February Habit Shift - It's All About The Swatches!

First, The Report (on previous Habit Shifts):  Yay Me!   Yes, I continue to do well, and the state of my sewing space is definitely improving!   Habit Shifts to date:

1. I'm still snipping my threads as I sew :)
2. Scissors are faithfully being stored - actually, I put them away on the wall SO much that I'm  sometimes wasting steps mid-project going back to retrieve them!
3. My current-projects-box-for-patterns is a huge success.  All pattern envelopes that are currently being worked on, or under consideration for soon-to-be projects, live in one small box.  (pattern pieces for current projects hang on a rod for instant access)
4. Thread spools and bobbins have a home, and they Go Home right after they've done their duty!  Well....mostly, anyway.  I could be a TAD bit more consistent on this one....
5. And most recently, Fabric is being stored.  This one I achieved by finding a place in another room entirely for certain categories, and I also made space for one more set of drawers for fabric.   Fabric that is being worked on has a space (out in the open, but neatly folded) and fabric that is in the soon-to-be-worked-on planning stages has another space.   I can breathe!

For February:  I promised, after yet another "just what IS this fabric?" question gone unanswered, that I would start a system of labeling fabric for content.   Since I'm on something of a new fabric diet, it just isn't fair to try to shift a habit when there isn't anything to do.   So the first step is going to involve Setting An Albatross Free.

Here's the albatross:

All.  Those.  Swatches.   Swatches from the 2 years I was a Julie's Pic member.  EOS swatches.  Sawyer Brook and Marcy Tilton Swatches.  Swatches from here and there.  Most of which, of course, I never bought, and have no reason to keep.   The reason I have kept this small drawer full of swatches is that there are bits of info in there about fabric that I DID acquire, and it's so much easier to just toss in another swatch and close the drawer (quickly!) than to face the seemingly ginormous task of sorting.

So I'm going to sort.  And label.  Get a record system set up for what I have, so that I can easily keep it up when new goodies arrive :).

Not only am I going to do this, I've already started!   I've already found several fabric pieces that I was only semi-right about when I tried to figure out the content  (and of course, the care and feeding of said fabric).  I'm stapling the swatches I have records for on 3x5 cards, and when I use it in a pattern, I will then transfer the info to the pattern envelope sleeve for future reference.

Yes, yes I will :)  (I've already done this to a couple of recent patterns) :)

I even have proof :)   Here are the trash bins after the first round of purging and culling and sorting:

There are still some small mounds of paper and swatches, but most of these are fabrics that I actually DO have in stash:

Another session resulted in most of those swatches being labeled and stapled onto 3x5 cards.  The pages that are left are mostly info about fabrics I have, but I still need to find the fabric and cut a swatch.  A little more daunting, but by Jove, I can do it!!!!

And some proof of a card with pattern info and fabric swatches, living with the pattern envelope.  Damn I'm getting organized!   Scary.....

My sewing room, AND the overflow sewing room/guest room are both neat and tidy and clean right now!   Well, I'm having an overnight guest this weekend, so I kind of had to do that in order to find the futon, but still.....

And you?   Are you still with me?  (you can join any time, you know!)   The secret is to do one SMALL change - for 21 days, or a month.  Don't try to bite off some huge goal, just pick a little shift that you can flow into.  It's amazing what a lifelong difference one small shift can accomplish.