From Spider Hole to Cedar Closet - Getting Things Sewn

Readers,

A carpet remnant and baseboard finished off the cedar closet.

For 73 years the space under our porch was a dark, dank, unfinished space.

But our builder, Daniel, had the nerve to enter the spiders’ den. What a huge improvement!

We partially disassembled 36-inch wide shelving to move it in.

The finished dimensions are about 29 inches deep by 63 inches wide.

Daniel used an inexpensive carpet remnant to finish the floor, and then mitered and glued in the baseboard.

These boxes store big folders of pattern pieces I've traced onto stiff paper from the original fragile tissue. — These boxes store big folders of pattern pieces I’ve traced onto stiff paper from the original fragile tissue.

I wish you could smell the cedar particle-board ceiling. It smells–well, dry and toasty and clean, if those can be smells.

Now it was my pleasant task to decide what to store in my new cedar closet.

A cart used for farmers' market shopping now stores rolls of paper and a pad for ironing. — A cart used for farmers’ market shopping now stores rolls of paper and a pad for ironing.

I had originally thought I’d put my fabrics in there. But then I decided to store things that are bulky (my big boxes of patterns traced onto stiff paper), remnants from home decorating, interfacings and muslins, fabrics for wearable tests, and rolls of paper.

This photo from Martha Stewart living gave me the idea for storing my paper in our cart. — This photo from Martha Stewart Living gave me the idea for storing my paper in our little shopping cart.

(If you’re interested in those storage boxes, go to Demco.com and search for “Poster Storage System.”)

These are all useful but either not needed very often or not sources of inspiration.

Jack and I partially disassembled the metal shelves to move them into the closet. That’s the nice thing about these shelves. If necessary, you could take them apart completely and reassemble them in their new location–unlike a wooden bookcase.

This heavy, unwieldy roll of paper for pattern-transferring is out of the way now.

I had a whole shelf left. I’m putting my buttons there till I have a better idea of how to store and display them easily and cheaply. I haven’t found the perfect button storage solution yet.

The rolls of tracing paper, cellophane and newsprint that had been stowed in a corner are now corralled in a cart I bought at a neighborhood estate sale years ago. There was a Martha Stewart Living article about organizing your workspace that showed a wire cart for posters or paper rolls, which always struck me as a great idea.

Then I thought of our farmers’ market cart. It’s not very sturdy: a wheel has fallen off several times when we’ve hauled produce back to the car. So the cart has been reassigned to light duty holding my paper rolls and a padded surface for ironing.