This is the sad situation that had grown on my sewing table. A teeny little drawer overflowing with needles, needles, needles.

I decided to use some leftover scraps of contact paper from last month’s chalkboard project to do something about it.

In addition to the black contact paper, I used a white paint pen, some slide boxes, and permanent double sided tape.

The rest is easy to figure out. I took seven boxes and covered them in contact paper. I decided to group the needles into seven boxes for the different sizes and functions: delicate, light, medium, semi-heavy, heavy, knits, and specialty (which is sort of my “misc” category, including things like wing needles, topstitching, etc). I also wrote the needle sizes on each. Now I don’t have to think about what needle to use with what fabric.

You could get more specific, of course. You could include examples of each type of fabric, use more boxes for various needle types, etc. I thought this would work for me, though.

I then stuck them on the wall with double-sided tape. The tape is strong, but I don’t think it’s strong enough to hold them permanently, so I’m going to replace it with those little velcro dots.

To get a needle, I simply push and slide the box open, easy-peasy.

I bought my slide boxes in bulk from Paper Mart, but you can find smaller quantities on Etsy, like these. You may want to measure your needles first to see if they’ll fit, since different brands are different sizes. Or you could use all kinds of recycled boxes or tins, or even make your own boxes.