Polar Notion Fabric Board Giveaway

When it comes to fabric storage, I love organization and neatness. Nothing worse than shoving your beautiful fabrics in a bin or closet where you have to dig through them every time you need something! Last year, after getting sick of doing just that- digging through bins, I decided to make a sewing shelf dedicated to storing my notions and patterns. 

 I knew that I wanted to have mini "fabric bolts" to store my fabric on and at the time, the only thing I could find that would work were cardboard comic book boards. They worked alright, but since they are made of cardboard, you can imagine that they aren't very sturdy and bend easily- especially if I have more than a yard of fabric on the board/bolt. 

A couple weeks ago, I was contacted by one of my favorite shops- PaperPieces.com and they wondered if I wanted to try out Polar Notion Boards. 

I was intrigued so I said "yes" and they sent me one 10 pack of the plastic boards to try out. I was skeptical at first because my boards were working fine, but once they arrived I was sold. They are made of a stiff plastic and the fabric wraps around them so nicely! Not only that, but they are acid free... so they aren't going to damage your fabrics over time. I got the original size and they are just the right size- about the same height as my favorite quilting magazine, so they fit perfectly on a book shelf. They do have smaller sizes though if you are looking for fat quarter size bolts. How cute is that!?! I just love them! I can't wait to order more to replace my bent up cardboard bolts. 

I love how you can go from a pile of unruly fabric to your own personal "fabric shop" of neatly organized fabric bolts. It really is the perfect answer to fabric organization! 

So if you are ready to get organized, right now is the perfect time- all Polar Notions are 20% off until Sunday Nov. 16th. So run over and take advantage of that! You won't be disappointed! :)

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

And SUPER BONUS- They are giving one lucky Mommy by day... Crafter by night reader a 10 pack of either size Polar Notion boards try out!! All you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment with your email and I will choose a winner Tuesday November 18. 

Sewing Storage Ideas

As some of you know, I have very limited space where I live so I don't have a craft room. Up until a couple weeks ago I had all of my sewing supplies/ fabric stored in about 3 different closets/places. It was driving me nuts! I could never find what I was looking for and hated digging through piles and piles of fabric trying to find the right one. 

I got thinking and looking on Pinterest for ideas of how to store sewing supplies and decided to buy a book shelf and display/store my stuff on it. I think sewing supplies are so fun and pretty to display.

I just got an inexpensive white bookshelf from Target that cost me $109. I put about $50 into jars, storage boxes, and knick knacks so my total was under $175. Not to shabby for a cute place to display and catalog my sewing supplies. 

I even dressed up my shelf with some wrapping paper behind the shelves to give it a little subtle pizazz. It is light turquoise and white stripped- you can kinda see it in a couple of the pictures. 

I have the shelf in my bedroom (thank goodness for a loving hubby that lets me do whatever I want with the decor of our room/house). I love waking up each morning and looking at the supplies that I have to work with, and for some reason just seeing my supplies displayed in a pretty way inspires me.

One of the ideas that I decided to implement on my bookshelf was this genius idea by Maggie of Smashed Peas and Carrots to make your own fabric bolts. I used comic book storage boards like she did to wrap my fabric around like a mini fabric bolt. LOVE IT! I think my mini bolts look so darling all lined up like a little rainbow. Plus- having my fabric stored this way I am able to access it so easy and I can "go shopping" in my stash before having to head out to a fabric store for fabric whereas before I was always guessing what I had and didn't have due to my laziness and not wanting to dig through boxes of fabric. 

The next idea of stage came while browsing the isles of Target... I came upon these darling little Ball mason jars. I knew they would be perfect for storing the vintage buttons and thread that I inherited from my grandma.

I picked up some larger Ball Mason Jars at Joanns to store some of my trims like pom poms and rick rack.

Next I headed to one of my favorite stores: Homegoods in search of glass jars with lids to store my pearl cotton balls and other threads. 

One of the fun splurges that I found was at World Market. I fell in love with this darling Stacking Doll Cookie Jar and just had to buy it. I love her! And the fact that she only cost me $12.99 made me love her more. I hid my pairs of scissors and rotary cutters inside here. 

My husbands sweet Grandma Jean gave these vintage stacking dolls to my daughters a couple years ago and I have just never had the perfect place to display them until now. I love them. Love that they were hers, love that they are from my husbands birthplace- Germany (no he isn't German- he's an army brat- minus the brat part:) and I love looking at them everyday.

Another thing I love about the bookshelf idea is that I can line up my sewing books and patterns for easy access too.

(can't wait to sew using these vintage patterns I got from my grandma's sewing stash- man... can you imagine being able to buy sewing patterns for 35 cents these days??)

For storage of my fat quarters and smaller cuts of fabric that wouldn't fit on it's own fabric bolt, I folded them up and stacked them on the shelf. Love how pretty they look- plus they are so easy to access as well.

I am loving being organized!! But I am loving even more being able to SEE my supplies displayed everyday. It is my new favorite place in my house. I find myself just standing in front of my shelf daydreaming of projects... I know... I am weird! ha ha

Stay tuned for next week... I am going to share my Master Bedroom Makeover. I went from bland neutral colors to bold and colorful... I think I have just about every color you see on this shelf incorporated into my room somewhere!! It is so fun and cheery... I can't wait to show you all! :)

Have a great week!

xoxo, Ashley