Craft yourself better Craft Time!

When I get some time in to sew and design new things, I try to be as effective as I can with that time.  As you can imagine, being a new mom and keeper of the house of two large (translation lots of hair), cleaning tends to have a higher priority than crafting, LOL!  Here are some steps that I have found to help make the most of my crafting time!

Here is how my craft/sewing space looks when closed up and hidden from the rest of the world.

And the chaos of creating ~

... Did you really think I would let you see how messing I am when creating?

Anyways...  As you can see, I have a fairly compact set-up going on here, and taking stuff out and putting stuff back can eat up precious time that could be spent creating.

One way to cut down on that time waster is to work in stages.  Cut several sets of fabric to make one item, and then cut more fabric sets for another item.  Iron them in an assembly line type fashion, and then store them so that I can pull them out quickly to sew or load into the embroidery machine as I snatch a moment here or there for crafting.

{Keyfobs to be made}

{Burp Clothes in progress}

I can also save time by cutting out the inner pieces for the different projects at one time too.  By cutting this batting in a strip the width I need to insert into the Keyfobs, I can then pack away the rest of the batting protecting it from getting anything stuck to it, and I keep the strip of batting with the Keyfobs pieces reading for the next time I can get the embroidery machine in action.

I have also set-up a scrap batting bag that I can easily hook to the knob of the hutch.  Keeping it from being in the way of the sewing machine, but still very easy to stick the miscellaneous pieces of batting into it.  When crafting time is done just squish and seal the bag, and stick it where ever it will fit in the hutch.

Here is a picture of the Keyfob assembly process.

I keep all the various items needed in a cube top.  Making them easy to find and grab in a minute.  This also makes them easy to put up quickly without worrying about misplacing something.  Not being able to find something quickly will eat up your crafting time in a hurry.
 

And there you have it.  Just a few things you can do to make the most of your crafting time.

Now go make something!