My Sewing Space

We have been blessed that every assignment we get sent to, my sewing room just get's better and better. I was lucky enough to have a dedicated sewing room in our last two homes but our new home just takes the cake. Here I started out with a somewhat small second bedroom to work in (lucky thing about being so far away in Norway, I seldom have to make room for guests in my sewing space.)

My sweet husband noticed that I had spent less time sewing than usual in my new space and he suggested that it was too cramped, and that I should spread out. We have a large upstairs landing and he helped me turn my studio from a one dark room to a large open bright space, plus a room for the overflow!

 

 I'm so happy to have a big open space with plenty of light to work. And at my back I have a great big sewing table with adjustable length, my birthday gift for this year.

I plan on filling the walls with sewing pattern and vintage fashion memorabilia.

A 1950's Anne Adams catalog, the first of many to be hung in this room.

 The art is a collection of vintage lingerie magazine ads from Vogue that I acquired from this great shop on etsy.

This one is my absolute favorite.

The bolt of fabric in the background of this one is just idea for a sewing room!

UPDATE: You ask, where do I stash my fabric and sewing pattern collection? In the adjoining room! That's right, when he said spread out, he meant I should use the landing and the second bedroom. The fabric and pattern mess is neatly stowed away in the next room! I asked him why he didn't mind me practically taking over our second floor and he said, "Why would I mind? You love this stuff, and I only go upstairs to shower and sleep."
What a guy. :)

How about you? Do you have your dream sewing space? Or are you creative within a limited space?
I know what I'm doing with my space today. I just got some amazing quilted silk velvet fabric in the mail from fabric.com

and I'll be making slippers today from it using this great vintage slipper pattern pdf I finished recently.

Lingerie Sew-Along: Everything you need in one place!

I just thought that I would include a link to each individual lingerie-sew along as sort of an index where you could skip to the step you're looking for without having to drag through the rest of the blog posts. Here you go!


Bra:

Part 1: Printing the pattern, and adding seam allowance
Part 2: Resizing, Layout and Cutting your bra
Part 3: Darts, Pressing, and Attaching the Bra Band
Part 4: Binding the top of the bra
Part 5: Finishing the bra band
Part 6: Closure, straps, finishing touches and pictures

Tap Pants:

Part 7: Starting the Tap Pants
Part 8: Tap Pants Cutting, Darts and Yoke
Part 9: Inner Leg and Front to Back Seams
Part 10: Tap Pants Lace Inset and Front/ Back Facings
Part 11: Tap Pants finishing touches and pictures

Slip/ Cami:

Part 12: Starting the Slip, Cutting, and Contour Darts in Slip Back
Part 13: Bust Darts and Gathers, Joining Bodice and Slip Front
Part 14: Side Seams, Facing Bodice, Binding the Top 
Part 15: Final Touches and the Finished Product

The Slip That Just Won't Die... Finally.

This poor slip has been waiting half done on my dress form for a couple months now. My mom included it in her last sewing loot care package so that I could make a pattern from it. We both considered it too far gone for anything else.

Until an idea just came out of nowhere. I was looking it over and became aware of just how many times this little slip had been patched and mended. Someone had carefully extended the life of the slip long after most people would have tossed it out. Mom lives in rural Nebraska and finds lots of treasures at farm auctions and thrift shops... I have this picture in my mind of a young farmer's wife saving up to buy a lovely cream satin fabric, sewing the slip from the latest mail order pattern, proudly wearing it, and carefully mending it to make it last several years.

So I posed myself a question, "How far gone does something have to be before it's not worth saving?" And thus, the slip that just won't die was born. 

The points where the straps joined at both front and back were all mended with great triangle patches, some times more than once. There were little patches in the front and back at about hip level that had been mended with little art nouveau rose-shaped patches. 

Happy Feet

 Happy New Year everyone! I thought that I would kick off the new year by showing you my first sewing project since I broke my arm. The other day, I decided to try putting my hair in a ponytail (something that I have been unable to do without help since I broke my arm) and I succeeded! So I thought,  if I can twist a ponytail in my hair,  I might have enough finger dexterity to attempt sewing something.
So I started with a simple project; one that has only taken me a couple of hours to complete previously.  The Mary Jane pattern from Ithinksew.com.

Ithinksew's version.

And though it took me nearly 6 hours this time instead of just a couple(Damn you, broken arm, you suck), the end results were perfect.

  World, meet the cutest slippers EVER!

 These sweet little babies are lined with Minky. The outer fabric is what is left from my old plaid robe dress project and the lining is some insanely thick fleece insulation that someone at a fabric store back in the states suggested I use to line potholders.  The Minky itself is rather warm and thick but to be sure that these were ridiculously warm slippers, the eighth of an inch thick insulation seemed like a logical addition.  Plus it made them super cushy on the bottom.

 This was my first time sewing with Minky and the fabric.com blog offered several helpful tips on dealing with this particularly unique fabric:

• "When cutting minky, be prepared for a cloud of fuzz!  Try cutting pieces with a rotary cutter then taking them outside to shake them off, putting them in the dryer on the air dry cycle (NO heat), or keep a vacuum handy to cut back on some of the mess."
• "DO NOT iron minky directly.  Instead, place minky face down on a towel and press gently on low heat or steam it.  Ironing and high heat will ruin the nap and any embossing in the fabric."
• "Don’t forget to clean your machine’s throat plate, feed dogs and bobbin case often.  All that fuzz can get messy and clog the works."

You can get several more useful fabric tips at fabric.com blog.

  Despite my broken arm, I will be doing sewing projects again but they will be fewer and farther between as I find I need to take breaks every hour or so to let my angry broken bone rest.
 If you are interested in this pattern or any others from Ithinksew, they are having a Christmas sale right now and this is a good time to snag the pattern you've been waiting for.