One reason my sewing room (also known as the under-the-stairs closet) fills up with projects so quickly is partly because it is small. But it is also because I often think to myself, “I can do that!”

For example, one of the projects-in-progress in my sewing closet right now is a pillow insert (already stuffed) and the fabric I chose to make a pillow cover for it. I saw two pillow inserts of the size I wanted new living room pillows to be when I was shopping at a second hand store a few months ago.

I brought them home and ran them through a hot dryer cycle to freshen and sanitize them. Then I picked fabrics from my fabric stash to cover them with and made one pillow cover. The other pillow insert and the fabric I chose were put back into the closet and have been there ever since.

As you can imagine, a large-ish sized pillow insert takes up quite a bit of space in the sewing closet – space that really isn’t available for storing half-finished projects.

The pillow cover is a quick win project I want to finish – maybe next week – since I know it will make a big impact on the decluttering of my sewing room to get it done. And then I will be able to enjoy the new pillow in my living room!

Another example of my “I can do that” mindset is altering clothes for myself and the kids. I am sure when I really start getting through half-finished projects that I will find several partially altered clothing items, or clothing items I put into the sewing room so that I could alter them “sometime.”

Unfortunately, the sewing closet fills up to fast with “I can do that” projects and then I can’t really use if easily and the things I wanted to alter get lost in the piles.

As I put away clean clothes in the kids closet this evening I had several “I can do that” moments. We are transitioning from winter to spring where we live, and in just a few more weeks the weather will be more consistently appropriate for wearing short sleeved shirts. A few more weeks after that and we will likely be wearing shorts most of the time. One way I save money on buying clothes for the kids is to alter long sleeved shirts into short sleeved shirts. And to make shorts out of pants. I choose ones to alter that I know won’t still fit them when the weather turns cold again in the fall.

I already know the clothing item fits the child, so I just have to cut the sleeves or legs off to the right length and hem the raw edge. Here’s a list of the clothing items I saw this evening that I would like to alter over the next month or so:

• Shorten a pair of leggings that has a hole in the knee into shorts that can be worn under play dresses
• Shorten the sleeves on one or two dress shirts for each of my boys
• Shorten the sleeves on any of my 21-month-old’s long-sleeve shirts that will still fit him for a few more months, and are light-weight enough for summer
• Turn jeans that wouldn’t fit my boys still in the fall into shorts

None of those alterations are complicated or very time-consuming. I just need to clear some project out of my over-stuffed closet before I can work on them. I think it would also be helpful to do a complete alteration in one sitting to reduce the chances of the item sitting in my closet and getting lost at the bottom of piles. Each alteration should take 20-30 minutes so I think that will be manageable. Typically I would take all the clothes I want to alter in a pile to my sewing room. Then I would do all the cutting in one stretch. Then I would sew them – or forget about them.

It may be less “efficient” to start and finish one alteration in each project session since I will have to get the cutting supplies out each time, for example. But I think in the long run, with how I opporate with projects and clutter in the sewing room, that it will be the better choice.