Thread Cabinet and Family Fun

At one point yesterday the entire family was busy in the sewing room.

 G was bored and wanted something to do, so I set him to work.  First I had him cut up some old sweaters I had felted, then had him cutting old t-shirts so that I can use the pieces for other projects. 

Meanwhile, I was cutting up foam board, attempting to make drawer liners for my thread and bead cabinet.

As you can see from the photo, that first tray was a little rough.

 I have an antique chest of drawers I use for storing thread, beads, belt buckles and similar things.  I picked it up years ago at a second hand store and although I love it, the bottoms of the drawers are splitting and bowed with age.  Things fall through.  It occurred to me that I could just line the drawers with foam board and this would solve the problem.  Not only that, I realized that although I had been storing thread in a single layer in the drawers, I could actually use the foam board to make two trays, and store two layers of thread in each drawer, doubling my storage capacity.  This is useful because I had a few bags of thread sitting around on the floor, thread my mom generously sent me, waiting for me to find storage space.

While I was measuring, cutting, and creating the thread storage trays, you can see that Moisés was busy helping me sort the thread into piles by color.

 I only purchased three foam boards because I wasn't really sure how well my plan would work out.  One board almost makes two thread trays.  More exactly it makes two bottom pieces, four long side pieces, and three short side pieces.   I made trays for two drawers, and succeeded in storing most of my basic spools of sewing thread in these drawers, sorted by color.  Polyester and cotton threads are mixed in the same drawer.  Although I have grouped similar colors together, I have not yet sorted each drawer in any orderly fashion.  I might do that someday, if not putting them in a strict sequence, at least just putting spools of the same color next to each other.

 I need to pick up more foam board to finish the project.  I need one more drawer to hold the larger spools of Mettler thread, and also to hold top stitching thread and buttonhole twist, which are not mixed in with regular sewing thread.  Silk thread and embroidery thread get their own drawers. 

The top two drawers hold cones of Metrosene thread for the serger.  These fit in a single layer in each drawer.  Belt buckles, beads, and a few things (belts and necklaces) that need repair are in the lower drawers.

I think this plan is working well and it will be much easier to find the appropriate thread now as I will no longer have to sort through bags and boxes.  If I put multiple spools of the same color together, it will also be fairly easy to see when I am missing or low on important colors and to replace them as needed.