A Fun Way to Organize Craft Supplies


So I’ve been plugging away at the Craft Room Redesign Project. Last we checked in I showed you the Hidden Workstation. I love my DIY pleated curtains, but strangely enough, hiding my craft supplies behind drapes did not magically organize them. I had an inkling that one of my thrifty finds, the file rack that files don’t fit in, could make a great little supply station on my cutting table. So I bought a few cases of mason jars and tackled my supply drawers, which looked like this:

See what they look like now and learn all about my mason jar supply station after the jump, and let us know your craft supply organization tips in the comments, you could win this week’s surprise prize, that Oliver & S Pattern from Fabricworm!

Organizing Craft Supplies with Mason Jars

First I headed over to amazon and bought a case of mason jars for $13.

I tied a little red baker’s twine around each one because I love baker’s twine and also to bring in the red from the re-painted brass coffee table.

On the top shelf I did a jar of pencils, a jar of pens, a jar of tall supplies like tracing wheels and x-acto knives, and a jar of water as a vase for a rose from my garden.

The second shelf has two rows of jars. The back row has things I use often enough to warrant a space on the cutting table, but not everyday, including blades and rollers for my Simplicity Deluxe Rotary Cutting & Embossing Machine.

The front row has things I use very often including tips for my Simplicity Bias Tape Maker, safety pins, and the like.

The bottom shelf has regular pins, clothespins, and button, buttons, buttons. The button jars keep their lids to avoid button spills.

So now my supply station looks like this.

But i wanted to spice it up with a label since it has slats. I printed out some motivational words on cardstock and slipped ’em in.


Now my drawer looks like this. Remember on the lazy quilter post when I said I didn’t have 1/4″ quilting foot? Turns out I do! And remember on the One More Fabric Flower tutorial when I said I didn’t have any hand sewing needles? Turns out I do! I have so much stuff! In this drawer I made sections for snaps, fabric covered buttons, glue sticks, tacks, and a needle compartment.

Then I even had room to store some pretty thread, pliers, and decorative scissors, yay.

I already feel inspired to GET TO WORK!

Are you horrified by the mess that is my life? How do you keep your supplies organized?

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39 Comments

Passionatetraveller

Ive only just started sewing and doing craft. I have all my fat quarters folded and tucked into small rectangles stacked in their colours in a French market basket, my sewing things live in two compartmentised blue sewing boxes, buttons in a nepalise pencil case, flower pins in a yellow jar, my craft supplies in a seagrass basket that folds up and down depending on how much stuff is in it. My fabric vintage stash lives in a dollie covered hemp bag that I made from op shop finds.

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practicalpeaces

Far from being horrified by your mess, I am reassured by the fact that I am not alone. Trying to convince my husband that tidying up my sewing area would quench my creative fire has been an uphill battle. I'll persevere.

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medina family

What a great idea. I have empty jars sitting in a cupboard, and drawers filled like your before shot. I can't wait to organize it! Thanks for this tip! (Love your blog by the way, not sure if I ever commented before, but I have a link to it on my own blog, so I check it often!)

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Erin

Definitely need to tackle a similar project in my home. Every time I look in the bins that hold my sewing supplies I'm afraid the messy tangle of elastic, bias tape, and tape measures is going to reach up and pull me under like that magic vine in Harry Potter that has to be beaten back with fire from a wand. Devil's snare? Yikes!

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Lindsey

Love it! What a fun way to organize! Now I just need some dedicated space so I can organize in a more permanent way….

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Krista

Looks great! That rose is from your very own garden? Jealous! It's beautiful. My own craft supplies are a mess. I try, I really do. But my corner is so small and I keep acquiring more and more "stuff" and it is just all getting piled up and up. Perhaps I should stop ignoring the issue… I do have mason jars in this mess somewhere!

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tracyrosen

er…um…organized? Right now my sewing stuff is on the dining room table (I'm just starting with this sewing gig) and my painting/jewelry/random craftiness supplies are strewn around this here office where I sit at my computer amidst piles of stuff.

Methinks I need to get me some mason jars…

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Alison F.

I use the no slip, 4 slot pant hangers to store my fabric . It hangs flat, each hanger holds about 6 to 8 pieces and I can hang it in the closet leaving more of the shelf space free for other things.

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Bonnie

I love small mason jars for storage! I use them in my kitchen to devide the catch-all stuff, loose change in one, hair accessories (they always come downstairs in the girls hair and end up on the living room floor) etc.

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PumpkinFreckles

PLEASE PUT A WINE CORK ON YOUR XACTO KNIFE!!! I am feeling pain in my fingers just looking at the pictures. Your craft room looks great and I too love you DIY pleated curtains. But please for my sake put something on that exposed blade.

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Morgan

I'm glad my craft drawers aren't the only ones that are messy! Thanks for the tips! I love finding old mason jars to use for storage while antiquing. Love the shelf!

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Jaime

you can rest easy, the lid was off the xacto knife because i had just used it to cut the labels. it was returned right after the picture.

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HarmlessColor

Few things are as functional as mason jars. You can store your standard jams and vegetables, but you can also keep frozen insects from being crushed by falling frozen fruit if your husband happens to be taking an entomology course. You can organize your spices, but you can also keep that undesirably powerful leftover in your refrigerator long enough to not feel guilty about throwing it out…without having future leftovers taste identical!
I love mason jars. I really use them for everything.

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Beth @ Sand To Pearl

I "try" to keep my supplies organized in clear plastic bins. Yes, they are ugly. I need to see though so I can remember what I have, and they have to be the plastic, because it's part of my living room/dinning room (gross, I know, someday when my husband's out of college and actually making money, I get my own craft room, with shelves all over the walls, and a cool vvvmmmmm, vvvmmmm, electronic table for my sewing machine. Ahhh, my dream… someday…)
Oh, and I also have fabric bins, that hide some of my supplies.

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HedgehogandRabbit

I use an old card catalog drawer for trim, ribbon and lace, some fruit baskets for fabric scraps, some milk crates for printed things, shelves for books, fabric and the rest. I have a spool tree that my thread collection is outgrowing. I have kitchen knife magnet strips holding pins and other small metal objects. I have 4 large drawers holding scrapbook paper, clothing to salvage fabric from, felt and stabilizer, and large item "junk". *sigh* Even with all my organization opportunities, it's still not the way I want it.

The spool tree should only be for serger thread. I want a wall mounted thread organizer for my embroidery/sewing thread. I could use organizers for my deeper drawers. I would also like a dedicated spot for my hand embroidery basket and it's overflowing pieces. My serger/light box table should be cleared off of everything else. *sigh (again)* it's a project that NEEDS to happen.

I love the use of Mason jars btw. I use them for my finished journal straps and dedicated buttons. The rest of my buttons are outgrowing an old jewelry box.

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Kristen

I'm currently tackling the craft room re-org. This weekend I did the fabric organizing-wrapping my cottons around comic book boards and standing them up in Popcorn buckets I got at the dollar store. I bought a pack of 100 boards and I'm almost out. I had no idea I had so much cotton. I didn't even tackle the rest of the fabric yet!

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Jamie

Oh I wish I had a craft storage tip to share. My idea of storage is throw it on the table and pray the monkeys can'[t reach it. When the pile gets too big , I put it see through totes. I'm wishing for a craft room in the new house.

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Queen

I'm having moderate success using photo boxes from Michaels (on sale every3 weeks, it seems) for scraps of stabilizer and interfacing, as well as for elastic, zippers, bags, etc. They're opaque to hide mess, and have a nice spot for labels. I have a set in the kitchen for all of my cookie cutters, cupcake liners, sprinkles, and decorating tools as well.

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4mckenzies

OH MY!!! There IS NO organization to my crafting/sewing stuff right now! Our mud room shares it's spot w/ my sewing machine, computer, printer, camera & equipment, & every kid bag/coat & shoe we own! And the room isn't that big to start with! 🙂 Organization is definitely in need in that room! And I love the mason jar idea! Perfect for all the loose paper clips, tacks, & whatnots that have filled my top drawer & baskets in the mud room…

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Debbie - Too Cute Embroidery

I love having lots of goodies but not seeing them all the time. I bought white cabinets off Craig's List (a whole room for $200!) then got two base units of drawers to keep under my cutting table and beyond that I have the rest in the closet. I really could use a larger room for my fabric & embroidery supplies but alas…..maybe someday. I found the rolling plastic Rubbermaid drawer units wonderful for things you need while seated and you can roll them anywhere needed. Another thing I did that I love is to use one of the drawer units to store my hundreds of spools of embroidery thread by colors, one drawer, yellow, blue, green purple and the like…they're dust free, all in one place and so purdy to look at! Jsut found your blog and am loving it. Debbie of Too Cute Embroidery (.net)

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Denise

I use cans (like soup cans) and cover them with fabric or wrapping paper and ribbon to store stuff in. It's supper cute!

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Stephanie

I would say my craft supplies are well contained in my "craft space" but not as organized as I would like. As a side note, you could do a whole blog on nothing but before and after pictures of organization projects and would be in heaven. Just looking at your after pictures gave me some inner Zen!

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jrtruba

Wow – well that definitely puts my shoe box to shame. lol. Guess I should grab some Mason jars and get to organizing.

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Shelley

Organized…well I was at my apartment in my crafty corner. Now we have a house and I have a bigger crafty space. Yea! I have not unpacked everything yet and I think I'm overwhelmed what to do with the space. I scrapbook and just got back into sewing. Your mason jars and shelf have inspired me! Thanks. Now off to organize while the baby takes her nap.

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Mrgbean

I have seen several online tutorials for fabric boxes with stiff interfacing to make them stand up. This has been on my To-Make list for quite some time as I think it would be a stylish way to help organize some of the chaotic shelves in my sewing area (and I can make them custom-sized for my space!)

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hungiegungie

I use a super cute teal and purple Caboodle circa '91 (yeah, you heard me) to store anything sharp- small scissors, sewing needles, seam rippers… when I'm not using them. My kids haven't yet figured out how to open it, so I think I'm safe. I said safe. Not stylish 🙂
-Erin

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pieface

I like to keep my stacks messy and chaotic. I feel like someday anthropologists might find my stuff during an archeological dig and it would be just plain mis-leading if it were all cute and organized and not a true reflection of the glorious mess i really am.

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Annie

Oh, you have nothing on my messy crafting supplies. lol I have so many projects started and forgotten, and my stuff is in a few large bins in the costume closet, waiting for the day I can get in there and redo that closet. Currently I am redoing my bedroom clothing closet, which entails making custom shelving from scratch, painting and redoing the flooring. But due to bad weather the painting is on standby so my clothes have been in a pile for almost a month now. lol Oh and that closet also has crafting supplies, as well as the dining room. It's honestly a chaotic mess. So I envy your organization.

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Independence Week: Overwhelmed By Your Stash?

[…] Happy Independence Week!  We are celebrating here at CSI by featuring a few posts about how you can gain “independence” from your crafting stash.  When I talk to fellow crafters about organizing their supplies, the thing I hear more than anything is that they are overwhelmed.  Either they can’t find something, or they have too many choices, or they just don’t know where to start when it comes to organizing their stash. source […]

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Susan Austin

I store my many different needles(yarn, tapistry, sewing, both han & machine, etc in empty seed bead vials. I put them point side up. Mark size or type with Sharpie and then put them in a mason jar. It gets them somewhat organized so I can find what I need and know when I need more of a type.

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