And now for something completely different….

…yes, this post has NOTHING whatsoever to do with One Week, One Pattern! And lots to do with my new sewing table. Ooooh!

As I've written about before, I'm lucky enough to have a separate room in which to sew. It's our loft room so it also has to double up as a guest bedroom and, more recently, it's had to triple up as a home office. Previously I  used the large computer desk for my sewing and had my sewing machine living by the side of it. I hauled it onto the desk when I needed it and it went back to its spot at the end of the day. I had to go through the same rigmarole with my overlocker too. A tidy solution, but a bit tiresome. Recently my husband has been doing more work at home and needed to colonise the desk more frequently - the time had come for me to sort out my own dedicated sewing table.

The shelves above the main desk were staying exactly the same i.e. filled with all my sewing crap fabric/patterns/notions, so all I needed was a new table. I trawled my way through local junk shops looking for something to announce itself to me, but nothing did. Until I spotted this gem on eBay. 

An original 1950's melamine table with a gingham top! I loved it on first sight - it's like a table version of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. I can now have my sewing machine AND my overlocker out on display at the same time, which saves a massive amount of time. Even though I still have the shelves above the main desk, I did need something to put all my day to day stuff and ongoing projects in, so I went for the sewing bloggers' favourite - the Raskog trolley from Ikea.

My new sewing area is in a nook under the roof and doesn't get as much light as my previous desk. An angle poise lamp, trained straight onto my sewing machine was a good solution. I now also have a real life pin board for the first time in my sewing life. This won't stop my Pinterest addiction, but it is handy for pinning inspiration and ideas and having them right in front of my eyes. 

Unlikely pin-up: Mr Philip Larkin

My favourite piece of art by David Hockney

The pin board is a cheap one from Argos that I covered in blue gingham to match the table. Actually, that's a lie, I didn't do anything. I just stood around like a lemon while my husband stretched the fabric over the pin board like a canvas and nailed it into submission. Thanks Jon! 

I love my new sewing space, it's so perfectly me. And after a long summer off with the kids, I can finally get some sewing done! x

A sewing room of my own

My sewing room: January 2011

First things first - I'm a featured blogger on Ragbags and Gladrags this week as part of the Share a Creative Life series. Hoorah!  If you have a burning desire to know what inspires me, how I like to work and what my favourite colour is (that's an easy one!) then you can read the post here. When Claire from Ragbags and Gladrags was putting the post together, she asked for a photo of my work space. Now the last time I went into any detail about my workspace was in this post two years ago, when it was brand spanking new. 

My sewing room: January 2011

None of the shots from that post are particularly up to date any longer, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to take a few more pictures and see if anything much has changed in my sewing den.

My sewing room: May 2013

The main difference between then and now is that my sewing room is now far more 'lived in' and well used. I hadn't been sewing for long when I did the original post, so I had fewer patterns and even fewer bits of sewing paraphernalia. Amazingly, my fabric stash has remained pretty much the same size since then. Here's my current grand total:

One box of quilting cottons which I use for making things to sell at craft fairs. 

One box of lining fabrics

One box of ginghams and polka dots.

One box of dressmaking fabrics.

One box of heavier weight fabrics such as denim and thicker jerseys and decor weight fabrics for making bags. 

That's it, not too terrible really and it's good to be able to stash it all under the bed and out of sight. It's a different story however, when it comes to patterns and haberdashery supplies. I find it almost unbelievable that the few patterns on the shelf in this shot totalled my entire collection two years ago. 

The tailor's ham and seam roll set stopped acting as bookends a LONG time ago!

Things have changed since then… 

Obviously the shelves above the desk were never going to be large enough to comfortably hold all my sewing crap for long, so my superstar husband made me another long shelving unit which is fab. It's a bit boring to photograph, but you can just see it to the left of the main desk in the following shot. 

It has four cubbyholes which house my overlocker, a lovely old Singer machine which my father-in-law gave me, files of sewing magazines and PDF patterns, plus boxes and boxes of patterns, ribbons, zips, trimmings and (more recently) knicker elastic!  

As it doubles up as a guest room, my sewing room has to stay reasonably tidy, which is a good discipline. But I'm also a great believer in having the stuff I work with on display in a room where I'm trying to be creative. You don't have to work in a rubbish tip, but it definitely inspires me to be surrounded by vintage patterns, lovely fabrics and buttons on a daily basis. Looking back on these photos, I much prefer how it looks now. Yes, it looks neater and less stuffed full in the original shots, but it now looks much more interesting and well loved. Which is exactly what it is!  It's made me realise just how lucky I am having a room of my own to be creative in. How about you? Do you like working in pristine surroundings? Or are you more of an 'organised chaos' kind of worker? Do tell! x

New friends, new sewing space...

Two exciting new things to share with you today.  My new sewing space!!!!!!! and my meet up with new sewing friends.  Friends first, I met up on Saturday with a bunch of fellow bloggers at the Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibition at the Barbican.  This was kindly organised by Karen from didyoumakethat? Along with Karen, I met Nancy who doesn’t yet have a blog (but may do soon now we’ve all been nagging her) and Danielle who is an illustrator with a background in fashion design who blogs at Final Fashion.  Sadly Kate from M is for make couldn’t join us because of engineering works on the line (bloody trains).  But I had such a great time meeting the others it’s made me determined to make the effort to reschedule with her.

I’ve never met any other bloggers (sewing or otherwise) in real life so I was completely over excited.  In everyday life, I try to temper my sewing talk when I’m with my friends so I don’t bore them to death.  On Saturday though it was no holds barred so I was in my element.  It was SO lovely to meet them all and the exhibition itself was amazing.  If you get the chance do go and see it, (it runs until 6^th Feb).  There were no cameras allowed so I’ll just skim over my personal highlights:

Beautiful single lengths of knit fabric draped around the body to create garments

Honeycomb skirts made from organza (polyester, not silk!)

Issey Miyake’s Pleats series

... all completely gorgeous to look at

Now for my other big news, my sewing space is officially up and running.  Hip hip hoorah. 

Until now I’ve been working on the kitchen table, which is fine, but I’ve had nowhere to put my stuff and it’s slightly annoying having to put the sewing machine away every day.  We’re lucky enough to have a converted loft room, which we’ve never done much with.  It’s a great guest room/computer area but it’s so huge up there there’s still space to make a sewing nook for me – which is exactly what I’ve done.  Or to be fair what my husband has done since he’s done all the donkey work.  There’s still room for guests and all the overflow books from downstairs (which I colour coded when I was bored one afternoon, aren’t they lovely?!)  

Spot my dummy modelling the crepe dress in the corner

There’s also still room for all Jon’s ‘man’ things:  his LP’s and turntable which he refuses to throw out and his James Bond villain chair.

We repainted the room grey (predictable, me?) and super hubby made me some bespoke shelves for all my sewing bits and pieces.

My patterns and smaller sewing books with the beloved tailor’s ham and seam roll acting as bookends.

A small but growing collection of buttons 

Smaller pieces of quilting fabric.  

I don’t quilt but I make a lot of things for craft fairs from quilting cotton and they’re so pretty to look at.

My other fabric has to be stashed under the bed to create the illusion of perfection, but at least it’s all in the same room and I’ve categorised it all now (dressmaking fabrics, heavy fabrics, linings, dots and ginghams etc).  I still have to use the kitchen table for cutting out, as there isn’t a big enough surface in my new gaff (well maybe the floor if I’m feeling lazy) but I can live with that.

It’s so lovely and light up here, I just potter away listening to the radio and it’s like I’m in another world.  I absolutely love it.  I do need a pinboard for fabric swatches, sewalong schedules(!) etc but that can wait until another day… x