Hanging by a thread

You would think that with all these different spools of thread, I'd have the right color for doing a shell stitch on the cardiwrap.


Nope!  Seems I have never sewn on anything that is burnt orange.  I have reds, I have corals, but not what I need.


Because the inside of the fabric is brown, that is what I used for all the construction sewing.  Then when I did some test swatches of the shell stitch using brown or ecru it just doesn't hit me right after I trim away the excess fabric.  I think it will look better if the thread blends into the edging and lets the "puckers" be the stars.  With a contrasting thread, the shell stitch just looks like a humdrum old zigzag.  Although I remember when my mom got her first zigzag machine (early 1960s), that was just about the fanciest thing we could imagine!

So while the cardiwrap waits until I can make a trip to the store for matching thread, I thought I'd show you how I organize my threads.  I'm sure someone will tell me that the plastic will cause the thread to deteriorate, but I like that they don't get dusty and that I can pull a little ziploc bag of a color "family" instead of searching through all the threads.

I use sandwich or quart bags for the colors and don't bother labeling them since the bags are clear.  The exception to that rule is Navy and Black -- if I am sewing at night (and I don't have an Ott lite~gasp!) I know I am grabbing the right color.  I also have little bags (sandwich or quart) for all my special threads left over from other projects and then those all go into one big 2-gal zip loc bag.  BTW -- the best source I've found for those are Aldi (grocery chain), I get 10 for about $1.29.

I do the same for serger threads (using gallon bags) and then put them all into one large plastic tub.  A smaller tub holds the sewing machine threads and the serger threads fit in the extra space.  I don't do machine embroidery -- I know I would want to have a spool of every color on hand.

Then I can put on the lid and everything is out of the way until the next scavenger hunt for just the "right" color!  BTW  gray and taupe blend with an amazing number of colors if you're not worried about having a match for topstitching.