Friday, April 15, 2016

New Sewing Room

My sewing room is not really a ROOM. I have an area of our family room in the upstairs area of our house. I occupy about a 3rd of it. It s a great space - but of course I have some issues with it. The pros of being in the family room are of course that I can BE WITH the family (when it's just more then Prince Charming & Me) while I'm sewing. But as we have aged, Prince Charming can't hear the TV over my sewing machine. Any of them. The cons can go on & on as well - because the TV & computer are in the family room - I am easily distracted & end up watching one screen or the other & NOT sewing even when sewing was the plan.  I am spreading more & more in this sewing room "area" because there is not any defined lines of where the "room" stops! and I can't stand seeing the mess when I'm NOT sewing - no door to close. Can't really cook while I'm sewing because it's up a flight of stairs & I can't hear anything in the kitchen....blah blah blah...yadda yadda yadda....So I hatched an idea to move my sewing room downstairs into one of the spare bedrooms.  


for Christmas 2015 Prince Charming bought 2 of the IKEA Kallax wall units with 25 cubes each. While I'm not moving into my new sewing room for a few months - I really wanted to see the units up! I rearranged the bedroom furniture & the Princess helped me assemble the wall units. the 25 cube units are 6 foot tall by 6 foot wide. Monsters. Wonderful storage though!!! they have to be assembled on the floor like you see in the picture below. So glad I had a mallet.

 Here are the 2 side by side

These baskets are from WalMart. They are the LARGE Philadelphia wire baskets in the Better Homes & Gardens line. They are larger & more roomier than the IKEA baskets & have an integrated chalk board in the front & back. @ $10 each it took me a few months to get the number I needed! If you hunt them now - good luck. I have been buying these since November of last year & now they are getting scarce. I was not able to order them "site-to-store" , not sure why - but it wasn't an item the offered to do that with. Trust me when I say I scoured all of Middle Tennessee to find this many! and I actually need about 8 more for my cutting table that Prince Charming will be making from me from 3 of the 4-cube units.   


 REALLY love this look! that little bin tower in the far right is another IKEA storage system. the Trofast series I think. I got a tower & the plastic drawers. I LOVE this one as well!


 At 6 foot tall - I'll probably only put stuff on the top that I won't use on a regular basis. Here are 2 of my 4 Singer Featherweights!


Not pictured is another Kallax wall unit with 8 cubes - I already have the baskets (in the 8 cube unit) filled with all my quilt kits. The baskets are holding roughly 3 times the amount that the plastic storage bins I have been using. I am also putting them in clear plastic bags. Labeled of course!

There is not (currently) an IKEA in Tennessee. One is supposed to open in the fall of this year in Memphis. Which is 4 hours drive from me! The closest IKEA is in Atlanta  Georgia. Nope, I didn't drive there either! There is a business here in Nashville called ModerNash & the make a weekly trip to IKEA. Yes, they mark it up - but there is a LOT of stuff that IKEA will not ship. They also carry some of the more popular products in stock. I didn't even have to ORDER the 8 cube unit. They had it in stock! ModerNash is only like 15 minutes from my office too! So score!



We are not losing a bedroom - In case you wondered, we are turning one of the unfinished rooms beside are family room into a 4th bedroom & 3rd bathroom. Having another bedroom won't matter so much as that bathroom will! So until we complete that project I can't fully move into my NEW sewing room as I don't have anywhere to put the bedroom furniture.  


Talk to Y'all later!


M



Wallet - It's quilting Fabric - So? It counts!






I have 3 wallet patterns & this one seemed the least intimidating. So it was first. Add to that? Someone was kind enough to walk me thru the steps last month while I was at a quilt show.

I really REALLY like how it turned out! I made 3 so far. One for each of my girls & then this one for me. I have some RED batik fabrics that I'm going to make another one for myself.



Front View

Side View


Opens & Lies Flat


Pocket - Holds my checkbook


Another Pocket - I shove receipts in here !


Zippered Pocket


Nice Size!



The hardest part of this project  - well 3 things actually - all the pieces are very similar in size.
#1 Labeling is my best friend. No way I could have done it without labeling the pieces!
#2 - Buying the clasps. they want $8.99 plus tax for these suckers! I'm cheap. Knew I could find them cheaper. I did. On Etsy. From China $3.20 each. Worked out to be $4.20 each with shipping & it took like 15 days to get here from there. If you would save $5.69 on EACH clasp you'd wait 2 weeks too! (I'm going to be showing a few of my friends how to do these wallets too so I ordered a dozen!)
#3 - I bought some of this specialty fabric that is infused with some sort of metal to deter tech theft of the cards. It's EXPENSIVE !!! $25 a yard. But you only use a little piece - so it will go a long way. You can't iron or wash that metal security fabric either. Personally? I don't know if it works or not. But if it does it was a good idea. If it don't? I wasted my money!

when I make a few of the other ones from the patterns I have hoarded I'll be sure to post them here. I have bought some really pretty fabrics (definitely out of my comfort zone) that are NOT Civil War Re-pro's. I know! That's totally not like me at all.

Y'All have a great day! The sun is shining here in Middle Tennessee today & it's gorgeous!

M