Sewing Room Makeover - In Progress

I didn't take any real "Before" shots so all of these are going to show the room in "During" disaster mode.

In this photo, you can see there is a little table with a machine on it sitting at the end of my cutting table. What you can't see is that next to this little table, there was a Sterlite 3-drawer plastic bin thingie.



Both of those are now gone. You can also see the IKEA 4x2 shelf set up in the corner. DH repositioned my mirror, but I still need to re-hang the bulletin board.



This is the far wall where my ironing board was set up.



The ironing board is currently in limbo. But the two 4x4 units are set up and in position.



This corner was a complete mess before.



The bookcase holds all my sewing books, BWOFs, and some other magazines. There are also plastic bins and ugly shelves squished together.



My TV was sitting on top of a piece of plywood on top of a table missing its glass insert. I had plans to refinish this table, but I hadn't gotten to it yet. The best laid plans …



TV table and ugly shelves/bins gone! I've moved in a cabinet from the attic that used to be DH's grandfather's, which DH and I refinished about 20 years ago. I'm thinking of painting it and turning it into an ironing station. The TV has been moved to the top of the IKEA shelves, where I can actually see it now. The tall bookcase has been relocated to my bedroom and the sewing books will again be stored in it. My bedroom is where I read those books anyway so this will actually be more convenient and my bedroom is plenty big enough to take on the bookcase. In fact, I like it a lot in there and have decided that now (as in sometime later) I am going to make a little reading corner in front of its new home.



There's still a lot of stuff to put away, rehang, and/or remove, but I'm making progress. The hardest part is deciding on new homes for the stuff. And I will still either make or buy some bins for the cubbies to make some of the utility more decorative. And curtains, which are looooong overdue.

Actually, the hardest part will be when we put in new flooring someday. Also looooong overdue. Then I'll have to move everything out, which will mean emptying everything first – including the pattern cabinet. I don't look forward to that, but I'm not going to think about that until I have to.


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Before I started this disaster makeover, I was digging through my pile of Stuff I Want To Do. I found these tapestry panels which I bought years ago (like before we moved into this house!) and had planned to make into deco pillows for my sister. Well, I decided it was finally time. Well, it was either that or admit defeat and toss them.

These were pretty simple. Trim the tapestry panel, cut some backing fabric to size, stuff and sew up the stuffing hole. But for this one, I decided to also add some welt cording around the edge. My welt cording foot made easy work of that. Love my presser feet!



Because I thought a single layer was going to be too thin, the backs are double-layered with khaki colored linen scraps.





This may be the only sewing to come out of this room for a while. You know how it is when you start a room re-do — a million other little "improvements" sneak in and take over, and boy do I have plans! We'll see how far I get.

Under Construction

We had a little family outing to IKEA tonight, all four of us. It was DH's first trip to this "new" IKEA, which has been open here in Tampa for just over a year now. I can't believe I hadn't dragged him there before now. Neither can he. But he actually enjoyed it. Or he's a very good actor. LOL! My sons (who are still aged 6 and 9 sometimes) wore their Heelies and zoomed all over the place, so they enjoyed it too.

First, we stopped in the restaurant for dinner. I'm always impressed by the combination of the goodness and cheapness of the food. I know it's a cafeteria, but it feels more than that. It was 2-for-1 Buffalo chicken wraps tonight so DS#2 chowed down on both. Plus fries. LOL! DH and I had the chicken fingers, and DS#1 had the pasta, meatballs and marinara plus almond cake for dessert. I split chocolate cake with DS#2. Yes, he still had room for cake after those wraps!

After dinner, we began our my mission for new shelving for the sewing room. I already knew I wanted Expedit shelving. I know everyone and their dog has these shelves, but there's a reason. They hold a lot of crap, look nice and don't cost a lot. Search "IKEA Expedit" on Flickr for some great combinations.

Until I saw the shelves in person again, I wasn't sure exactly how many I really wanted. I ended up with two of the 4x4 and one of the 4x2 (cube-y things, not measurements). I had checked the website before leaving and the 4x4's were priced at the "new lower price" of $99 each. Except they were marked $129 in the store. A quick conference with a manager and we learned that the new catalog had just come out yesterday and the prices were raised overnight, although still not on the website when I checked upon our return or even now that it's technically two days later. But they still honored the $99 price for me, which was great. I heart IKEA.

We also picked up a $7.99 floor lamp for DS#2's room, some 99¢ lint rollers and a bunch of foodstuff from the Bistro section. Yum! Cinnamon buns for breakfast and lox for lunch!

Total spent: $298. I heart IKEA.

So of course this means my sewing room is a HUGE disaster right now. DS#1 has built two of the units so far; one is moved into the sewing room and the other is in the hallway outside of it. The third is on the floor in my bedroom. I don't like clutter so I'll be very motivated to get this swapping done as soon as possible.

I also think I might have to have to spend as much as the cost of one shelf (or more) on some bins to put in the cubbies. But that seems kind of silly to me so before I drop the cash, I'm going to try to work out "refashioning" all the cardboard these shelves were packed in into some DIY fabric-covered bins. Box cutter, ruler, packing tape, spray adhesive, fabric — it shouldn't be too difficult. I'll ask DH to pick up the spray adhesive at Home Depot tomorrow when he's getting a quart of paint mixed to cover the holes I'll need to patch when we he moves the mirror and some pictures. A check of the leftover paint we had and we discovered it was dried out. Florida heat kills paint in the garage.

Spice Girls

And the winners are …



28 = Stacey said... To quote my husband "they're free? POST A COMMENT NOW!"

52 = Marjie said... OOOHHH! Please! Me! Me?

Stacey and Marjie, please email me your mailing info, to djc@cedesign.com. If I don't hear from you in one week (by next Saturday morning), I'll have to move on to another winner. I need these boxes off of my counter. ;-)

Have fun spicing up your life!

Giveaway - Non-Sewing

ETA: Blogger's comments are goofy today. First they're there, then they're not. Don't worry if yours appears to have vanished - the comments will be back when Blogger fixes the bug. But if it's not fixed by Saturday, I have the comments saved in my emails.

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I know this is a strange thing to be giving away on a mostly sewing-related blog, but what the heck. I'm sure there are some others of you out there that like to cook as much as I do. This collection of herbs & spices are extras I received work-related (too complicated to go into the details) and they are high quality, new in sealed jars, and pretty to look at even if you don't cook. ;-)

What you'll get:

One each of Sage, Poppy Seed, Fennel Seed, Paprika, Muchi Curry, Saffron, Ground Ginger, Black Peppercorns, Chives, 1 Vanilla Bean, Basil, Oregano.

What to do:

Just leave a comment on this post by Friday, July 9. You don't have to friend me or follow me or anything extra. But no Anonymous comments/entries please. I'll do the random number generator thingie and post the results on Saturday.

I have two complete collections so there will be two winners.

Unfortunately, I can only ship these food items within the USA, so I'll have to restrict this to those readers. Apologies to the international-to-me peeps.

Pattern Organization

Sondra asked a couple of posts ago for me to expand on my pattern organization. Her wish is my command. ;-)

First, my "analog" version. All regular sized pattern envelopes are stored in loose leaf binders, sorted by general category such as tops, dresses, jackets, wardrobe patterns, men's, etc. I love having my "catalogs" to browse through while laying on my bed.

Until today, those binders were the typical blue plastic type. I don't know why I bought blue except maybe that I already had one and just bought the others to match. I used up more stash scraps by making covers for those binders this afternoon, using the instructions from here, minus the tab closure thingy. (The instructions/measurement guidelines worked out perfectly so I highly recommend them.)



Also on top of the cabinet is my basket of "on deck." I don't always make everything that's in this basket. It's more of a "what has caught my eye lately" collection and it changes regularly. I also throw new patterns in here until I get them into my system. (The basket was more than overflowing with un-systemized patterns until my organization frenzy last night, which tells you how behind I was.)

Finally in this mix, there's often a stack of stuff printed from the internet. Again, I don't always actually DO them, but I like to dream. ;-) The top of this cabinet is unusually clean today since I was taking photos. I stuck the Featherweight on top for more visual interest.



All of my actual pattern tissues and instructions are separated from the envelopes and stored in my pattern cabinet in Pattern Keeper ziplocks I buy from Nancy's Notions. I hope to paint this pattern cabinet one day soon. I'm really tired of the boring beige. (I'm also really tired of my sewing room non-decor/layout in general so look for me to be documenting changes over the next couple of months.)



I recycle the backs of papers to make pattern number sheets and file the patterns by company and then by number. There is a pocket on the outside of the pattern ziplock for this number sheet. I also stick the instructions behind the number sheet so I can quickly grab them when I want to check something.



The tissue is inside the ziplock section of the bag. It's a lot easier to put tissue and tracings back inside these bigger bags than inside a pattern envelope.



My oversized patterns, such as Jalie and HotPatterns, are stored flat in their own drawer in the cabinet. This part of the system needs an update, but right now it's working.



Burda magazine pattern inserts are in their own drawer. I haven't subscribed to Burda WOF/BS for a while now so this drawer hasn't changed much but there are at least 5 years worth of pattern inserts here with plenty of room for more. The actual magazines, along with others such as Ottobre and Knip Mode, are stored on a shelf on my bookcase.


I still have one empty drawer in the cabinet, but it's blocked anyway at the moment by the dog bed which you can sort of see below the drawer.

To prevent me from buying duplicates of patterns I already own, I also keep a digital list of my patterns and magazine issues. I use ListPro for this. It will sync with a Palm or other handheld device so you can carry your list to the store if needed. This is good for keeping a running Wish List too, since as long as you sync with the desktop, you'll always have your Wish List with you. Or, you can just print it too. I'm sure there are other apps available now, but I've been using this one for a number of years and haven't felt a need to change.

With ListPro, I created a custom list that separates patterns by company and then by pattern number. I can enter garment type, size info, notes, whether I've made it or not, and other info. Lately though, I really only enter the number but that and my loose leaf binders are enough for me to know what I have, and it works for me.

In addition to my pattern list and the usual lists such as grocery and to-do, I also have lists for things such as directions to far-away fabric stores that I don't frequent often, measurement conversions, Superbowl stats, state capitols and facts, Presidents, and all sorts of weird stuff like that. It's fun, in an OCD kind of way. ;-)