Konmari Organization Part One

I'm not doing a detailed vlogging of the organization part of the Konmari method, but I did want to share some of my progress today! I'll take you to a couple places around the house where I've implemented new organization.

Post-Konmari Sewing Room Tour

My sewing room has gotten quite the reorganization after finishing the hobby Konmari section! I promised you guys that I'd share the finished project with you so here it is!



I was able to get a lot more empty space in the main area since I got rid of one organizer and put the other one in the closet. It's so nice to have all of that extra space for cutting out fabric now! I also was relocated my table so I can enjoy the nice view while I create! Plus I finally got some art out even if it's not on the wall yet. (And one piece needs new glass....)

If you missed the before tour, here it is also!

Wardrobe: How Much is Too Much

I've been thinking about wardrobe a lot lately, partially because mine needs a some work. And, you know, I watch a lot of What Not to Wear. On the newer episodes of What Not to Wear, they actually show you everything the person gets. And I'm always surprised at how little they have. Usually, it's only about 30 outfits. My brain goes "How can they possibly live on 30 outfits?!?"....oh, wait, that's only one wear per outfit per month.....

Wardrobe explosion!

 Organized, efficient versatile wardrobe.

So that got me thinking about how much is too much? I've commonly heard quoted that most people wear 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time and while 83% of statistics are made up on the spot ( ;) ), I think that's probably pretty close to the truth. I've been working over the last year or so, to get myself to the point where I can let go some of my 80% that is worn only 20% of the time (although I usually fail on that when it comes to shoes.....) but now I'm lacking in lots of basics.

80% of this probably never gets worn...

Earlier this year, Tasia of Sewaholic posted about sewing cake vs. frosting where cake pieces are the versatile, basic pieces and frosting are the over the top just for fun type projects. My wardrobe is a giant pile of frosting on top of a little tiny piece of cake. Obviously, I need more cake but how many of those frosting type pieces do I really need? They just don't work for every day life. I've come to realize that I have a lot of pieces that I wear once or twice but then they get shoved behind my latest and greatest sewing project and don't see the light of day again. Sunni of A Fashionable Stitch has also recently decided that she needs a more life appropriate sewing plan/wardrobe.

 
I have a large walk in closet (especially considering that I'm in a small apartment!) but I'd love to be able to have a wardrobe like this:

Maybe if I live in a loft apartment one day!

Since I live in a state where the things you wear during the winter are NOT appropriate to wear during the summer and vice versa, I think I could use two 30 outfit wardrobes-one winter and one summer-and overlap them during spring and fall. And since the week is about 2/3 work days and 1/3 weekend days, that'll give me about 40 work outfits and 20 weekend outfits. Ok, so I'm good on the weekend outfits but sooooo far behind on the work outfits, especially the winter ones.

I see lots of frosting!

So how do am I supposed to get my wardrobe from an explosion of frosting to a reasonable of cake?

1. Separates

Separates are so much more versatile than pretty dresses so separates make a wardrobe go further. And cute tops will be able to work both in my work and nonwork wardrobes. I'm sure I'll get distracted and sew more dresses but I'm really going to try to work sewing up more separates.

2. Layering

I have quite a few cute cardigans and jackets but I don't wear them too much. I've gotten myself down to just two hoodies so hopefully I'll be reaching for sweaters more often this fall/winter. Summer shirt + cardigan or jacket = winter appropriate top!

3. Accessories

Accessories make things go so much further! I have a rather nice collection but it's sadly under used.  I really want to challenge myself with respect to accessories. I want to conquer scarves, bracelets and get back to wearing earrings every day!

Is your wardrobe more frosting or cake? How big of a wardrobe is too big? Do you rotate your wardrobe? Do you like What Not to Wear?

Some small projects

Since we finally got rid of our old kitchen table and moved my new 50s table into the kitchen, all of my sewing stuff go displaced on to the floor and in a cardboard box. Something needed to change.

So I took this floral canvas and made up a hanging organizer for my sewing things. Small light things like marking pens, seam ripper, and tailors chalk went in the top two rows.

I used the heavy canvas to make pockets for my scissors.

And the bottom two pockets hold patterns and notions for my current works in progress. They are really full right now since I have several works in progress. I'm trying to get myself down to just two!

And I also started working on my Red Riding Hood caplet. I used the same pattern for the hood and caplet from my husband's monk costume and just lengthened by six inches because that's as much as I could squeeze out of my yardage. I thought it looked great from the outside, but a bit cheap with just the wrong side of the red stretch velveteen on the inside so I dug into the stash to find a lining material.

I choose some left over black taffeta with a velvet pattern. I'm not entirely sure that the drape and stretch of the two fabrics will work well together but I also have some cheap black lining material I can use instead. Hopefully there is no fabric fail because I love the look of the black print inside the caplet. *crosses fingers* Right now they are hanging to let the bias set so we'll have to wait and see.

The birds loved the organizer fabric. They kept crawling all over it while I was trying to lay out the pockets.

I was trying to fly through making the organizer so that I could have time to put all of the stuff back in the organizer before my husband got home (instead of spread all over the floor...) so there were loads of scraps for the birds to play with. It always seems like the first step in any organization project is to make a bigger mess than you started with.

Keeping a Stash

After seeing my birds play with my stash book, Ginger of Scene in the Past wanted to know more. I did mention it back in January when I first made it, but it's never gotten it's own post so here it is:

Ok, so it's not so exciting to look at but it's really helpful. It all started when my dad wanted my help designing a fabric stash keeping iPhone app (because he's a nerdy programer like that) last Christmas. It's still a work in progress but it got me thinking about stash organization and then I remembered these great stash organizing sheets from Mena over at Sew Weekly.

So I organized my stash!

Each fabric gets a swatch and blanks for selvage width, yardage, type, cost, aquired, era and other notes. 

For a lot of my older stash, I don't have all of this info, but that's ok. I just filled in what I had. I bring it with me to the fabric store so I can just write all of this down off of the bolt. Some other info that I sometimes include are washing instructions and whether or not it's been prewashed.

Once a fabric is used up, I check the little "no longer in stash" box.

And because I'm a nerd and I like Excel, I added all of this info into a spread sheet so I can crunch numbers and make pie charts.

One day, I want to do something like this for patterns so I know how much yardage I need for a pattern while I'm out shopping but I can't draw and I haven't figured out how to get an illustration so no luck there yet. Maybe I'll have to get my dad working on an iPhone app for that!

More tid bits

There have been loads of things going on chez Star-Spangled Heart and most of them really aren't exciting enough to warrant their own post so I've just collected them together to share with you.

The hubby and I have finally gotten around to framing the gobs of art we have lying around. There two are mine and I'm terribly excited about the girly-ness of them. Instead of mats, I just used pretty scrapbooking paper as a background. So cute! And I also have another print being framed but it was a weird size so I had to get it custom framed.

I've also gotten this lovely Audrey poster right above wear I like to sit on the couch.

I've been working on a better way to store my hats and requisitioned this shelf from the living room to help organize them. I've also got some on hat stands on the top.

My sewing stuff was moved from the living room to the bedroom (much to my husbands glee) and I also added this white set of drawers to hold my expanding stash! The pink drawers are full of fabric plus I've got a single drawer full of "to sew soon" fabric and a whole shelf in the closet! Egads!

I've been knitting loads on the Cadence sweater and have made some progress. I think I'm a pretty slow knitter though. It takes me about 12 minutes to get through one knit round.

Wearing History Beach pjs! I need to get some nice shots of these but they are so cozy.

Gettin' Organized Giveaway!

Do you ever plan on doing something and just never quite get around to it? Today was a day for catching up on all of those things! There was quite a lot of cleaning that went on, mostly the kind of stuff that doesn't need done every week so I tend to forget.

I have a tiny bathroom and it gets quite cluttered with all of my stuff. So today, I put my handy man pants on and put some nails in the walls for my snoods, scarves and Belle Blossoms.

I've been pondering how to store my Belle Blossoms for a while now. I tied a ribbon between two nails and clipped all of my flowers on to it. Now they are up and out of the way.

I've also had a giveaway planned for a while so here goes! Audrey Hepburn is one of my favorite fashion icons! So, I'm sharing a little Audrey with you today! To win these two great Hepburn films on DVD, leave a comment telling who your favorite film star fashion icon is and why. Want more entries? Share on your blog and leave a link to your post in a comment. The giveaway will be open until 12 pm Eastern Standard Time on April 15th.

I love Audrey because she can pull off so many looks! Long hair, short hair, bangs, dramatic transformations all work for her. She also has such personality in her films. Audrey pulls off simple and fabulous whether she is the lovesick daughter of a chauffeur or the princess of a small European country. Plus she's a brunette! (I'll admit, I'm a bit biased. ;) )