(Tipmas) My Sewing Space in December
The fabric stash
Darn, when you look at the space to the right, that’s a LOT of open shelving to fill. It took me about 4 hours to go from the second picture to the first. That is most (but not all) of the 100% cotton fabric stash that I often speak of…you just can’t see the bin of batiks under my desk.
My cutting table - my old kitchen island
I am very lucky that I have this sewing space to work in. I appreciate it because for many years, I sewed on a table on a short wall in my bedroom (and when you begin to sew at 8 PM, and your husband wants to go to bed at 9…suffice it to say, you don’t get very far. We’ll leave the sewing machine at the time until tomorrow’s blog post.
I have lived in the same home for 40 odd years, and it’s a 3 bedroom home. My sons are 8 years apart, and each one had their own room until the oldest one moved out. Hence, Mom sewed in her bedroom. This room is the second largest bedroom, and I moved into it once the younger son moved out. And I love every bright, happy (can you see the yellow?) square inch of it. It’s also got morning light, 3 windows and air conditioning.
This shelving unit was what I wanted for my 60th birthday - that, and a sewing table for my machine which gives me plenty of space. My husband actually didn’t think that he could get the shelving in next to the window… I had triple checked the measurements, and I knew they would fit. I bought these used from Craig’s List. Room by Mr. Craig.
Good bones!
So now to the cutting table, which is shown at left . I used to have a large (54 inch) kitchen island in my kitchen - guess where it lives now!
My cutting table is one of the most multi functional items in my space - it’s my cutting table, the cricut station, the grands cutting table, and the gift wrapping station for Christmas. Not all at one time, but there are times that it is a close shave.
So what is today’s tip ? I look at my fabric and how to store it…I break it into sizes and types. When I have tried to take it as a whole - it doesn’t work for me. I break out my solids, my widebacks, my general batiks and my Island Batiks - because there’s no selvedge to help you!, my fat quarters, and my scrpas. Oh, and I have a box of Kaffe Fasset fabrics too (I almost forgot about those!). Once I look at the groupings, I usually default to sorting by color. We’ll be talking about that later, when we talk about fabric in general.
