16 June 2011

Vintage Storage Solutions

With only one teeny-tiny closet in my abode I have had to come up with with some creative and attractive storage solutions.  I started collecting old interesting suitcases a while ago and purchase more when needed.  These are two that I got recently on Ebay for about $15 each.

The smaller 'Sky-Chief' fibreboard case holds trims sorted by colour in zip-lock bags. I love the patterns inside and out on this one and the burgundy-coloured plastic (maybe bakelite?) handle.

This is the 'sewing corner' of my bedroom. The Singer sewing table is just to the left. I keep my fabric stash in the blue and green cases (from the Salvos and Chapel St Bazaar). Current-ish project fabric goes in the pink 'Miso Pretty' shopping bag so I can get to it easily (or forget about it completely as the case is with what's in there now!). My old blue-beast 'Automatic Zig-zag' machine is in the blue case on the right.

Decoupaged boxes for patterns. Everyone else seems to like the photocopied vintage pattern box the best. I like the black, white and brown one more! It's made from pages of an old genetics textbook (there's a big double-helix under the chicken on the bottom of the pic) and a craft book I found at the Salvos. It sort of sums up my interests and I like the texture and quality of the old book pages.

My linen storage. A cane suitcase purchased on Ebay and an old laundry basket that a neighbor was tossing out.

Are there any treaty-treats in there?

The woman who sold this to me said this was the case her parents used when they migrated to Australia from England. It had been in storage since then and still had the original ID tag. I love the history behind this one! Next to it is a linen sachet in an antique flower-packet fabric from l'ucello. She sells these at Klein's perfumery if you can't get into her lovely shop on the city and they are divine! I bought a bunch of them for gifts and had to keep some for myself...that seems to happen with most things I buy from l'ucello!

The original P&O Orient Lines sticker on the outside of the case.

I remember when I was very young my mother used to hang big brightly-coloured department store shopping bags on the wall of my room to store toys. Everything got swept up at the end of the day and tossed into the bags on the walls. We lived in Greenwich, Connecticut and there was something very special when I was a kid about having bags from 'The City' (New York) on display all the time. It reminded me of train rides into New York and grown-up lunches at Bloomingdale's by the big Bjorn Wiinblad ceramic fountain (although I think the fountain might have been in the Stamford, CT Bloomingdale's- it was still very grown up).  

What are your storage solutions? I would love to hear!

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