The Great WSBN sewing room tour

It's probably really well known around the sewing bloggers that the WSBN are always up to something either in real life or in cyberland - gee I can barely keep up with the FB Group we have!  But then one of our lovely members (Gemma at 66stitches.wordpress.com) suggested we should do a sewing room tour to get us out of our winter slump and ready for spring - oh yeah, who wouldn't want to do this! 

I think I've said before, that in March my eldest daughter moved to Australia which meant for the first time ever, I could have my own wee sewing room, and return the dining room to it's original purpose.  When I say wee, it is really wee compared to others I've seen on the WSBN sewing room tour.  Only 3.25m x 2.25m with a window on one long wall and the door on the short wall...

I started planning before my daughter had even left home (sad I know!), well this is what I had finally settled on.  I purchased the furniture second hand knowing the dimensions of the room were limiting - then they sat in the shed while I renovated the room.  Yep, I decided that if I was going to have a new sewing room then it needed to feel sparkly new.  Let me show you a picture of the pre-renovation room ...

This is not pretty!  Not for a sewing room.

Well, I could write a detailed book about my first ever renovation project (which I did all by my little self), but I won't bore you with that detail, so let me just wave my little magic Cinderella wand ... abbra-ka-dabbra  *poof* ...

The prettiest little sewing room ever!

As you can see, it didn't go exactly accordingly to my original plans - I forgot to take into consideration the dress form (that doesn't have a name btw!) and the set of draws I inherited from daughter #2.  There is just enough room for me to scoot around on my re-purposed office chair (currently draped in a blanket, that I usually wrap around my legs, cause it's winter!).

Let's go around the room clockwise starting at the 9 - the ironing board is in the original location and you can see the blue end just in the photo, and just below that, the brown paper bag on the floor filled with fabric - I should be honest there is actually three bags, you just can't see them, hehehe!

Then at 10 is my hand work space with the ipad, cause I always like to watch things while I sew.  At 11 is my dress form, a Singer 150 which I bought a cover for - I don't think I could look at that bright red colour for too long.  I also like that I don't have to navigate the gaps when I'm using it.

At 12 are my sewing machines - my Janome DC6030 (purchased just 18 months ago) and overlocker Globelock M-4 which I inherited from my mother and had serviced.  It's okay but doesn't much like the sheer fabrics.  Next are the draws where I stash my patterns, muslins, interfacing, basket of threads, and the like.

Then at 3 you have my cutting table.  Yeah it's not very tall but I'm still trying to come up with a plan to elevate it more.  Then ... underneath the table are a few more bags spewing fabric!  Behind the door are my rolls of tracing paper, waxed tracing sheets and a roll of calico.

   

Most of my Me-Made-May photos where taken in this room

But sadly today I've moved out of my room so it can be converted back to a bedroom, and I'm taking up residence in the dining room again.  This time not on the dining room table!  I now have a corner of the room with all my furniture nicely arranged

Today was a bit cold so the dehumidifier is still working on clearing the condensation!

Being back in the dining room I can be right in front of the fire in winter and get the best view in summer.  The light in the new space isn't that great at night but loads of natural light during the day.  It will be perfect now that we are heading into summer and daylight savings :-)

What you didn't see in previous photos was my wee set of draws with my scissors, zipper stash, elastics, trims and other bits and pieces.

Where is her fabric stash I hear you say ... very valid question.  I never like to admit that I have a stash that keeps mutating, so it's hidden in a couple of places.  Here is cupboard one - originally the stash only took up two shelves in this cupboard (with room to breath); now it's stuffed into three!

Now let's take a walk downstairs and into my linen cupboards just outside the laundry ...

... hahaha you still cant' see any fabric.  Come on, a little hide-n-seek is always fun :-)  As you may have guessed those are all bags from The Fabric Store, cause that is seriously my favourite fabric shop!

You also may have noticed that there isn't any work-in-progress.  Right now I'm trying to decide what to make next.  On my dress form is my recently finished Pavot jacket that is awaiting a decision on buttons - luckily Pavot is patient :-)

I've also just finished a Marfy top as a wearable muslin.  I'm tempted to make some changes and sew it all over again, but I don't feel like doing that right now.

I've just purchased the new Jenna Cardi and could make that up is this pretty merino, but I have to go to the office to print the PDF, and well that's not gonna happen today.

I've got some beautiful wool crepe to make this Marfy dress, but I will need to go buy some lining appropriate for the fabric.  I also have another Marfy jacket that I want to make - but these are serious time consuming projects.

Then I want to make a Belcarra dress with this as inspiration, but will also need to make the slip dress underneath.

I have two Papercut Patterns that I'm keen to make a start on; the Coppelia wrap top from this pretty blue merino and some Ooh la Leggings from this shinny merino blend :-)

Then I've got a master plan to sew a little something for the Pattern Review Frankenpattern contest, mainly because the contest master is Heather B, and morphing a couple of patterns together is always fun.  I'm undecided at the moment what exactly I'm gonna make.

So many options, so many decisions, so many patterns, so much fabric, I'm exhausted just thinking about it!  .... while sitting here looking out the window, at this little slice of heaven ...

Today was rather overcast and the ocean a bit rough, but on a good day, it is beautiful.

... it has come to me, so gotta go, got some frankening to work out *mwahaahaa*

PS. If you're interested in more photos of my sewing room 'that was' and 'that is now', head on over to my Flickr -->

Edit note:  hopefully you can see all the photos in this post - I've had some trouble with Flickr goggling my images.  Please email me if you can see them and I'll try and fix again xx  

Edit note 2:  Full list of the WSBN Tour
1st: Gemma at 66 Stitches
2nd: Laura at Laulipopnz
4th: Nikki at NikkiStitches
5th: Juliet at Crazy Gypsy Chronicles
6th: Sandra at SewistStitch
7th: Sophie-Lee at Two Random Words
8th: Kat at Macskakat
9th: Holly at Polycraftual
10th: MaryLouise at Thanks I made this myself
11th: Nina at Ninavirgo
12th: Sandra at FlossieFT
13th: Melissa at The Curous Kiwi
14th: Zara at Off-Grid Chic
15th: Crafty Mermaid
16th: Gillian at Sewing Down Under
17th: Leimomi at The Dreamstress
18th: Teresa at Adventures of a Girl from the Naki
19th: Joy at Acharmofmagpies
20th: Nicola at Silvern Swan
21st: Jenna at Ruby Dust
22nd: MrsC from Sent from my iRon
22nd: Elisabeth

Winter Swap Goodies

I have recently participated in the INAUGURAL WINTER SWAP 2013  hosted by Penny at Dresses and Me.

I had never participated in a fabric swap before but Penny outlined really clearly how it would work.  I really like the idea of receiving a parcel that would be completely mysterious. 

After a really busy week at work I arrived home on Friday evening to find my parcel waiting for me :-)

My parcel was a treasure chest of sewing goodies ...

I love this wee purse size sewing kit - just perfect.

These cute buttons, pack of 20cm zippers and pretty bias - the boats and polka dot bias is steering me toward a shift dress.

I have never seen this magazine before and have already read it cover to cover. 

A Burda pattern - I'm really liking the look of view A

Two pieces of fabric.  The small polka dot almost looks red in the picture, but is actually cerise pink, I would say a chiffon and it sparkles, not that you can tell from the picture.  The other piece is a cotton.

The last is a miniature hot water bottle for those cold winter nights.  The perfect size for my lap while sitting at the sewing machine :-)

All wrapped up together with this charming card and envelope - most definitely a case of card envy!!!

Thanks so much Trees for being my Winter Swap partner :-)

Hummingbird Cake

Well I'm finally here to share my Hummingbird after the sneek peek in my last post about the Cake sew-a-long.

The shape of the Hummingbird really appealed to me, although I have never really been a peplum fan!  After stalking the Hummingbird in the blogisphere I thought the nature of the knit fabric would mean that it would sit rather nicely rather than flaring out.  I don't like the thought of accentuating my hips!

I found this rather yummy striped merino at The Fabric Store sale.  As always it is a dream fabric to work with :)  I really love the way it fells, wears and falls.

As with my Tiramisu I am between size 30 and 35.  To achieve a snug fit I chose to make up the size 30.   Before starting I knew that I wanted to change neckline and the sleeves.  I lengthen the sleeve by 1" and took 1/4" off at each shoulder to give a wider look to the neck.  Perfect if you ask me :-)

Cake Patterns provide for fit checks at different stages during construction.  Whilst I did do a fit check before I attached the peplum, the waist it is still about 1/2" longer that it should be.  I've tried to hide this by styling with a belt :)  

I think this would work perfectly if the waist to my skirt was more body hugging - as you can probably see there is a wee shelf just under the belt - that's the top of the skirt :-(

I love the skirt shape and style, but it could have done with another 1/4" taken off the waist and the band being twice as deep.   I'm pretty sure that this is a skirt I WILL make again.

The fabric for the skirt was from my stash and I lined it with some simple acetate.   I've got no idea what type of fabric it is or where I got it from.

I inserted an invisible zip in the skirt with my new machine foot - why didn't I have one of these before?????

I Love my Hummingbird and can't wait for the weather to get a little warmer so I can wear it without a jacket or cardi.

No sleeves thank you!

This week I've been working on my second Indie Pattern, the Go Anywhere Dress by Sewn Square One.  The pattern provides for three variations: a dress, a tunic and a top.

I selected the dress to make first up, with a woven pinstripe from my stash.  All was going well and literally finished today, BUT .... they just had to go - yep the sleeves just had to come off.

It wasn't just the sleeves of the dress but also the sleeves of the lining, which I had just finished hand stitching in place!  Although my fault, I didn't place the sleeves in when I did the muslin.  I figured a 'sleeve is a sleeve' and I've never really had any problem with a sleeve before.  My usual adjustment of a dress is for the hip and when I make that adjustment the waist is slightly adjusted when I true up the curve.

I think the dress will be great with no sleeves and actually more my style.  Maybe that was the message!   The pockets are a great feature and really make the dress - here is a sneak peek.  You will see what I mean when I reveal the finished garment :-)