Suitcases and sewing boxes.
Hello! I'm in a great mood because everything in my portion of the house has been cleaned and de-cluttered to within an inch of its life. Phew. Our new craft room storage/workspace unit has arrived along with two uber cool white stools, and I've moved my very comfy couch in there too, so the room is just lovely to be in and work in. Everything has been categorised properly too so I know exactly where it all is. I've also created a packaging station which will be really useful.
While cleaning I found this old little sewing box which had a not-so-pretty floral fabric on the top and yucky hot pink corduroy lining (complete with bows!). I thought the shape and the woven sides were very cute though so I decided to recover it on top and insides. I'm quite pleased with it and it now houses a variety of special little buttons and beads and bits and bobs.
I used a yummy button print from Superbuzzy on the top, I already had this in the cream colourway but the peachy/pink was on sale last time I ordered so I got that too, of course. :) And I sewed the buttons on before I started. I really like re-covering things when all you have to do is push the edges down into the crevice, it's much less fiddly than having to get out the glue. I covered some dodgy plastic edging around the front with some lovely Liberty ribbon sent by Esmerelda.
I really love the big beads that you can see on the tassel, I got them at Spotlight (and I think Big W has them too).
The inside was a little more difficult but with the aid of hot glue, short pins and ribbon it all worked out. I ripped out the hot pink fabric and replaced it with these soft pink cherries cut to size, using the pins as nails (and luckily there was a removable inner base which I wrapped with fabric and then was able to use to set the side edges in place at the bottom). Then I hot glued strips of ribbon over the raw edges at the tops.
I did have a little trouble with it closing properly because the ribbon added a bit of height around the hinges, but I managed to pull off some plastic strip type things from each side before I secured it and now it's much better.
I also haven't shown you the mini suitcases I got for my birthday! I have lusted over mini suitcases for holding craft supplies for a long time, but couldn't justify ordering them from the US because they are too bulky.
FINALLY, finally, I found an Aussie source for them, and they are available online and they use express post. So if any other Aussies have the mini-suitcase-bug, you can find them at Babys Got Style (click on Accessories, 'for the nursery', and they are on page 3 & 4 in all different colours and sizes). This polka dotted lot are actually sold as a set, and I got them after I got my blue/pink/green ones, as I loved them so much.
And for those in the US, Mahar Drygoods has some mini-suitcases too, very cute!
These are the blue/green/pink ones I got for my birthday (L, M, S), so delicious!
I also finally organised my trim, below. I cut strips of cardboard and then wrapped each trim around and secured with a pin, then I lined them all up in the biggest red suitcase, with big rolls and flat boxes of larger amounts of trim in a layer underneath. Very handy! This strip above is my favourite, all my Japanese trims (mostly linen), yum.
It was very fun deciding what to put in each container. I ended up with the pink holding zips, the green as a hand-sewing/planning and crochet on-the-go container, blue is holding felt scraps, and then the red set holds trim, textile supplies and tools, pens and pencils and white vintage buttons.
Anyhoo, now that I have a tidy workspace, must get to making some pincushions! x
































































