subject: Creating Fabric Banners [print this page] Ways to make space to accommodate fabric banners.
Since you've jumped into the wonder of sewing fabric church banners, one needs an orderly way to store the materials and supplies! Organize a sewing area that will help you! Being able to locate your items will help make your time of construction more productive and enjoyable. Not all of us have space to create a separate room for sewing, but hopefully these tips for sewing room organization will encourage you on your way to accomplishment in your projects!
I recommend finding an empty closet that one can organize the fabrics and supplies in.
Locate and use a cardboard barrel to keep yardsticks, dowel rods, and drapery rods. A matt board can be kept upright beside the barrel.
Use a 2 drawer file cabinet for banner patterns stored in zip type baggies, insert a finished picture into the bag for quick recognition.
Use a minimum of 2 sizes of small storage trays with multiple drawers to place on top of your filing cabinet. Use the smaller one for machine needles, tape measure, pins, and other small size items. Use the larger one for rotary cutters, quick bias, paper scissors, and such. A carpenter's tool box or a fisherman's tackle box are also great, handy possiblities. Attach finish nails on the back wall of the close to hang various squares, quilting templates, and rulers.
Closet shelves make a great location for storing fabrics on bolts or rolls and will be protected from sunlight and fading when the door is shut.
A short stool, stored in the closet, is also a handy item to help you to get a "distant" look at the fabric banners and make sure your work is perfect before you finish a project.
The work center needs a sound, sturdy work table. Depending on your height, a sturdy table needs to be from twenty eight to thirty six inches in height. To get a budget friendly one, make your own table top, using a sheet of 4 x 8' plywood, and then adding 2 layers of cardboard onto the top. Now, you'll need to add a 100% cotton mattress pad on top of the cardboard, ensuring additional padding. Finish off with a canvas top, secure it by stapling it to the underside of the plywood. You are able to pin into the tabletop easily, quickly, and securely as well as press your full size fabric banners on the table top. Almost any size banner will fit on a table this size. With a 2nd person assisting this table top could be put up and taken down between projects. It's also helpful in the work area to have an ironing board set up to move back and forth between the two as you prepare smaller items which will be added to your larger banner.
Remnants can become the bane of the sewing room! Buy covered, stackable, solid colored totes to make sure that fabrics don't begin fading because of excessive light. Cut a 1" square of fabric, and tape it onto the outside of the bin. These helpful bins store well beneath the work table and permits you to have all the fabric selections right at ones finger tips.
Your machine should be in a nice sewing cabinet or on a good sized table that assists you to keep your sewing room organization. Cover it when not using to get rid of thread fading, dust, and lint.
In addition, keep your bobbins, as well as threads, on racks close to the machine, preferably on peg board and out of direct sunlight.
If there is any extra wall space in your sewing room, turn a wall into a flannel board! Drape a large piece of flannel, ceiling to floor, best if it is a solid, neutral color. You can lay designs and fabrics on it for a "distant" view of the overall effect of designs and color combinations as well as to decide on the fitting proportions when planning your banners.
Fluorescent lights are a great choice for lighting a sewing room and adding to sewing room organization, lighting up handwork and stitches for care and precision. Though carpeting is a nice option for floor covering, I much prefer hardwood or linoleum so that threads, scraps, and pins are not difficult to clean up, helping me organize a sewing room and keep it tidy!
Sewing room organization is crucial to a fruitful endeavor in making fabric banners that are aesthetic in a working space. You'll find yourself on task more and reduce frustration through your newly organized work area.
