A great night in starts with an organised armchair - with a pocket & place for everything
Sewing clutter ≠ relaxation
I love solving organisational problems that hinder the enjoyment of crafting, and this time, sofa sewing clutter was my target!
If you’re a homebody who enjoys crafting, then a perfect evening for you is more than likely staying in and being creative.
And if this means hand stitching on the sofa for you, then you’ll likely love snuggling up under a quilt,with your warm beverage of choice, and feeling all the cosy vibes!
Some of the favourite projects I’ve ever made have been completed by the efforts of many evenings on the sofa!
But have you felt that the peace of this scene is somewhat spoiled when you’re also surrounded by levels of chaos that comes from a disorganised ‘crafting zone’?
I’m a person who can’t relax amongst clutter, and if you’re like this too, then mess is not your friend.
So where can you store notions and projects and patterns when you’re crafting on the sofa?
The arm of the sofa was the obvious choice to corral all those little necessary bits, being close at hand and usually available real estate.
With my thinking cap on, I got busy re-imagining what useful storage would look like for me.
I wanted multiple pocket options that could be tailored to my craft of choice,whether it’s embroidery and cross stitch, quilting and binding, crochet or knitting.
I do a range of all of these depending on the weather and my mood!
Introducing your hardworking best friend
My solution for relaxed sofa stitching is the Smart Sofa Station, a multi-craft organiser that will literally transform your hand stitching experience.
There's pockets, slots, and a streamlined workflow that make me feel relaxed just by looking at it!
My next requirement for a hard-working product like this was that it also needed to be beautiful.
After all this will become part of your décor, hanging around in plain view, even if only for a short time every day.
So I added texture with hand quilting, chose vibrant prints and featured fussy cuts wherever I could, and finished off with a great binding to frame everything perfectly. Something that you see often needs to be lovely to look at.
The base of the Smart Sofa Station is a combination of machine and hand quilting, adding a unique level of texture but also meaning it doesn’t take too long complete.
I found myself stitching the base on the sofa in the evenings, and the irony of this wasn’t lost on me!
I still didn't have anywhere to put everything, but the end was in sight!
Choose the pockets you need
With several different pocket configurations, you get to choose the pockets you need and leave off the ones you don’t.
I love options!
This pattern gives you choices galore – there are 5 total pocket choices, each different depths and shapes.
You can vary the spacing of the channels you stitch into them to hold a variety of tools for what you need.
The flaps are another design choice I absolutely love - giving a 'preppy look' to the project. But if you don't like these, leave them off!
This pocket was inspired by the shape of the front of a pair of jeans.
Do you recognise the shape?!
I love it!
The small central pocket echoes the back pocket of jeans design and gives you someone to store little items like stitch markers or glue refills.
All your scissors, markers, rulers, glue pens etc, are taken care of here, with a pocket for EPP shapes and templates.
This pocket is designed just for crochet hooks, and a larger pocket to hold a pattern, an embroidery hoop, or just to pop your project in when you’re done.
I realise that many sofa arms are different sizes, so you can alter the length of the base to fit your particular sofa arm, making this even more versatile.
Workflow made easy
But my favourite part of this whole design is the unique workflow system along the top.
Featuring magnets sewn into the base, the Smart Sofa Station has notions along the top are designed to snap into place when you need them.
There’s a pincushion which snaps into place to store extra pins and needles when in use.
There’s the magnetic needle minder which holds your working needle when you want to put it down...no more hedgehog sofa arms...ouch!
Then finally when you’re done for the night, simply store your needles and pins in the needle keeper, which has clever pleats to safely store these out of sight, under the little flaps.
The little hand stitched details here truly make my heart sing!
Don't they look super chic all tucked up in bed for the night!
And what about those fussy cuts?!
But back to business...I truly love a good workflow system like this!
Pack up and live to stitch another day
The Smart Sofa Station folds up into a compact unit when you’re done and need to put it away.
It can hold your project and tools inside, and will be waiting patiently for you when you’re ready to go again!
I really feel that this is a huge part of the struggle in regular stitching - if the mess at the end is too much to deal with, then you're much less likely to begin.
So make the tidy up easy and the stitching will follow!
If you prefer to watch a pattern demonstrated step by step, then I’ve made the Smart Sofa Station from start to finish in this series of videos.
I give you heaps more insider tips to make your Station turn out super professional.
Even if you’re a dab hand at following patterns, it’s even easier to watch something being done before your eyes, and I hope these give you the confidence to go forth and make your own!
I’ve been using my own Sofa Station for more than 6 months now, and it’s transformed my stitching game…I'm enjoying being organised and relaxed with everything at my finger tips.
I'd love to see how this inspires you to take your sofa crafting to the next level and I truly hope this next installment in my organisational patterns is just what you need to help you move forward in your sewing and crafting journey.
Sew more, stress less!
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