Getting Sew Organised!
This year has been quite the journey for me. It really is the first year that I have been able to steep myself in the wonderful world of sewing and patchwork. I had dipped my toe in a few times earlier—but this year was my splash—jumping head first into the deep end. I am so grateful to Gerri for managing CQW in such a nurturing way as to allow a very special place for friendships to flourish and creativity to expand.
I came to my first Textile Therapy class seeking some help with getting over the hump in embellishing (my still unfinished) Wild Spirit designed by the marvelous Mandy Murray of Sew Quirky and that I had started with Marie Kellet of Mercier.
I brought with me my zipper pouch of cotton floss— all jumbled up in a beautiful, colourful mess. Annette just sighed and said something along the lines of “you really need to do something about that!”
I did. I bought a packet of these lovely plastic thingies to wind the floss around, and then went over to Mitre 10 and purchased this lovely clear box into which they fit perfectly…
Tick that box…..
Then… well, you know how it goes….I started a tool collection—scissors, frixion pens, air erase pens, pins, needles, rulers, rotary cutters. Needed something to carry all those back and forth….
Then…. Well, you know how it goes….I sort of got into collecting stash. When I read the following missive on Facebook, I laughed out loud:
Purchasing fabric and sewing are two distinct hobbies!
Needless to say, I fully embraced that concept.
And a new sewing machine…..
Well, pretty soon, my purse was bulging, I had stuff scattered everywhere… and the dining table?? Well, my family just kissed that baby goodbye. AND, I just could not live without a design wall (or a new kitten… more on that later).
SOOOOO… it came time to start getting my act together and start acting that I was serious about this new hobby (obsession?) of mine.
The first thing that went was the dining table. I permanently parked my machine on it, started stacking boxes for fabric and various accouterments on top of it. My family could now start eating at a rather small table that I moved into the lounge room.
Now that I had a place to sew… I needed a place to put what I was sewing. I started thinking about a design wall. Having limited wall space, and plenty of window space, I created the ‘perfect’ solution…. Just push the curtains aside, throw some batting over the curtain rod and, bam, Bob’s your uncle.
The only drawback was that I did this at about the same time a flash of grey fur came into our lives… Enter Meteor. Don’t let this little piece of sleeping fur fool you. She was convinced that this was not a design wall for me, but a climbing wall for her. Can you tell how high she could leap? Yes. She is still alive… albeit with only 8 lives left.
With stash getting fleshed out and tools falling out everywhere, Annette offered her Bionic gear bag class! The PERFECT Sewing bag (or so she said). It darn near killed me…. but I got it done. With my stash.
So where are we?
Embroidery threads sorted? Tick.
Permanent sewing table? Tick.
Design wall/climbing wall? Tick.
Sewing tools bag? Tick.
But, OHHHHH my back. Cutting at a dining height table was doing it in…. plus my stash was, well, expanding, shall we say. Enter the internet. I did searches for sewing room ideas, craft cutting tables and so on. I came across this fantastic tutorial that even came with its own shopping list. The folks at Yellow Peg did a fantastic job of writing comprehensive instructions! A quick trip to IKEA and Mitre 10 and I was on my way (with the help of my very handy husband). The beauty of this project is that the boxes that I was already using to store my stash were a perfect fit for the IKEA Kallax shelves when stacked two high.
I’ve been pretty productive getting my sewing space and tools organized… now it is back to tackling those UFOs!!!