*First Aid Paper Tape - great for mending a pattern and marking a stitching line.
*Bath Scrunches - to clean off your rotary cutting mat.
*Toilet Brush - it works great to get the loose treads out of your rotary cutter mat.(Also use to go over the carpet in your sewing area to pick up loose thread)
*Scrap Booking Pigment Pens - great to make labels in the back of garments.
*Chalk Board Chalk - Used for marking fabric.
*Ziploc Bags - Great for holding projects, either waiting to start or in progress. (You can take a large bag and slit the bottom open. Tape it under you serger, bottom side up. When full of fabric scraps and thread, place a garbage can under the bag, zip open to empty and then zip back up. )
*Freezer Paper - Great for appliqué.
*Doctor’s Examining Table Paper - great for coping patterns, (Also good for keeping kids active if you add pencils or crayons.)
*Glue Gun - To prevent acrylic rulers from slipping when using a rotary cutter, Pencil case (with snap)
*Door Stops These are great for lifting your sewing machine in the back, so the bed of your machine is at an angle and it makes it possible to see the needle area with out having to hunch
*CD Spindle - Great place to hold large cones of thread. Not easily knocked over.
*Paint Chips - help me choose coordinating colors(You can pick these up free in almost every store that sells paint.0
*Hammer - great to pound down the thicker seam so the sewing machine can stitch it easier.
*Glow in the dark light ropes (After the kids are done with these) I snap them together in a circle and use them to hold various colors of thread. Or I will roll up bias binding, lace or even specialty threads on a spool and put on a light rope, hand it around my neck, and while stitching it onto a garment or quilt is stays up and out of the way, but always handy and on top of the project.
*Camera- I like to take pictures of my quilts in progress. When I am laying out the blocks and don’t know which way I want them exactly, I take a picture of several different lay outs, and pick from the pictures. Also if I am working on a quilt at a retreat, I take a picture of how it is suppose to lay out when finished, to help me when I get home to assemble it correctly.
*Pill Bottles - Great for storing bobbins, Easily holds old needles you have taken out of your machine or pins you have bent, Make a small sewing kit.
*Glad Press’n Seal - Can be used to hold objects in place on fabric without pins. If you use chalk to mark your quilting lines, place press and seal over the chalk lines so you won’t rub them off while stitching them. (Be warned this product may gum up your needle. But William’s ‘Lectric Shave will remove this gunk.)
*Golf Tee’s - Take and put your spool of thread and matching bobbing together by placing the golf tee through the bobbin and into the hole on the top of the spool.
*Salt and a Paper Sack - Great for cleaning your iron. Run a hot iron over salt on a brown paper bag, will remove fusible web or plastic. However if you have a Teflon coated iron run it over salt on a dryer sheet instead of the Paper Sack.
*Bamboo Sticks - I use to guide fabric under the needle under the sewing machine like a stiletto, end will not break a needle. Also good for poking out corners when you turn something right side out.
*Adding machine tape - Not only great for taking notes, but if you need to add onto the edge of a pattern this paper is light enough. If you have really slippery fabric, you can lay the fabric between 2 pieces of adding machine tape to make it sew easier, just tear the paper away when finished.
*Washers - These are great as weights.
*Hydrogen Peroxide - I tend to stick myself with pins or needles while sewing. If you get blood on your fabric, hydrogen peroxide is a great way to get the blood out without washing the entire garment. (Use with Q-tips)
*Mole Skin (Mole foam) - I use a strip of this as a sewing guide on my machine.
*Empty Paper Towel and TP Rolls - These are great to wrap things around. Such as bias binding, specialty threads, rick-rack, lace.
*Mirror - This is a suggestion from Alex Anderson, she says to put your back to your quilt, and use a hand mirror to view it. This gives you a distance from your quilt for better viewing.
*Door Peep Hole and Binoculars - Looking through a door Peep hole or through Binoculars backwards, works like a reducing glass, to view your quilts, giving you a distance
*Padlock - If you have a problem with the kids or husband stealing your good sewing scissors. All you
*Glue Stick - Used to hold things in place, such as patches for sewing, appliqué.
*Dental Floss - The container will hold a bobbin of thread and you can use the dental floss cutter to cut your thread while traveling. Also if you have the unwaxed Dental Floss, you can use it to clean between your tension disks on your machine. (make sure you pull the dental floss only from the top).
*Kitchen Timer - If you have only 10 minutes before you have to go somewhere, or whatever is in the oven is done in 20 minutes. Take that time to sew. Set the timer and you won’t be late for “whatever” and you have that time to sew.
*Rubber Gloves, Finger Kot, and Sortkwik - The rubber gloves and finger kots are great for keeping a grip on the fabric if you are machine quilting. The finger kots and sortkwik are great for picking up a single piece of fabric.
*Computer - This is one of the best sewing tools I have. All my sewing friends are here. I can show off my projects anytime day or night and they will appreciate whatever it is that I did. If I have questions, there is someone always there to help me. I can find quilt designs, embroidery designs, patterns, and lots of ideas on-line, all because of my computer.