Unveiling and Grand Tour

Welcome to my new and improved sewing room! Let me give you the "Grand Tour".

The decorating theme of the room is "boro", a type of patching and simple stitching technique originating in Japan. In keeping with that theme I made a welcoming rag wreath for the door using this tutorial found on Pinterest, with some changes. For one thing I used denim from jeans so the strips needed to be longer so I could tie them. I also added strips from quilting cottons in indigo prints and finally added small white artificial flowers.

 

Standing just inside the doorway and looking across to the window you get a good view of the wall colour (Behr paint's "bootcut") and the beautiful vinyl plank flooring my husband laid. The floor colour is "driftwood". I love it!

Together he and I made the pressing station on the left. More details on a previous blog post if you follow the link. I keep all things related to pressing and measuring, along with much of my cutting tools, in the drawers and behind the cupboard doors. The baskets below are full of fabric.

Directly under the window is a narrow table that was originally for a knitting machine. I didn't initially plan to use it in here but I have found I need a convenient "landing place" for things that I want available, yet out of the way, when I'm working on a project. It allows my pressing station and sewing table to be clutter free when they are in use. The little table also works well for spinning with my charkha and yet it is narrow, only 16" deep, so it doesn't take up much room. The runner on the table right now is a Saori weaving and it's just there for the Christmas season.

General lighting is provided by the LED track lighting on the ceiling, purchased from Home Depot, while bright task lighting is provided by shop lights mounted beneath Bergshult/Granhult wall shelves from IKEA.

As practical as all those lights are I think my favourite are the little dragonfly lights. I leave them on when I'm not in the room and the main light is off. It provides a very inviting, soft, "mood" light.

Standing at the window and looking back towards the other wall you can see my Linnmon/Alex desk from IKEA, another task light mounted under a shelf, and a little shelf bought ages ago at Micheal's. I keep most of my embroidery floss clipped to it and sorted by colour number. The chair is a Langfjall purchased at IKEA. Yes, we made several trips to IKEA. 

Continuing the Boro patching/stitching theme I sewed custom covers for each of my machines, sewing, serging, and coverstitching. The covers might look lumpy and bumpy but it's because they follow the shape of the machine underneath. 

And here's the real workhorse of the room. My 25 cube KALLAX unit. It's not in the configuration I originally intended. Once I started putting my stuff away I found that I wanted more doors and less bins. A lot of what I had to store worked best on a shelf, rather than in a pull out bin but I really did not want all the visual clutter of filled shelves showing so we bought more of the doored inserts. I love the clean, clutter free look.

I reserved the centre top shelf as a living space for "Willie", my little creative mascot, a Dream High Studio House Elf.

As we leave my little sewing sanctuary I want to show you a few small details up close.

Beside the door and visible from my sewing chair, a cute little clock purchased from an Etsy seller some time ago.

Above the door more sewing mice. This time in a framed cross-stitch my daughter made for me years ago.

And shutting off the lights as we leave the room -- a light fixture decorated with alcohol inks. 

If there is anything else you'd like to see up close, or if you have any questions about items you've seen in the "tour" just let me know and they may be covered in a future blog post. 

Pressing Station

While I wait for my sewing room to be completed I am keeping busy with little projects related to the rennos going on in there.

 

Before the room was even started my husband and I got to work on this sturdy new pressing station. My old ironing board was rickety and threatened to toss my irreplaceable iron to the floor. I am very protective of that iron since it very well might be the last of the ones available *without* an automatic shut off. I find turning around, mid project, to use an iron and finding it off and cold to be infuriating! 

My husband and I built a standard 4 x 2 cube KALLAX unit from IKEA then he added sturdy pine boards, cut to size, to the top and the bottom. Another board, with slightly wider and longer dimensions and a bit of an added rim, allows the entire padded surface to be lifted off if a cover change becomes necessary and yet it is very sturdy and doesn't move around.

The top is 3 layers of cotton quilt batting, a layer of heat resistant ironing board cloth, and then the outer fabric which is a heavy cotton decorator fabric. For now, with my sewing room down for renovations, the pressing station is set up in our home office area and has been seeing a fair bit of use. It's a delight to use!

We finished off the pressing station with 2 drawer units (total of 4 drawers) and 2 doored units. Those additions did come with drawer pulls but they just didn't have the personality and crafty look I wanted for a creative space so I got to work and transformed 1 1/4" wooden knobs from Home Depot with paint, a simple decorative flower motif, and several coats of Varathane. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out.

The lower row of cube cubbies is filled with BRANAS baskets and I've been busy making liners for them of boro patchwork and accents of simple, bold stitching.

Speaking of patching -- here's how the progress in the room is going. The closet is out, the drywall is up, and the seams are being mudded and sanded. Next step will be priming the whole room and then spraying texture on the ceiling. Or maybe it's the other way around? Anyway, I'm not the one in charge of that so all I can do is pace, peek in now and then, and continue on with my little detail work.

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Inspiration from Multiple Sources

This past month or so I've spent a lot of time embroidering each day. I've been working on embellishing the fabric that has gone into making a very artsy tunic.

The fabric itself was upcycled from a thrift store purchase of an IKEA duvet cover, and the extensive stitching was inspired by the examples in a book by Alabama Chanin, "The Geometry of Hand Sewing". I own other more detailed and involved embroidery reference books but I must say the simplicity of the way this book is presented, and the wonderful punched grid pages for marking embroidery lines evenly, really make the purchase worthwhile.

I used the Les Etoiles Tunic sewing pattern by individual pattern developer, Bridget Mann. If you're looking for something unconventional and offbeat you can find her patterns on her website here, and in her Etsy shop here. 

I love the bell shape to the hemline of this tunic. So different! Relaxed and comfortable to wear the tunic also has nice, roomy, and useful pockets.

When creating new pieces for my growing wardrobe of one of a kind handmades I take inspiration from all around me. A key influence has been the words and work of Anita Luvera Mayer. Anita believes there should be something magical and unique about what is worn each day. 

I also find great inspiration in the playful, bold, and cheerful colours and prints used in the collections by Swedish fashion designer, Gudrun Sjoden. 

If you'd like a more in depth look into what grabs my attention in the fashion world I keep a couple of Pinterest boards that might be of interest:  

Gudrun Sjoden 

and

Lagenlook.