What's the Point?

This box make me inextricably happy.



Sewing needle organization!



I had one of those tomato pincushions full of hand sewing needles. I'd go to it each time I needed to sew on a button or hem some pants or tack down a facing. But I was starting to go mildly insane each time I had to pick the proper needle for the job at hand. Over the decades - honestly decades, not years - this pincushion filled up with needles of all sizes.

Dramatization. Mine was much much much worse.
I forgot to take a "before" picture.

The smaller, more useful needles would sink all the way into the depths of the pincushion. Most of the needles that were left were longer, thicker needles that simply weren't right for the job. I even got to the point of simply buying new needles in the sizes I need more often. But the environmentalist in me had trouble with the idea of throwing away perfectly good needles. A little nuts, right? I mean ... they're only sewing needles!

So I found this sewing needle size chart online:

I took my pincushion and matched each needle up with the chart by type of needle and by size. I was even able to push those small needles buried deep in the pincushion back out into the light of day ... with only a few poked fingers. Honestly, my system is even more organized than the new batch of needles I bought because mine are sorted by numerical size; the new cards are not. They are only sorted visually. This makes my pea-pickin' heart so happy!

Rectangles of felt were stapled to 3" x 5" index cards. Each card was labeled by type and size of needle. Needles are easily held in place by the craft felt.



Machine needles also found a home. Since they are already packaged by size and type, I trimmed some tiny plastic bags in a way that I could stable the bag to the card, and the sewing machine needles slip upright into the bags. Sewing machine needles in their original packaging found a home behind the sewing machine needles attached to the 3" x 5" cards.



I have some vintage packets of needles that belonged to my mom and my grandmother! The old packaging is beautiful. I adore the graphics. So I kept them, tucking them behind the sewing needles.

I kept the needle sizing chart, too, for future reference. I folded it and tucked it behind the vintage needle cards.

Finally I made extra 3" x 5" cards to hold future random needles, and some extra dividers. I tucked these along the side of the box.



Now. Just. Look. At. This. Object. Of. Organization. And. Beauty!



As a bonus, all the materials for this project were items I had on hand -- the box (from Christmas 5 years ago), the 3" x 5" cards, the pink cardstock from leftover from our wedding invitations (28 years ago!), the gold craft felt (from at least 35 years ago), the markers for making the labels, the tiny plastic bags, the staples, and of course, the needles. I did toss any bent, dull (more poked fingers), or rusty needles. So along with my great organization project, I also was able to whittle a little.

Win/win!

No.

Win/win/win/win/win/win/win/win ...


Many, many thanks to my daughter Jeanne who helped me with this project. We enjoyed playing in my Studio that day. When I was stuck for ideas, she helped me brainstorm ways we could make this project viable.