Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Sewjo Reclaimed (and a peek at my sewing room...for a little while)

When I first started sewing again at the end of 2008, I took over the dining room, then the living room. The picture below is from March 2009 and is my most viewed picture on Flickr (@by Lorna). Amazingly, my whole stash of fabric and notions fit in those cute little green containers. Oh, how that has changed...

Living room circa 2009

In 2012 we finished our basement and I was so excited to claim a small room for my creative space. A dedicated sewing room seemed ideal.  But....I found that I did not sew nearly as much after moving to the basement.  All the family activity was upstairs, the kids were upstairs, the natural light was upstairs!  I couldn't be in the center of things.  I had to make a decision to go sew and almost make a declaration, "Family, I'm going to the basement to sew."

Slowly but surely, over the past year, I began to migrate my sewing back to the dining room.  First I moved my machine and a single project upstairs.  One project became three or four. Half my notions were strewn about. Fabric piled up, and so it went.  But even with the mess, I suddenly was sewing more.  The sewjo returned.  I was energized by creativity and color again.  I felt productive.  I dusted off this blog.  I finally jumped into quilting. Having my sewing right in the center of other activity allowed me to spend five or ten minutes sewing some seams or cutting out a project while dinner was cooking.  My older daughter could join me in the dining room with her homework. The little one could wander in and sit beside me and play with scraps.

A month ago we decided to move.  Or, more accurately, I found (and became emotionally attached to) a house before ours was anywhere near ready to put on the market.  A flurry of activity over a seven-day period ensued and a for sale went up.  Less than two days later we accepted an offer on our house and had an offer accepted on the new house.  Whew!  While the house was on the market, my sewing had to move neatly back to the sewing room in the basement.  The room never looked cleaner... (I won't show you my giant, overstuffed Expedit shelf on the opposite wall or the fabric and bags of stuff jammed in the storage closet!)

Basement sewing room all ready for house showings.
I do love this room. There is something to having a space that is all yours. Isn't the heart mini cute?  I received it as part of the #lovewinsminiswap last October from Elaine (@eirefinghin on instagram). The table on the left was my dad's kitchen table when he was a kid.  I love the art deco feel of the leg painting. The table on the right was built and finished by my late stepfather.  I put it on bed risers to bring it up to cutting height.   My husband and older daughter absolutely hate the rug and call it the "zebra rug".  However, my firecracker of a 3-year old loves it; she gets me.  Oh yeah, I bought that lovely Janome S7 at Glamp Stitchalot; I feel in love with the automatic thread cutter, among other things, and had to bring it home. You can also see my serger peeking out.  I overcame my fears last year and thought I had it figured out, but nope, not yet. I keep breaking thread and so it sits.

In the new house, my girls and I will claim a room right on the first floor.  All our sewing, art and crafting will happen there.  It will be easy to access and the girls can pull out supplies and create whenever they want.  The room has great natural light with two big windows.  Doors close off the space (and will hide our creative mess), which will make my husband much less antsy/twitchy.  We are excited!  Once we're all set up, I'll give a tour.

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