Sewing Storage Hacks Under $15

My husband attached a utensil caddy to the unused iron rest on my ironing board. Now my tools, pincushion, and everything else I need are at my fingertips when ironing.

—Joanne Noyes

Eustis, Maine

Keep cut fabric pieces together with chip clips. Use a marker to label each clip with the designated row for its set of pieces.

Repurpose a coffee mug tree to keep scissors and rotary cutters close at hand. The vertical holder means less wasted table space.

Embroidery floss, needles, and a small scissors can be easily seen in a divided lunch tray.

Create a portable English paper-piecing kit using a lunch box that has a resealable lid.

Napkin holders aren't just for dining room tables—engage them to hold rulers, cutting mats, or templates. If you're storing bulkier items, consider heavier metal holders. (You can achieve a similar effect with two matching metal bookends.)

Let the compartments of an ice cube tray confine sewing machine needles, bobbins, and machine feet.

Hang oversize rulers, templates, and patterns from shower curtain hooks suspended from a tension rod.

I wrap small ponytail holders around my bobbins as a colorful and inexpensive way to contain the loose thread ends.

—Jane Bulen

Stover, Missouri

Corral fabric bundles, spray bottles, hoops, scissors, and rotary cutters with a shower caddy hung on the back of a door.

To clean up your work surface, gather items from your sewing table into an acrylic cosmetics organizer.

Fill a plastic soap case with your favorite needles, thread, and scissors for a customized travel sewing kit.

Hold individual appliqué pieces in an expandable coupon organizer, labeling each pocket with the block number.

When I am working on multiple quilts, I put fabric samples from the different projects in trading card sleeves. It keeps the project swatches separate and makes them easy to see and match quickly. When I go shopping, I fold the sleeve and slip it into my purse.

—April Schnars

Lakewood, California

Harness spice racks built for organizing kitchen counters to store buttons, thread spools, or jars of other small notions. If repurposing a wall spice rack, look for one with a groove in the bottom or a lip designed to keep spice jars in place—the groove or lip can keep notions from falling off the shelf.

Stand marking utensils and rulers in flexible silicone grip grass.

Use a clipboard box as an appliqué kit, tracing patterns on the closed lid and storing tools inside.
—Linda Kile

Catawissa, Pennsylvania

Secure binding strips with cable wraps.

A screwdriver holder that fits a pegboard can hold scissors, keeping them off your work space, yet handy.

Display clear cookie jars not on a kitchen counter but near a sewing area. Fill see-through jars with colorful sewing supplies, such as thread spools, embroidery floss, zippers, or even prepared binding, to easily see and grab items as needed. The jars double as decorative accents.