New Sewing Room

I have too much fabric.

Those boxes filling the closet are filled with Satins, Xmas, Brocades, Pendleton, Wools, Airplanes, Battings, RickRacks, Zippers, Buttons, Patterns.

Although, there is still the cutting table to fill up -- 12 drawers (IKEA kitchen island), the 2 drawers under the window seat, and the bookcase for cotton fabrics on the right hand wall.

The machines are still covered.

It's all going to fit.

Absolutely.

Really.

I've sent for help.

So I Needed Some Insul-bright to Make Some Hot Pads. . .

Have you had one of these days??

So I needed some insul-bright to make some hot pads.

Insul-bright is the stuff that makes hot pads stay cool. Except – I couldn’t find it. I thought I still had a whole package. All I found were some scraps and some chicken hotpads already cut out. . . hmmm. . .
Then I decided I couldn’t find this knit I bought back in Minnesota a few years back which led to moving stuff around.
I did find my florist tape and my pens so I grabbed the fake silk flowers from the garage and made flower pens.
You take the end plug out and stick in a flower. A little glue and a little florist tape to dress it up - -except the caps would not come off (must be a choking hazard for those of us who chew on their pens). I had to get the drill and drill a hole through the slick plastic end cap. Then I fired up my glue gun, got the large blooms and some leaves and made six flower pens. Why? Because these last longer with customers. Why was I making them today? Because I found all the components. Making the pens? – got to do something about all this stuff that is hanging around in this ‘craft’ room.

So I went through boxes and even labeled stuff – still did not find the knit but I did separate the etsy/ebay stuff and get most of that out of the room. I also moved the suitcases and another box of treasures from when we put down the floors. I am past my irritation that we did not do the bedroom floors yet. My new plan is not to wait to take everything out but to only have the kids stuff (previous owner of room) and my craft stuff in there. Uh-huh. . .It’s a goal and a more positive one and more realistic than waiting on the getting the craft room floors done.

So now I have all this floor space. I put together all the parts for the blooming bag (from purse class), realized I don’t have the right hardware to do justice to the Pendleton fabric in the bag – but it’s all together - waiting for another day to finish.
I put the knits I just got at a  garage/rummage sale with the other knits – still haven’t found that knit from Minnesota. I put the wools with the wools, the minky with the minky and generally made some sense of those two rooms.
I found the stash of heavy interfacings in my walk-in closet – the ones I was looking for last month – I left them there but took out the stiffer interfacings and put those with my new ones from Joann’s. Guess where the insul-bright was? In that box. It’s now on my cutting table along with some selections for hot pads and Microwave potato bags – because I also found the Warm Industries 100% cotton batting with no glues/chemicals for the Hot Potato bags.
 Another big box of fabric from garage/rummage sale got sorted to the Etsy/ebay room (aka den) and the rest put away by color. I now have everything ready to sew some gifts for Christmas/bazaars and might even sew tonight.

Well that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I Found My Sewing Machine Needles

Now when your daughter goes off to college, I think the rule is to wait two years before you change things up.
The first year, I would go sit on her bed and just miss her. A little thing called instant messenger saved me because sometimes we would be on-line at the SAME TIME.
But then, you know, time marches on, and the second year - while I still missed her, I was beginning to think about a dedicated room for sewing. And crafting, and the problem of integrating her stuff with my stuff.
The third year, I had narrowed my thinking to a twin daybed for when she came home.
And that would leave room for the sewing machine, bookcases to hold fabric, the ironing board and a really cool craft table. My daughter and I traipsed around IKEA one wintery day and took pictures of anything that would work for a craft table.
But the price... I thought about that worktable for an entire year but kept coming back to how perfectly the Ikea one would help me store sewing implements.

Finally - I am at a point of workability and am able to show off how this room is coming together.

12 Drawers: How to divide and conquer? First drawer is for my scissors, and other sharp implements.
Another drawer will house my growing vintage Japanese fabric collection.
These three: Bias tape and trims; snaps are in there for now. second is my knitting/crochet needle collection. and the third is holding leather straps, assorted purse trims, grommets + tools,  and oddly, gold buttons.

The iron will gets its board back. It's a process.   Moving things here, and then there because it's not working.  Eventually with some help from family and friends, I now have a guest slash craft room.
As a last note on this post,  here is another garage sale find that is ready to be used.

Sewing Table

This is the sewing table I want in my craft room. My daughter and I found this at IKEA last year and I find I still want it.  I can totally visualize the organizational possibilities.
You can put castors on the legs so it rolls.
I can't recall if the drawers are only on one side or accessible on both sides.
This would be perfect with a light table built in???

It's only $499.

Dear Santa,
I Been Good This Year.