It feels like yesterday we were kicking off summer….

and now?

We’re being absolutely assaulted by back-to-school sales.

• Pencils.
• Notebooks.
• Glue sticks.
• Folders.
• Binders.
• Scissors.

It’s basically Christmas for people who covet office supplies.

My own offspring have long since escaped the hallowed halls of primary education, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to miss out on the annual pilgrimage down the school-supply aisle.

Not because I’m a notebook and pen junkie

(Although I am)

Nope. I’m there because the school-supply aisle is basically a quilter’s notion aisle in disguise.

And if Alton Brown has taught us anything, it’s that unitaskers are evil.

So let’s take these perfectly innocent school supplies and give them a second career.

Because sewing supplies are everywhere.

You just have to look.

So before you head to Walmart, Target, the grocery store, or wherever you do your annual “How much school stuff can I buy that I absolutely do not need?” shopping spree, here’s my Back-to-School Shopping List for Quilters & Sewing Enthusiasts.

Your children may not need these things anymore.

Your fabric does.

The Essentials

Pens. We need them.

I have strong opinions about pens.

They need to write smoothly. They need to fit perfectly in my hand. They need to be where I need them when I need them.

I’m probably pickier about pens than I am about most things in my life.

Frixion Pens & Refills

These are one of my favorite quilting tools for marking fabric.

A new pack is arriving today in fact.

I like the finest point possible, particularly when I’m working with light-colored fabrics where chalk isn’t going to show up well.

My heart is young but my eyes are old y’all.

These lines disappear with the heat of your iron, which feels a little bit like magic.

Important disclaimer: Frixion ink isn’t actually disappearing. Heat makes the mark invisible, and under some conditions the mark can reappear. So use them thoughtfully and test on your fabric first.

And before somebody comes for me because they hate Frixion pens:

I know.

I’ve read the internet.

I still like them.

This is my world and we’re apparently using Frixion pens.

Mechanical Pencils

These are particularly useful if you like using chalk for marking dark fabrics.

They’re inexpensive, easy to find, and you can buy refills instead of creating an entire collection of half-used pencils.

Because apparently even my pencils have a stash now.

The Sticky Stuff

I have probably bought more glue in the last few years since embracing my sewing journey than I did my entire preceding adult life.

• Glue sticks.
• Liquid glue.
• Fabric glue.
• School glue.
• Glue that promises to do something miraculous.

At this point, I’m basically running a small adhesive department.

And yes, they all have a purpose.

Glue Sticks

A tiny glue stick is a VIP in the quilting world.

They’re fantastic for:

• English Paper Piecing
• Foundation Paper Piecing
• Holding corners in place
• Snowball blocks
• Flying Geese
• Other situations where you need something to stay put without adding 47 pins to the equation

And here’s my unsolicited opinion:

You do not need the giant glue stick.

The little ones work beautifully.

Save the money.

Buy fabric.

You’re welcome.

Elmer’s School Glue

This stuff is a binding hero.

A thin line of washable school glue can help hold your binding in place while you sew it down.

Press it with your iron to set it, sew your binding, and the glue washes away.

No pins.

No shifting.

No stabbing yourself approximately 900 times while trying to get your binding to behave.

And if life happens and it takes you three days to get back to the quilt?

Your binding is still where you left it.

Cut it Out

We like scissors in this house.

There are three pairs in the kitchen.

Hubs has a pair or two in his office.

There’s a pair in the bathroom.

And I refuse to count how many are in my sewing room.

Or, as I like to call it, the scissors migration zone.

Paper Scissors

Get some.

Get several.

Because you’re not going to use your good fabric scissors to cut paper.

You’re just not.

And if you are, please stop.

Those nice fabric scissors are for fabric.

For what it’s worth, for Fabric, I love my Karen Kay Buckley^® Perfect Scissors™ … because they are…. Perfect I mean.

Paper scissors are for patterns, templates, paper, packaging, and all the other things that should not be anywhere near your precious fabric shears.

They’re also great for travel when you want a small pair of scissors for hand sewing projects.

And, obviously, for opening the Amazon package containing the thing you apparently needed so badly that you ordered it at 11:47 p.m. but have absolutely no recollection of buying.

Just me?

Carry on.

The School Supply Aisle Is Basically a Storage Store

This is where things get dangerous.

Because the school-supply aisle is really good at storage.

And it’s cheap.

And it’s colorful.

And everything is suddenly on sale.

This is how you end up standing in Target holding six binders and whispering, “But they’re only $1.50.”

3-Ring Binders

The humble three-ring binder is wildly useful in a sewing room.

Use them for:

• Quilt patterns
• Templates
• Instructions
• Printed tutorials
• Project planning
• Random pieces of paper you swear you’ll need later

You can also use page protectors to keep everything together without adding another loose pile of paper to the sewing room.

Can you buy binders year-round?

Of course.

But will you find fun colors at ridiculously low prices in November?

Probably not.

This is called planning.

Page Protectors

Yes, you can put your patterns in them.

But there are other possibilities.

You can use them for organizing templates, protecting frequently used pages, and even some clever laminating-type hacks.

I’ve got more to say about that.

Check out how well the Lamination Hack actually worked… for real.

Binder Clips

Binder clips are tiny little organizational workhorses.

Made 48 tiny blocks?

Binder clip.

Cut out all your applique pieces?

Binder clip.

Have a stack of pieces that absolutely must stay together because Future You will have no idea what Past You was doing?

BINDER CLIP.

And here’s a completely unrelated but delightful bonus use:

Flip the little ones upside down and they make adorable little stands for Christmas cards.

I know.

Christmas cards.

We’re still trying to make Fetch happen.

We sent out 63.

We got two last year.

They looked cute on the piano.

Moving on.

Zip-Top Bags

(Because Organization Is Apparently Just Putting Things in Bags)

These come in every size imaginable, and I use them constantly.

Snack & Sandwich Size

Perfect for:

• Small pieces
• Individual blocks
• Applique pieces
• Tiny bits that would otherwise disappear into the black hole known as your sewing room

Quart & Gallon Size

Great for larger blocks and keeping all the smaller bags from wandering off.

2.5-Gallon Size

Now we’re talking.

A 2.5-gallon bag can hold an entire project.

Fabric.

Blocks.

Scraps.

Instructions.

Whatever else belongs with that project.

They’re fantastic for:

• Organizing projects
• Transporting projects
• Keeping pieces together
• Clearing the dining room table in approximately 30 seconds when unexpected company is coming over and you’ve been sewing instead of cleaning

Because nothing says “I totally have my life together” like shoving your entire sewing project into a giant plastic bag and putting it in a closet.

Nobody has to know.

Personally, I use gallon or 2.5-gallon bags to hold scraps from my current project.

That way, when I inevitably screw something up and need to recut a piece, I have all of the current fabric right there.

Future Me appreciates this.

Future Me also occasionally hates Past Me.

It’s complicated.

Post-Its, Sticky Flags & Index Cards

These little things are redonkulously useful.

Use them for:

• Labeling your zip-top bags
• Marking pattern pages
• Bookmarking the quilt pattern in a magazine that you are 1000% definitely going to make someday
• Making temporary pattern notes
• Creating dividers in your pattern binder

And yes, you could buy actual tabbed dividers.

But why?

The Post-It aisle is right there.

We have already established that we’re here to repurpose things.

Pencil Cases, Zipper Pouches & Clear Storage Boxes

These are perfect for:

• Extra bobbins
• Small notions
• Applique pieces
• Hand-sewing supplies
• Scissors
• Clips
• Needles
• All the tiny things that somehow multiply when you’re not looking

The clear boxes are particularly handy because you can actually see what you’ve put in them.

Which means you won’t have to open seventeen containers looking for the thing you swear you saw five minutes ago.

Not that I have ever done that.

Repeatedly.

Polymer Erasers

Here’s a weird one.

Polymer erasers are fantastic for cleaning your self-healing cutting mat.

Yes you have to clean that too.

If you’re cutting in the same areas repeatedly, tiny fabric fibers can get worked down into the grooves of the mat.

A polymer eraser can help lift those fibers out.

It’s cheap.

It’s easy.

And it gives you one more reason to stand in the school-supply aisle pretending you’re shopping for someone else’s children.

Planning Tools for Those of Us Who Apparently Can’t Just Follow the Pattern

If you’re the kind of artist who looks at a beautiful quilt pattern and thinks,

“That’s lovely. Now how can I make it completely different?”

First of all:

I see you.

Second:

Welcome.

My hat is off to people who can simply follow a pattern exactly as written.

We are not the same.

Spiral & Composition Notebooks

For recording those moments of brilliance that happen at inconvenient times.

Because inspiration has absolutely no respect for your schedule.

Write down:

• Quilt ideas
• Measurements
• Fabric combinations
• Things you want to try
• Things you absolutely do not want to try again

Graph Paper & Dot-Grid Notebooks

Perfect for sketching quilt layouts, playing with block placement, and figuring out what happens when you start rearranging things.

Which is usually where the fun begins.

Colored Pencils

An excuse to color?

Yes, please.

Keep a set in your sewing room.

Or your purse.

Or your desk.

Because inspiration doesn’t care where you are.

And neither does the urge to figure out whether that quilt would look better with a pink, green, blue, or black background.

A Regular Old Ruler

Yes, I have approximately 47 quilting rulers.

No, I don’t need another one.

But a basic school ruler still has a place in my sewing room.

It’s handy for:

• Checking seams
• Sketching quilt designs
• Measuring small things
• General sewing-room nonsense

And, in an emergency, bopping the dog PLAYFULLY on the nose.

She loves it.

It’s a game.

She may not feel the same way if I use one of my giant quilting rulers, so let’s all agree we’re using the little ruler.

No animals were harmed in the making of this blog post.

And Don’t Stop at the School-Supply Aisle

Once you start looking at everyday objects as quilting tools, you start seeing potential everywhere.

Harbor Freight.

Dollar stores.

Hardware stores.

The kitchen aisle.

The beauty aisle.

Places that have absolutely no business being associated with quilting suddenly become treasure hunts.

And that’s one of the things I love about sewing.

You don’t necessarily need the $38 specialty notion designed specifically for one very particular quilting task.

Sometimes you need a $1.25 school-supply item that wasn’t even designed for quilting in the first place.

Is it pretty?

Maybe.

Is it clever?

Absolutely.

Is it going to save you money that can be spent on fabric?

Now we’re talking.

So go forth.

Raid the school-supply aisle.

Buy the pens.

Grab the binders.

Throw some glue sticks in the cart.

Get the little scissors.

And for the love of all things quilty, buy the extra zip-top bags.

Your future projects will thank you.

Your sewing room may even look organized.

No promises.

Sewing supplies are everywhere.

You just have to look.

And maybe stop walking past the school-supply aisle like it’s only for people with children.

We’re quilters.

We have needs.