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Friday, November 5, 2010

Project Organization: Color Coded Sewing Machine Needles


It seems like it is all I can do to keep my house tidy and clean.  When it comes to keeping my craft supplies and closet clean I am a complete failure.  Over the past few months I have been trying to find little ways to organize my craft life.  One little thing that I did was color code my sewing machine needles.


I know that some brands of machine needles have different colors of bands at the base of the needle shaft (singer), but the particular brand of needles that I use do not.  I decided that it would be rather helpful if I could keep identify what kind of machine needle in my sewing machine when I went to sew.   By doing so I can very quickly identify whether or not I need to switch out my needles (without having to closely examine each point).


To color code my needles I simply collected the nail polish that I had on hand, added a small dab at the base of each needle, and one to the corresponding case.  Now each type of needle (universal, ball point, leather, heavy duty, ect.) has it's own color marking. It would have been  great if I had access to my nail polish collection from 1995, then maybe I could use blue, green, orange, and purple instead of three different shades of reddish pinks. None the less I have found it helpful.

What organization techniques do you use with your craft area and supplies?

I'll be partying here.

7 comments:

Fitria A (Griya Hobi) said...

genius idea tricia

Emily said...

Great idea!

I don't have any great tips yet- just your standard and practical clear lidded storage containers. They look as crazy from the outside as they are on the inside but it's so much easier to see which one to open, rather than blindly digging through a bunch of them. :)

Jess@craftiness is not optional said...

That is an AWESOME tip. I don't know how many times I've looked at a needle wondering what size it was! hehe. I'm with you on the nail polish too-I'll have to borrow some from my 13 year old sister. ;)

Natalie said...

I'm convinced you don't sleep. Feel free to come to my house any day to help me organize and be creative :)

Unknown said...

Oh, so smart! I am not organized on many levels... but I did recently repurpose the plastic tray from my Oreos to be a drawer organizer in my sewing desk. I felt pretty creative and green. :)

Ms Muffin said...

Oh, I am LOVING this tip. Seriously! Especially since there seems to be no noticable difference between jersey and regular needles apart from the rounder tip ... like I am able to tell from just looking at that needle ... *sigh*
I am definitely doing this! And I even have some old nail polish that I was going to throw out. Lucky me I did not do it yet! :-)

Mindy said...

So easy that I am slapping my head saying, DUH, to myself. Great idea! I can't read the numbers on the little needles, even with two pairs of reading glasses, so this is a great idea. DUH, DUH, DUH. I guess the best ideas are the ones so simple nobody else thinks of them. :) Way to go!