August 10, 2018

Organizing Buttons and Trims

Welcome to Week 5! This blog hop has been so much fun for me. I’ve gotten so many great ideas from the other designers as I’ve read through their posts. I’m so grateful that I was invited to participate. I hope you have been enjoying the journey as much as I have 🙂 Week 5 is all about Trims: Buttons, Lace, and Trims of all manner.

Being more of a garment sewist, trims and buttons are not only an obsession, but they are completely necessary to my art.

Trims and embellishments are just as important to me as the fabric. I have just as many trims as I do fabrics in my stash. I admit spending more time on choosing just the right embellishment than I do on choosing the fabric. I tire easily of the common trims found in big box stores and will make a special trip up to Portland for embellishment shopping. I also don’t mind spending extra money on trims and shipping, so I can achieve the design I have in my head.

These 2 new designs from my latest book, Doll Dress Boutique came together in that way. The pink dress on the left, Ruffles and Lace Dress pattern, I purchased specifically for this project. I ordered it from Japan.

The dress on the right, Tea Party Dress, has a vintage lace I found at a small antique shop by chance while on a road trip for my son’s soccer. I sometimes wonder while the warm-ups are going on (about an hour). I happened upon this hole in the wall style antique shop, with some fascinating things. I meandered in there while waiting for my son’s soccer game to start and found some really sweet sewing things, wooden Coats and Clark spools (doll size!) and several pieces of vintage lace. Small pieces…1-2 yards each.

Gently handwashed and hung up to dry, they were neatly folded and placed into my special lace drawer, waiting until I knew what they would become. Well, this is what one of them became! I can’t wait to see it in print when my advanced copy arrives.

Patterns from Doll Dress Boutique book Party Dress Chapter Ruffles and Lace & Tea Party Dress

So how to deal with the abundance of gorgeous trims and embellishments? Well first, I have levels of quality or uniqueness, so I organize them that way. [This seems to be a theme to my organization.] And type of embellishment.

I have a small storage boxes for all my generic notions that can also be used to embellish, such as bias tape and piping (Wrights brand). And I admit, I don’t care too much how these trims get treated. Here is my Rick Rack Bin of Shame.

I may someday care enough to sort through and tidy those bins up. Probably not.

But for my other level of supplies…the good stuff, I have very specific ways to keep them nice and easily see what I have when I’m sewing and designing.

Buttons…can you have too many buttons? Of course not! [and if you feel you do have too many, I am always open to adopting your unwanted buttons]

I have more of a button collection. I know I will never use all these buttons, but I love to collect them.

I think if I become a grandma someday, I will put all my “plain, but colorful” buttons into a bucket for the grandkids to play with–dig or sort through or what not. A sewing room sensory activity. Or could it be therapeutic? My daughter loved to do this at a local shop when she was younger. We both loved to scoop the buttons up and let them fall through a fingers — the way one does with sand at the beach. I think when I’m too old to sew, I will join them!

Okay back to how I “deal” with them. I like to place them by color in decorative jars and keep them on display in my studio. They inspire me and add beauty to my space.

When I’m in the mood, I sort my buttons. [Think: Dewey and the old woman episode from Malcolm in the Middle] I love to see the unique ones. I pull those out sometimes and sort into little zip top bags by color. I also try to find matches and add those to the little bags.

Sometimes, I order small buttons in larger quantities– I do giveaways and prizes with my facebook sewing group and I like to include buttons and trims with fabric for the prizes. Mostly doll size buttons go in these prizes. If they come in a nice bag, I’ll just keep them there.

And put into a larger button container that I call the big mess of buttons. I toss random, loose buttons in this and it has grown.

It was a chinchilla dust bath container and has a grippy side–perfect for dumping out on a table.

For special buttons that I have in mind to use, I keep them in separate places. My Kwik Sew mug is a place for button cards–buttons that are more likely to be used in a doll dress or garment for myself or my kids.

You can see in the clear container, I have more buttons…they’re everywhere. #ButtonLove

And no sewing room would be complete without a cookie tin full of something other than cookies [right?] …. so I give you: the “buttons in the old cookie tin trick”

These are the buttons we use in my sewing classes. The kids can look through and find a button for their project. Good times!

As mentioned, many of my trims are classified into level of quality. I have buckets of trims (ribbons, lace, etc) that are more common and less expensive that I use in the sewing classroom. I keep my special trims, lace, and ribbons in a drawers.

When I buy lace or trims, I usually buy 10 yards of each, even when I have no specific project in mind. When you sew children’s or women’s clothing, you need several yards per project. But this can take up a lot of space AND easily become a trim clutter nightmare.

When a Lace comes in the mail like this:

I’m fine.

When it come home from the store like this:

I’m also good to go.

But when it comes to live with me looking like this:

There’s a problem.

For Cluny Lace:

If it’s wide enough, it can be rolled in a flat bundle like shown above. I put a clear elastic band or tie it in the middle for storage.

I have some on empty spools, but I can usually get only a yard on there without having issues. My solution: I repurpose the cardboard that the Wrights trims (Bias Tape, Seam Binding Tape, and Rick Rack) and loosely wrap the lace onto it without stretching it.

Then into the drawer for easy access and visibility.

I write the fiber content onto the cardboard. I rarely buy any synthetic lace, but just in case 😉 This size could also be placed into a table top make-up organizer:

For cotton Broderie Anglaise (aka eyelet lace), I repurpose these plastic things that twill tape and other trims come on. Yes, I buy the whole thing when I buy twill tape. We use it in my kids sewing classes.

At my JoAnn’s, they will give you them if you ask. Just ask if they have any emptied ones at the cutting counter. I can stack them inside the drawers.

Only 2 stacked fit in this drawer, but I like to have shallow drawers, so the supplies are easy to see at first glance.

If I had deep drawers, then I would jam them full and it would take a long time to look through and find what I need. Knowing me, I would also not keep the drawer tidy and it would become a drawer of shame (see Rick Rack Bin of Shame above).

I like to have a supply these on hand for when my lace and trim orders from overseas come. I have about 80+ yards on the way from South Korea right now. #LaceObsessed

Wide lace is easy to fold neatly. Here they are tidy in their own drawers — I have too many to fit in just one drawer. I have 4 drawers full. I better get sewing 🙂

Ribbons are wound up neatly and kept in a separate drawer as well. I can unwind what I need and cut a piece without taking them out of the drawer.

That’s a little peek into my obsession with buttons and trims. It was so fun to write this post. ♥

I’m feeling so zen right now. How about a small giveaway?

Pin any photo from this blog post on Pinterest and leave a comment with the link for your chance to win my Woodland Critters Quilt Pattern (your choice of paper or PDF version ) AND my Fiona Fox Doll Dress pattern (PDF).

For a second entry: share this post on Instagram and tag: @AveryLaneSewing !

Last day to pin a photo & comment, and share on Instagram to enter is August 19. I will announce the winner here on the blog Monday, August 20th. Good luck!

Happy Sewing!
~Erin

Other give aways this week:

Tamarinis, Canton Village Quilt Works, Desert Bloom Quilting, and Poor House Quilt Design are giving away some awesome Aurifil thread

Cherry Blossoms Quilting is giving away some Basal batting and products to 2 lucky readers

Cranberry Pie Designs has a lovely prize she is giving away at the end of the blog hop full of some really fun sewing stuff, including a free pdf pattern

And of course, don’t forget those amazing Grand Prizes (enter at the Cherry Blossoms Quilting Blog)