Sewing Space Re-Model

I haven't done much sewing, but I did work on my sewing space this week. Ever since we got the cats my fabric stash has been under assault. All (okay, most) of my sewing supplies are stored in two re-purposed kitchen islands that we keep in the dining room. Everything used to be hidden under a pretty table cloth, but when the cats fight/play, Athena likes to hide behind the table cloth, on top of the fabric.

But this doesn't end the fighting, oh no. That just means that Artemis attacks her from the other side of the table cloth. Look, they are about five seconds away from an attack here:

The end result is this:

A ruined table cloth. To prevent further damage, I had taken to tucking up the table cloth so that the cats wouldn't fight through it. But that just undermined the entire purpose of the table cloth, which was to hide this:

Sooooo, I had discussed with T. the possibility of buying a storage unit or cabinet or what-have-you to protect my supplies and that wouldn't be something ugly in the dining room. But everything that was not Ikea (or the "big-box Swedish furniture store" as they like to say on French T.V.) was really expensive. And it seemed a waste not to use those perfectly functional kitchen caddies.

I guess reading all of Patty the Snug Bug's redecorating and reorganizing posts finally rubbed off on me because I decided to paint the kitchen caddies (or whatever they are called!) and buy some cute storage boxes.

I knew almost immediately that I wanted to paint them red and I remembered seeing some red and white polka dot boxes at a local store.

Let's watch the paint dry. The paint shade is called Rouge Flamenco:

Of course, by the time I went to the store to buy the boxes, there were none left. Bummer. But I did manage to find some cases at another store. Unfortunately I could only afford two because they were more expensive than the little polka dot boxes, but still less expensive than furniture. So I'll have to go back for more in a month or so, when the coffers are replenished, or I can always hope that the polka dot boxes magically reappear.

The cases:

I think it goes without saying that I can't fit all of my fabric stash into those two cases. So in the mean time, here's the mound of scraps (and cat hair covered fabric waiting to be washed) on my desk:

Oh, and that's some fabric hanging out with the office supplies. And I might have a teensy bit more stored with the sheets. :)

Still, I'm happy with the overall result and once I get more boxes I think it'll be perfect. And it may force me to keep my stash to a minimum. Actually, my fabric stash is much smaller than my yarn stash. But I won't be sharing that today! ;)

Here's the final result:

And here's a close-up on my pattern storage, using the green baskets that I bought a couple of months ago, plus the vintage tins that hold my knitting needles:

Now that my space has had a mini make-over, maybe I'll get to some sewing!