Thursday, September 16, 2010

My New Sewing Room!

I can finally share some pictures of my new sewing room in the making! The built-in closet and shelves were done early last week, the room cleaned and I finally started moving in last week Thursday night. I have dedicated a corner of the room to each of my crafts. Above is a picture of my "library" and "quiet corner" where I can read, crochet, knit or just sit and admire my new room. Of course, over the last few days this chair has also become Jessie's new favorite spot! Love my new carpet that is a mixture of red, pink, lilac and purple.

Apart from the built-in closet, the carpenter also added a deep shelve all around the room where all my plastic containers with yarn can be stored. This was my DH's idea and what a great idea it was! I have sorted all my yarn by type and labelled the containers. I even have a container each for WIP crochet projects as well as WIP knitting projects!

This is my new Scrapbooking Corner. Although I have not done any Scrapbooking for over 2 years, lately I have felt like it, so I have hauled out some of my supplies. The closet will be divided into craft areas as well.

This is my sewing and computer corner. I must still sort out the wires. As you can see my sewing table sports a brand-new cover.

Another picture of my high shelving for yarn storage. I bought these really nice cherise pink fabric storage holders and labelled each one after I sorted the yarn by type.
This is my sewing (handbags and other) supplies corner of the closet. All my cotton fabric, handbag, apron and other patterns and tools for sewing is in this part.

This is the crochet/knit as well as part of my sewing (clothing only) supplies corner in the closet. Here you see (most of) my stretch knit fabric and clothing patterns as well as all my knitting needles and crochet hooks, etc.

The rest of the closet is still "under construction" and I hope to get it done this weekend. There is still my scrapbooking corner and the rest of my sewing supplies to sort out.

This picture was taken from the door. It shows the large open space in the middle of the room, in front of the window. This is where my new cutting table will be! My FIL is a mean woodworker and he is busy making me a wooden cutting table to my exact specifications. It will be a plain wooden table the exact size and height to make cutting fabric easier on me. I cannot wait!
I wish I had more time to finish my room but life has been very hectic around here. I hope to share more detailed pictures soon. My wonderful DH suggested additional, narrower shelves to display all my lovely stuff and I really like the idea. Still lots to do before I can actually do anything, but soon. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Sis Boom Meghan Peasant Blouse

I found the most delightful sewing pattern for a peasant blouse recently. The Sis Boom Meghan Peasant blouse pattern by Jennifer Paganelli is available in a downloadable PDF format on this lovely website http://www.pinkchalkfabrics.com/. Although the pattern is designed for cotton fabric, I used my favorite knit jersey fabric instead.

This is my first attempt. Lovely new flowery knit fabric I recently found at a local fabric store. I selected the size S (4-6) size and cut out the pattern on the second cutting line on each pattern piece. Each pattern piece has three sizes. The only reason I did this is because the first cutting line made the top front piece look extremely small. Although I do like the top, the front bodice was too big for me. The elastic part is not quite right.

This is my second attempt. My favorites - pink and polka dots. Another knit jersey fabric I bought at Hobby Lobby in Chicago. This time I cut the pattern on the first line and the bodice fit perfectly. Sorry, no pics of me wearing it, although I have warn it twice already! I also changed the bottom part to flare a bit and made it a bit shorter than the first version.

This is a stunning pattern. Very easy to follow with some really cool sewing methods I have never encountered before. Such as the method you follow to make the elastic casings. The method makes life so much easier and avoids puckering. I did not have to make any adjustments to the pattern for using knit jersey instead of cotton, which was also amazing. I highly recommend this pattern and plan to make many more!

You might remember I mentioned that I am re-doing my sewing room? It has been a very busy time with me spending several days clearing out my sewing room (I cannot believe how much stash I have accumulated!!) and getting it ready for the make-over. This is a picture I took this morning. The room has now been freshly painted and internet and power cables neatly laid. I just need to clean the carpet and wait for the carpenter to come in the end of this week. He will be installing shelves and a closet. The exciting part is coming soon!


This is where I have stored all my stuff. Our entertainment room looks positively terrible! This picture just shows a small section, it looks a lot worse! I will have to be more selective when I start moving my stash back into my new sewing room. And buy less!

I will share progress in the new sewing room as it happens. Once again, if you know of any good links to help me decorate my new room, please share them!