This is taking much longer than I anticipated, and I’m sure there are those of you out there thinking…”Come on, lets move on from the sewing room” and I have to admit I’m right there with you! I think if I had 2 perfectly working feet I could have gotten it finished sooner, but the truth is I have one half done and one half sort of done. I am ready to sew, and the cutting table is on the half that got cleaned up, so I think I’m going to just show you the one half, work on the other half a few more days, WHILE I’m sewing on Nyssa’s dress, and then in a couple of days when the whole room is done, I’ll give you a Grand Tour of it all…I still have lots of things I’d like to change and if I can snag one of those cabinets with the drawers or a dresser of some kind, I think I will be able to store more things away and not have my room look so busy! I see lots of little things I’d like to do, but I had to just get it put back in order somewhat to be able to sew!
Okay, here’s a few before and after shots…
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
I lowered one section of my cutting table and moved my white chest to the side of the table. It’s not ideal, but I have so much stored in the chest, I have to keep it for now and the wasn’t any other place…except the garage… NOT!
Before:
After:
I’ve realized I have so many areas that encompass my sewing… I have these things that I sell in our Etsy shop:
Skinny Scarves, so I have to have yarn…and lots of it to make them colorful… I also need a variety of pretty buttons to use for the part when Rebecca adds her touch of “bling” to them. Yarn takes up a lot of room. I need to get very busy on some scarves… they make wonderful Christmas presents!
Tulle and Lace half slips requires lots of tulle and netting and it’s sort of fluffy so it’s not the easiest thing to store. I then need stretch lace to use for the waistbands…
Fingerless gloves requires the stretch lace as well as buttons, charms, bows, ribbon, beads, etc. for embellishing them…
Pantalette’s have to be made out of pretty eyelet fabrics and then you have to have eyelet trims to finish off the edges…
Crinolines are made from eyelet or white cotton fabrics and I use boning in mine to make them hold your dresses out…
Lace panties require lace fabrics and stretch lace trims
I make doll dresses for 6 different size dolls:
8″ Ten Ping, 10″ Patsy Tonner and Elin Iplehouse, 13″ Dianna Effner Little Darlings, 16″ Ellowyne Wilde, 18″ Ball Jointed Nyssa and Hope, and I have 11 American Girl dolls.
I need itty bitty sized prints all the way up to slightly larger sized ones for the American Girl dolls. I need Civil War prints, Colonial prints, Depression era prints, 1940’s prints, 70’s prints, etc. I have 2 huge tubs of Christmas prints plus another tub full of Christmas goodies and props I use when I take pictures of my girls at Christmas time…
Plus you have to use Patterns for the doll dresses…and boy do I have patterns… many of my personally drafted ones are in binders just in envelopes with my hand written scribbles on them.
I make tiny doll shoes, so I have Ultrasuede, felt and trims for the edging…
I’ve made air clay dolls for the Effner Little Darlings, so I have plaster molds for their bodies, plus paints for them, the Hearty Air Clay and all the things associated with making them.
So that’s just a few reasons why my sewing room looks so full…
…and that doesn’t even include the stuff “I” have for myself… home decorating fabrics for pillows, pillow forms, quilt batting, curtain fabrics, upholstery fabrics, ribbed trim for embroidered baby bibs, terry cloth and velour fingertip towels for the baby bibs, tons of embroidery machine threads, a pleater for doing smocking, the smocking stuff that goes with that hobby, silk ribbons for embroidering, OH…that’s enough… you get the idea and now you know why I have so much stuff in my sewing room.
Maybe I need to become more focused… but I don’t want to give up anything that I’m doing… :o/
P.S. Don’t forget about Molly’s auction ending tonight on Ebay. It’s for the red plaid and black velvet dress…
You can be taken to the auction by clicking HERE. (Or click on the picture of it at the right side bar.)
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
You are getting there, Jeanne! I am wondering where your sewing machines are, but then you said it is only one half of the room. How big is this room in terms like 12 by 12 feet? I can’t imagine having so much sewing stuff, but then again, that’s what you do and have been doing for years, so I guess it does add up! You mentioned I must be kidding when I said my doll room looks like your sewing room when I am changing their clothes, but you cannot imagine the mess I have when changing 8 dolls! I certainly don’t have as much stuff as you do, but the room is much smaller, 10 by 10, so things fill up pretty fast!
Why are your shades down? You have such a pretty view, or is it night when taking the pictures? I’m sure the light streaming in makes it look so bright and cheerful!
HI Linda,
Yes, slowly and steady she goes…
My sewing machines are on the other side… you know the side if I showed you would look like the pictures of the before side! :o)
I know I have a lot of stuff and moving all this stuff around has really made me stop and think… if it’s not for dolls, scarves, or home decorating… I really should consider getting rid of it….another day…
My room is 160 square feet but it has a built in bookshelf that sticks out in the middle where the basement steps go down.
The shades were pulled because it was 11pm last night when I took that picture. I’ve put in some LONG hours getting this room whipped in shape… and to think, I’m still not done.
I did take a picture of it a few minutes ago with the blinds raised and I’ll show you. I do have wonderful light in here… most of the time… I need to wash that window and the door but I’ll have to do that another time…
Thanks Linda,
Blessings, Jeanne
I think you’ve done a great job – especially ‘one-footed’! The only way sewing rooms can ‘stay organized’ is if you don’t USE them… so, just keep using (and messing up/reorganizing) it. A messy sewing room is the sign of a contented seamstress!
HI Mary,
Oh, I like that… The sign of a contented seamstress is a messy sewing room! That must be me! But I’m going to try really hard to keep it cleaned up… :o/
Blessings, Jeanne
I see that Elizabeth has had to give up her dress, but Molly is standing up and cheerful again. Elizabeth too looks quite cheerful, anticipating the next outfit, I suppose. I finally have everything I want out of the closet out and am ready to begin putting a few things back, which will give me room to organize more. You’ve been a great inspiration.
How is your foot after all that work?
Hi Marilyn,
Yes, Elizabeth was trying to crane her neck to see my Christmas fabrics, because she saw the list where she was going to get a Christmas Regency dress made for her to model…at least I hope HER MOMMY gets it together enough to make her one!!!
It’s always fun when you have a clean slate to start with and can put ONLY the things back that you want! I’m glad everyone is getting all organized along with me!
The foot was pretty good yesterday but my left leg was pretty swelled up from being the one I have to lean on so much… I had blood clots in it before and it’s got a tendency to swell up when it gets over used… Today it’s better though.
Thanks Marilyn,
Blessings, Jeanne
Love your before/after pics. Doesn’t it make you feel good! I’ve discovered my mess problem after seeing how you are corralling yours. I too have many different hobbies. Sewing/crafts/clay/family history/dolls etc.
They all take up lots of space. Hummm.. Must think more about this.
🙂
HI Joy,
I used to have lots more hobbies tied in there too.. macrame, counted cross stitch, applique, quilting, cloth doll making, and lots more… about the only thing I never got into was cake decorating (although I do like to decorate cakes now) and scrapbooking…so I know what you mean!
Thanks so much and I hope you can figure out what it is you love to do…
Blessings, Jeanne
as long as you are creating, you are living life to the fullest. i know my girls are happiest when creating.
HI Jan,
I do like to create… just wanted to be a little neater about it, so I could think better! Thanks so much,
Blessings, Jeanne
Maybe everyone should send in a picture of their “Hobby Nest” ? That would be a hoot.
Yours is looking good! It will be a model room in no time
I took many patients back to their owners Saturday but picked up quite a few more…so have to sort them, label them and date them for when they need to be done.
Now is a good time to do mine too…hopefully this week.
HI Kathie,
I wrote that down about everyone sending their Sewing places to me… maybe I’ll show them a few at a time… I think it would be fun too!
So you got a few dollies done and now how lots more to repair? Someone’s going to be busy!!!
I’m working on Nyssa’s dress tonight, but hopefully tomorrow I’ll get to the other half of my sewing room… it’s not nearly as bad as the half I showed everyone… Thank goodness!
Thanks Kathie,
Blessings, Jeanne