Today, for about fifteen minutes, my sewing space is fairly neat. I decided it was time to get some photos of it because it may be months before it's cleared up again. My dear sweet husband, Andy, built this for me last year. We moved into this house in 2001, and I put my sewing area into a small (really, really small) upstairs bedroom. I know I was lucky to even have a room at all, but it was really depressing because I was so isolated from the rest of the house. In the process of trying to come up with a solution, I started looking at available space and realized that we have a 3-car garage with 1 car parked in it. (Andy's company truck is too long to fit). The lightbulb went on and after months of battling with the HOA, we got our building permit! We had to tear out the portion of the driveway that was meant for this section of the garage, had to completely match the exterior portion of the house with the existing architecture - but we would have done that anyway. We were on a very tight budget - thank goodness for Ikea!
The studio is directly off of the living room. Andy installed french doors so that it can be closed off.
We had to work around an angled wall in the corner, so I just put a mirror on it and made it a changing/fitting area. I have a wonderful Horn cutting table that has hinged sections to save space (I keep the giant cutting board between the wall and the table when it's not in use):
The other corner has a "wardrobe" closet with frosted glass doors. This is where all of the irons, boards, patterns, interfacing, favorite fabrics from my stash, live. See my "in floor" electrical outlet? It's wonderful for keeping cords under control. (That's my big ole body double with the jacket on it). I made little padded cushions for my sewing chairs to match the dressing area curtain. (I also made a new ironing board cover from it, and I still have more of it. I think it's reproducing in the drawer.
I keep two of my machines out all of the time. I have this nice long counter that they sit on. I keep notions, serger thread, ribbons, craft supplies, and a lot of other junk in the cabinets above the machines. There's my Pfaff 2038. I love it. It's the 3rd Pfaff I've owned, and I still have my Pfaff I got for high school graduation - it's in the glass doored wardrobe in the corner.
I really needed a place to keep my favorite sewing, quilting and craft books, so Andy built me a floating corner bookcase. I didn't have to sacrifice any counter space! He's a genious. See that goofy photo with the light green backgound and the orange along the left side? Kim Kwan made it and gave that to me. It's a sample from a class she taught. She had done a photo sitting for me and my siblings. I guess she figured we were perfect for turning into goofuses! I love it, it's a fun addition tothe serious section of my room. Don't you love my little red drawers? Office supplies live there.
Speaking of serious - I do have to do my paying job (as a controller for an IT company), and they let me work from home 2 days a week! This is where that happens. I spend a lot of time gazing out the window... (Not really, they keep me very busy.)
So, I have the perfect place to create all those fun things that are swimming around in my brain. Isn't my Andy wonderful?
