Monday 24 September 2018

Storing my costumes

Costuming is not just a fairly expensive hobby, it also takes up a lot of space. I'm the first to admit that my apartment is overstuffed with things. A third room that I could use as a combined crafting room/library would be a dream. Except for the space I love everything with my apartment though, and since the prices around here have trebled since I bought my apartment I'm not likely to move just to get another room. I have to make do with the space that I have.

Basically my costume related things are divided up into three areas.

1. I have my crafting corner in my living room.


Here i keep thread and all other sewing supplies, under the desk I also have three large boxes with corset supplies, general craft supplies and foam. To be honest whenever I'm doing a project the sewing corner takes over the whole living roo.

2. My fabric stash
This is my main issue. I try to keep fabric to a minimum, but for some reason it always overflows.

3. My attic storage.
This is where I keep my costumes, and since I spent four hours on Sunday cleaning up and reorganizing it, I might as well show it.

The left corner of the back is the stuff that I never touch, mainly thngs that belongs to the apartment or mementos from my childhood that I want to keep. The right corner keeps all my Christmas decorations, I need to be able to get to them once a year. In front of them I keep my suitcases and bags.

Along the wall there are nails where I keep my costumes that I want to hang. Mainly the most fragile costumes, or costumes that I wear a lot, or simply costumes that take up lesser space than if I would pack them in a box. The box on that side is my dye box, where I keep my dye supplies and I also use it to dye in.

On the other side I keep my boxes with costumes. Packing them into boxes is maybe not the best way, but otherwise they would take up too much space. They are fairly airtight and I also add balls of cedar wood to them to protect the textiles in them.

I have three rows of boxes, one with general things, one with Star Wars costumes and one with historical things. When I started using boxes I had fairly large and high boxes, I'm more and more trying to switch them for boxes that are flat, and that way I can keep one costume per box. The Star Wars costume boxes are stacked with the ones I use the most at the top.

My historical costumes are divided into eras or kind of things, so there is one for the 16th century, one for 18th century clothes, one for 18th century accesories, one for corsets, one for shifts and petticoats from the 18th century and onwards, and one box for panniers and other supports.

Finally in the corner I have a small shelf where I can pack away smaller things in boxes, and I keep my shoes there as well. My best and most used wigs are also standing on the shelf, while the other wigs are packed away in a box (on styrofoam heads).

My plan for now is to buy a larger shelf, that goes all the way to the ceiling, add more nails to hang clothes bags on and add a proper shoe rack. I'm also looking for a wooden box that I can use to store my household things that I use when I'm at medieval events.

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