Sewing Room Update

During the last weeks we made more improvements downstairs (in my sewing room).

I made a Design Wall out of one left-over woodden panel and some flannel. Yay!
Here you can see it covered with blocks from our “Sew-Euro-bee-an” online bee.

I still owe you a picture of my FMQ Setup. It is sooooooo much easier to quilt on a built-in sewing machine than on the small extension-table that I used before. Thank you again, Dad, for building this table!!!

Oh, and did I mention that my husband gave me a giant cutting mat for my cutting table as a birthday present? It is custom made so it covers the top completely.

The centimetre grid ends at 145 cm!!!

But the most important thing and the best decision ever-ever-ever is this addition:

We moved in an old table and two IKEA chairs and most of our boys’ creative stuff. This decision was made after they “accidentially” coloured our sofa with their felt-tip markers. I made room on the shelves for their crayons, felt-tip pens, pencils, stencils, stamps, small scissors, colouring books, blank and coloured sheets of paper, decorative-hole-punchers and of course for their perler beads.

Somehow my boys love perler beads. Our youngest (who BTW turns 4 next week) is so proud when he covered a “mould” entirely with beads. And above you can see our eldest (almost 6 yrs) who loves to invent new forms and shapes.

Together we regularly (almost daily!) spend an hour or two crafting downstairs. I really enjoy watching their progress and sharing my passion for crafts with them.

The downside is that the craft room is so much messier now (at least I can now pretend that it’s the boys who make it messy… ehem)…

When I our eldest turns 6 in October I plan to give him his first sewing book. I showed him how to hand sew a little felt bunny this easter and he was quite keen to try it again. With the long winter months ahead I thought it might be a good idea to revisit hand stitching. I thought I’d give him “Sewing School: 21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love to Make”. Any objections or better ideas? I’d love to hear what you think about sewing books for kids.

Happy crafting everyone (o:
Christine

P.S. If you came over from Ellison Lane Quilts and her “Studio Spotlight”, here are two more photos of my sewing room to give you a better idea.
And you can find even more photos here…

Thanks for visiting!

Sewing Room Makeover (2)

It’s (almost) done.

For more than two weeks I have not been sewing one single stitch. I dedicated every single minute of my free time to get my sewing room emptied, cleaned, new furniture assembled, and my sewing stuff reorganized. I have to admit that organizing my sewing stuff took almost one week’s time. I hadn’t anticipated that!
And now without further ado I proudly present my new sewing room:

The sewing table:

Many thanks to the friendly employee at our local building supplies store who cut out the holes for my machines!!!

We attached a wooden board underneath and voilà – we were done (o:

My new fabric and notions shelves:

And my new cutting table made from two IKEA Expedit screwed together:

 

Those clear boxes with my unfinished objects happen to fit-in perfectly. The shelves are deep enough to store my (few) bolts, the 24” cutting ruler and the larger dies for my GO! Baby Cutter.

On the opposite side I put in those IKEA fabric boxes…

…that I use to sort my scraps according to colours. BTW: Did you ever see those fabric boxes in red?!

I finally sorted my patterns into folders and organized my sewing books and magazines.

And here’s a lovely box that my mother gave me two years ago as a birthday gift:

 

Now, there’s not much left to do: We need to rearrange the lights and I want my dad to make a simple design wall – my birthday is in three months, so that would be a perfect gift (o:

Thanks so much for your help so far, Papa!!!
Paradise is not far off after all, it’s located in our basement!

Happy Sewing!
Christine

Sewing Room Makeover (1)

I sew downstairs in the basement. In a room where we kept leftover furniture from our first flat. A couch. A coffee table. A desk. A dining table. 6 chairs. A foldable bed for guests. When I began sewing, I moved my machine and all my fabrics in and was happy to be able to keep the machine on the table - ready to sew at all times. But with my increasing stash, a second sewing machine, the ironing board and a cutting table (aka desk) that was way to low and caused back aches, I have long wished to redo that sewing room.

The chaotic sewing table:

Somehow at the end of last year we found a new home to all that leftover furniture and my dad had given me a promise-to-construct-a-sewing-table christmas gift. So we “just” had to move out all the leftover furniture and to build a cutting table, a sewing table and some additional shelves. And then my husband broke his shoulder.

During the last 8 days I have been working to improve my sewing room. Which included two trips to IKEA to buy 5 EXPEDIT racks (many thanks to that young man who helped me lift those 36 kg parcels into my car!!!). My dad has been helping at lot. He helped me to build the sewing table and the cutting table and to assemble the racks.

Here you can see him constructing my cutting table observed by his little assistant.

The finished cutting table and lots of free space for my new sewing table:

I’m still cleaning the racks, rearranging my fabrics, filling boxes, sorting scraps and battings. I hope to be done by end of easter and I hope to be able to show you the photos of the finished room next week.

Happy Easter everyone!
Christine