The Sewing Room

Where there are many children this need is all the greater.  The sewing room is not necessarily a large room, but it is important that there be good light so that the eyesight may not suffer.

If possible the sewing room should be provided with closets.  One of these should be filled with shelves on which to place boxes of various sizes, small boxes on the upper shelves, and large boxes on the lower ones.

Closets with Shelves

A good sewing room closet may be devised as follows:  have one broad top shelf which holds a collection of strong boxes, such as shirt, hat, suit, collar, and shoe boxes, as receptacles for all the hundred-and-one things employed in sewing.

A light framework may be formed of a few pieces of wood so arranged as to support the upper boxes, permitting the lower ones to be withdrawn easily.  One box should contain white hooks and eyes and another black ones.  Buttons may be put in another small box.  Colored sewing silks should have a separate box from buttonhole twist, and the various spools of black, white, and colored thread should have a box by themselves.

Other boxes should be labeled for lace, embroidery, white goods, remnants, canvas, bones and casings, shields, linings, velvets, silks, etc.  Have for the lace box a large box labeled “laces,” within which are several smaller ones labeled edging, Honiton, motifs, insertion, beading, etc.

The button box may also contain a collection of smaller boxes, each holding sets of buttons, with one button fastened to the cover, to indicate its contents.  This plan will prove a great time-saver to anyone in the family who sews or mends.

In this closet a box containing shoe buttons, cords, thread, needles, should also find its place.

Shopping List

When any item is “out” it should be immediately put on the shopping list.  A pad for this purpose tacked to the closet door, with pencil attached, will prove a great convenience.  When the shopper of the family goes to the city, her list is then always ready.

Darning Cotton and Needles

A convenient receptacle for various colored darning cottons, darning needles, mending balls and so on is a suitable box.  It is a good idea also to drop a cheap thimble into the darning box.

Closet for Unfinished Garments

A second closet is desirable in the sewing room, which should be provided with hooks on which to hang various dresses, coats, and other articles during their construction.  If it is possible to provide the room with a bureau or chest of drawers, it will be found a most convenient receptacle for all the little rolls of left-over material that are of great value on mending day.

Bureau in the Sewing Room

If the family is not large, each member may have his or her own “piece drawer.”  Should the family be very large and the number of drawers insufficient, bags of outing flannel, cretonne, or similar material may be provided as a supplement, showing the name of each person on the outside, and these may be hung below the shelves in the closet.

An Economical Closet

If necessary a closet may be constructed in the sewing room by nailing shelves to the wall in one corner over which a curtain may be hung.  A second closet may be made by nailing to the wall a strip of wood bearing hooks, upon which to hang unfinished garments.  A curtain may also be used to protect these.

Or, instead of shelves built in the corner, a large dry-goods box may be fitted with shelves, and the top and sides covered with colored oilcloth.  Place a rod across the front from which may hang a curtain of flowered silkoline or any other preferred material to hide the accumulation of sewing.

The articles to be repaired should be placed on one shelf, the material to be made up on another, and the sewing basket and various boxes on a third shelf.

If the sewing room closet is arranged according to the above suggestions it is always possible to find the needed scrap of lace, silk, or dress furnishing upon a moment’s notice.