January 2, 2019 – Organizing and a few craft/sewing tips

         It is after Christmas and you may have a flotsam of perfume display boxes and plastic blister packs you are tossing out.  Maybe you want to re-think some of that tossing – or at least salvage what is usable.

         I find that once the plastic form section of the elegant perfume display boxes are removed, the hard box – usually pretty or glittery – is well worth keeping around for a project box.   They are substantial and can take years of use. The small ones are excellent for beading projects where you need to keep those little beads together as you work on your project.

         The midsize ones are good for small embroidery projects – I use them for keeping all the crewel yarn and heart shaped felt pieces neat and clean as I hand embellish them with designs then fill them with lavender buds to make lavender sachets.   I give these as gifts to dear friends – what woman doesn’t enjoy the smell of lavender in a bit of a heart with some hand embroidered whimsy to shove in their lingerie drawer.

         In fact, last weekend after Christmas I dug through my craft supplies in search of the last of my lavender buds to make sachets.  After those, I then turned my attention to making sachets out of the rest of the balsam pine [ground bark] for men with that wonderful pine sent.  Now, I have ready hostess gifts or little gifts for those days when someone is lower than a snail’s belly and needs a gift for no reason.  See, I am finishing up or using up my supplies – one of my New Year’s resolutions.

         Now those blister packs – that plastic that is so difficult to cut off items.  If you have flat pieces and you embroider . . . cut the rough edges off and keep a small supply on hand in one of those nice boxes.  They are clear and you can put them over a design, easily trace it, then punch holes through the plastic at strategic points with a small nail or awl in order to copy a design.  Once you’ve copied the design you can place the plastic over your material and with a fine tipped pen make little dots that will later be covered with embroidery.  You can use them for years unlike cardboard or tracing paper.  Very doable for any age.

         Lastly, the button box. Many years ago when Tanner Corporation was in business– a high end fashion design house that manufactured fine women’s clothing here in the county [now out of business] - they had a remnant shop.  Trust me; it was like a candy store to a seamstress like myself.  Back in the 1980s I made fifty percent of my dresses and suits.  How could I not with the quality fabric like merino wool jersey or silk de chine available at pennies-on-the-dollar pricing?  One year for Christmas, I bought all my sewing friends a one-pound bag of Tanner’s assorted classy buttons and sent them as gifts.  I keep mine in a fancy cookie tin and have been adding to it over the years.

         I am also the type to keep every one of those little buttons in those little zip lock bags that come with your quality clothes.  First, they get shuffled from the jewelry drawer to the sewing box.  Well, today I fished all those little zip lock bags out of my sewing box clutter and cut all of the buttons out of the plastic bags, put them in an empty mint tin, and snapped it shut.  I tossed that mint tin on the top of my hoard of buttons and snapped on the lid.  They are now segregated, but still easily accessible and take up a fraction of the space.

         Two tubs of sewing gear organized and straightened into one Tub giving me a perfect container to store my treasured 12-inch tall Nut Crackers which usually summered in a book cupboard – but I need that now for books.

         One other thing, when you see those glittery shoestrings in the dollar store and think they are cute – keep in mind – they make wonderful garland on a Christmas tree – You get two 54 inch laces – that makes them 50 cents for each.  Cute, cute, cute on little trees for low, low cost.  I have cobalt blue glitter garland on my little trees – makes a statement.

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         While I was making pine balsam sachets my husband wanted to know, “Those going to the church or what?”

         “No, they are for us.”  I tossed one to him calling,

         “Quality Control,” and smiled at my retired plant manager adding, “they have balsam pine bark in them – for men’s sock drawers.”

         “You should give some of these to Father Burke, he’d like them.”  It was Christmas Eve – and we had a gift bag waiting to go to church for our local Priest.

         [My husband always does this – gives away things I make as if they can be plucked off the sidewalk like a stray leaf.]  Once he gave away two jars of fancy ginger pickles when a friend dropped in for a visit – they were cooling on the countertop as they had just been taken out of the hot water bath – eight half pints in fancy jars. He grabbed two of them and handed them to his friend.  I made an audible gasp – but didn’t make a stink – because I am supposed to be gracious . . . . but my mind said, “A lot of work went into those pickles and you don’t give them away to any Tom, Dick or Harry, without asking my permission . . . . I let it go – but I remember that incident as if it was yesterday . . . with the air conditioning on the blink and me sweltering in the kitchen. I remember brushing back the wisps of hair from my sweaty face when the guest arrived . . . .

          . . . . back to the present . . . I threw caution to the wind and wrapped a few heart shaped pine sachets in tissue paper and tucked them in the top of the gift bag – with an explanatory note of what they were and what they would be used for.  I bet he raised his eyebrows when he opened that package – embroidered HEARTS being given to a Priest- might be considered shocking in polite circles.

         As I have done for years, when I finish a sachet I toss it at my husband who is watching TV for him to sniff it and then set it aside.  I let him admire my handiwork.

         The next afternoon he asked,

         “Are these all for me,” as he sniffed the latest sachet and piled it with the others on the end table.

         I paused at first, as that was not my intention.  But, then I gave in and said,

        
         “Sure, go on – put them in your drawers.” Instantly, he grabbed the bounty and went off to his bedroom and came back and announced, I’ve got them in all my bureau drawers  . . . .

         “I need two more.”  He said matter-of-factly and this little sachet manufacturer took care of his wishes.

         The picture below is what is left of the end of the pine balsam sachets I had intended for little gifts this coming year.  I’ll have to order in more supplies. [I will add picture later. I'm not sure why my pictures won’t come through.]

Happy crafting to you during these cold dreary winter days.