Spruce Upholstery Tip: Organizing Your Workspace

A clean and organized workspace makes an efficient one. I have to take breaks throughout the day to tidy my area and gather all of my hand tools that mysteriously walk off. As you might imagine, there are many tools and materials I use throughout the day, so it would be unfair for me to expect to stay perfectly organized. However, I have a few basic ideas you can use to make organization a little easier.

sewing machine pin cushion

This pincushion can be made in a snap with a small scrap of fabric. The best part about this invention is it’s attached to the sewing machine, which frees up space on the sewing table. It will also prevent you from accidentally walking away with the pin cushion and leaving it elsewhere. As you can see, we sewed a cuff and then wedged a little chunk of foam behind it. Genius!

cardboard tackstrip holder1Here is one of Frank’s clever creations. After becoming frustrated with the cardboard tack strip unraveling and causing visual chaos, Frank invented this custom pouch that fits a full roll of cardboard tack strip with an opening to feed through the loose end. I didn’t realize how much we needed this until he made one. Very practical!

curved needle holder
Tufting needles and curved needles are much longer than the average sewing needles; therefore, a grander pin cushion is in order. Using scrap fabric and soft Dacron, we created a nice big pouf to hang at Frank’s workstation. Now, we have plenty of room for all of our large needles, and they are easily accessible.

As you can see, you don’t need to have a fancy work station with lots of bells and whistles. Just channel your inner MacGyver (or Frank) and create something special that will make getting through projects a little bit easier. Let us know if you have any creative organizing creations, and share them with us in the comments section!