How to Organize a Sewing Station

Clear off your sewing station of all items and set these items to the side. You will need to start with a blank slate before you can decide what organization system works best for you.

Gather up all of your materials (threads, needles, fabrics—everything) and divide into categories. Put together all of your buttons, all of your spools, bobbins, seam rippers, and more. This will help you really see what is taking up space in your sewing station and where you can really cut out the excess.

Keep what you need, throw away what you don’t. For example, scrap material is great, but as a general rule don’t keep anything less than 3-inches-wide. Generally, you will not have too much use for these little pieces of fabric.

Arrange all of your spools of thread onto a spool rack. You can arrange these spools in order of color, most often used, amount left, or any other way that works best for you. Put this spool rack in your sewing station as it will most likely be a constant fixture when you work.

Arrange your fabrics. You can use clear plastic bins for larger pieces of fabric, or small plastic bags for smaller pieces of fabric. Like your thread, you can separate your fabric by color, material, amount left, or most often used.

Separate all of your small tools by use. Gather together your seam rippers, scissors, needles and bobbins. You can either put these in individual plastic bags, or a notion container. Be sure that the bin is separated into sections.

Arrange your containers around your sewing station in a way that will work best for you. It might be a good idea to keep your pin cushion, your scissors, one seam ripper, and one empty bobbin handy. This way you will not need to go rummaging through storage containers in the middle of a project.