by using them some before I sell them. I cannot tell you how much I love this new bag, it is my favorite casual bag ever. I am moving out of my tablet wristlet in favor of this sling bag. The pattern is up at Etsy and Craftsy. I usually carry it on my shoulder, like a regular shoulder bag. Honestly, a lot of the time, just by the top handle too. It is nice to have the cross body option for having it on a hike or while traveling. Some of my favorite sewists have already got the pattern and I am looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

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