Notion Nation
Fun fact about me: the only reason I even started making some of my own crafting tools, is because I wasn’t too happy with the quality or the styles I kept find in the stores.
While there were a lot of really cute and adorable pin cushions, there weren’t really any available that reflected my personal style or tastes.
And, it’s gonna sound weird, but I was really struggling to find a really nice pin cushion that I could wear on my wrist! You’d think that’d be the first thing would find, but that mission was turning into a real bear!
My very first (and favorite) pin cushion (circa 2025)
And it was getting to the point where I really needed this particular pin cushion because I was starting to take on more and more sewing (both personally and professionally).
Being able to remove your pins quickly and “seamlessly” while you sew, is such a small blessing that you don’t even realize how much you need it at first.
And pin cushion turned out so beautifully - well… I couldn’t just stop with the one, could I ?
I am especially proud of my little pin cushion basket; it has made it so much easier to move between projects in the studio!
(I don’t have “table space” so much as I have surfaces with revolving piles of projects at various stages of completion…)
Pin cushion basket (circa 2025);
I need to back and find the inspiration-photo I used for this bad boy! Turns out it was just what I needed because I can carry around all of my threads, scissors, & especially my seam-ripper
Now, you may be wondering, why I haven’t shopped around on Amazon (because everyone finds everything on Amazon these days). And while that’s totally a viable option - especially for the tools I can’t readily make - my biggest challenge still stands, in spite of all the options on Amazon:
I just couldn’t really find anything that suited my aesthetic.
As a life-long crocheter I like splashes of color, and patterns with lots of texture and movement - everything I found (advertised) on Amazon were either too plain, or too… well, too much!
Not only that, but I’ve always had a healthy stash of extra fabric and supplies at my disposal; some of them with extremely sentimental value.
It only made sense that I put it all to good use and make myself a few things I knew I could always use
Tapestry Needle Pouch; crochet-related (circa 2023)
I don’t know when or how it happened, but in the end it did happen: I ended up with a small cache of assorted tapestry needles for my crochet projects!
The decorative button on the center is actually from my grandmother’s stash; I inherited a bulk of her supplies some years ago, and like to save those small odds and ends for very special projects.
I honestly don’t know where these scraps of material came from; but after I pulled the out and realized they looked good together, I knew I’d found my tapestry needle pouch!
And I had absolutely no where to put them - that I would remember to check; instead of separating them and tossing them into every which bag I could find, it made more sense to make a small pouch or pocket for them, and then just keep that in my “perennial” tool-bag with my other crochet/knitting specific tools.
Button Stitch counters/charms; (circa 2024)
Every single sewist/seamstress/tailor/creative will understand this one, unshakable fact of working with your hands:
You WILL always have too many buttons!
And while it’s best to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them (at least in my experience), it does beg the question of what to do with all the misc. buttons hiding in your jar?
The ones that have lost their twins; the ones that have broken pieces; the ones that spontaneously disappear and re-appear only when you don’t need them anymore.
For me the answer kind of hit me out the blue one morning - while I was having another grief-induced panic-attack in the corner of my studio:
I’d just watched a short from a crocheter who was using stitch counters on a project; I realized I still had no stitch counters at my disposal.
But I had the technology to rectify that!
Assorted stitch counters w/ clasps (circa 2024)
I started going through my button-jar(s) and looking for the most visually interesting buttons I had. I definitely kept my sights set on single buttons, since I haven’t had many projects recently that require just one (although, like most things in the studio, that is always subject to change).
Beading them and attaching them to their clasps was a piece of cake from there, since I’m still working through my jewelry-cache and had more than enough hardware.
Honestly, making these counters was a surprisingly therapeutic process; there was a stillness that came with the slow search for the buttons, and then the concentrated effort of pairing each with matching beads before fusing them into the “final form.”
(…I am an unrepentant Anime-junkie, guys!)
But, I still had even buttons of various sizes and no projects to attach them to. In addition to having double that amount in remnants of quilting and sewing projects from years gone by.
And no fabric flowers to accent the more decorative creations…
Assorted Fabric Flowers; (circa 2025)
As someone who’s always been drawn to nature, having a small cache of floral-themed accents made perfect sense for me - especially as I start dabbling more into making wreaths and wall-hangings.
Now that THE craft store is no more (RIP Joanne Fabric), I’ve had to come up with some pretty creative ways of supplying my own notions and accents - because inflation is real, real high, and Amazon gives no craps about it.
I know I pick on Amazon a lot, but that’s only in regards to my work-work (you know, that thing that’s supposed to put food on the table).
Trying to grow a small business is like trying to grow a garden:
You have to figure out what is going to thrive in your allotted plot of soil;
which corner it’s going to do best in;
how to plan for next season;
how to address the weeds and the pests that will inevitably find their way inside.
It’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and panic-attacks) for very little return on investment in the immediate-short term;
that alone is going to require you to be a little “thrifty” most of the times (to the point of being skin-flint a handful of times!).
And making some of my own notions - accents, containers, organizers - allows me to save to the bigger purchases that could become “make-it-or-break-it” moments.