Sewing Room Update

Posted by on January 11, 2012

Not a whole lot to report. I DID go to the fabric store today (Montgomery is seriously lacking in this department). I also DID find the below fabric (from my dream) after someone told me they had it at the fabric store I usually have to go to because it’s all we got!! (OK, it’s King Cotton). But, I’m afraid the green didn’t jive so much with my green desks (I took a green knob with me). I spent a good 45 minutes milling around looking at fabric and left without a single sample to bring home. Greens are hard!

 So…. I’m back to this fabric, so I decided to “pin” it up above the window with 2 thumb tacks to see if some type of valance might work for the 2 windows and add some somethin’ somethin’ to this room. This wall is pretty small, so I’m thinking curtains might be too much and too bulky. They would have to be very thin panels if I went the curtain route. So, I am going to look at this for a day or two (or a week) and then go from there. I am still considering painting the room. With that being said, this room is pretty small so I’m afraid to do anything crazy! Plus, this is the room to the right as you walk in our front door. I don’t want anything too nuts. I’m leaning towards a creamy or natural color paint color ~ something with just enough color to offset the white trim and enough to make the creamy-white Expedit stand out. Maybe something along the lines of the natural basket color was suggested. The background of this fabric is actually a little creamy so I think it would work! Browder’s room is painted Elephant Tusk so I might even try some on one of the walls. The jury is still out on that!

Here is a current view of this wall. If I do the valances hopefully the TV can come out from the wall/corner a tad!

 I have to say I’m feeling the guilt after stating that I threw my applique samples away after new designs are listed. I USED to keep them, and then found that I had 2 drawers full of pieces of stabilizer with designs on them that I never looked at or used. I’m thinking of what else I can do with them!

I have also been feeling guilty that a year ago, all I wanted to do was sell our house so I could have a sewing room. We sold our house and moved (twice) and I have my sewing room, and all I do is sit around whining about how it’s not decorated the way I want it to be!! I BLAME PINTEREST!

On another subject I finished Catching Fire last night, which is book 2 of the Hunger Games trilogy. I have not bought book 3 yet, Mockingjay I think?, but plan to do so this week! Can’t wait for the movie to come out!!

Thank you again for all the great suggestions and comments that came in! They are all still stored in the back of my head!

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Fabric | Tagged: Tagged With: ,

Thank You!!

Posted by on January 7, 2012

Thanks for all of the comments and emails and suggestions as to my Sewing Room! I got tons of great suggestions, most of which said to get out the paint brush! I’ve just removed the “junk” (camera bags, piled up artwork, kids games, etc.) from the top of my Expedit and in some of the cubbies. I was thinking step 1 might be to hide said junk and maybe that might help. Step 2 is going to be to visit the fabric store next week and rule out any other fabric. I LOVE the fabric I got and posted, but I honestly didn’t look much so I’d like to make sure there is nothing else out there that might not limit me to yellow and blue.

Here are some of my favorite Pinterest pins ~ sewing/craft rooms and all have the Expedit. These are all from my Sewing Room Ideas Board on Pinterest.

Black/brown Expedit ~ I’m not 100% sure what black-brown looks like in person, but I like it in this room! It looks good with the green (my desks?).  I also noticed the ribbon and tags (??) tied on the baskets. Someone suggested that!

 Again, green, black & white – colors similar to my room. p.s. my floors are a khaki carpet.

These walls appear to be white or a very light gray?? I like the decor up top – this is what made me clean off the JUNK! I like the baskets and lighting and pictures on top!

 OK… last night we took my mom to eat Mexican (surprise surprise) for her birthday and I drank 2 glasses of (caffeinated) sweet tea. After that we enjoyed some Nancy’s Italian Ice for dessert (side note: if you click on the Nancy’s link, that’s my Browder front & center – the top half of his face anyway, and those are his friends). We were home and in bed by 9:00, and I was comfy in my bed all night with my eyes closed most of the night, but I think I may have slept an hour or two. It was one of those nights where I looked at the clock and it was 10:00, 10:45, 11:30, 1:00, etc. all night long. I drove Browder to school at 7:00 and didn’t think I was going to make it home. I had 2 hot flashes and felt like I was going to puke!! After I got home and showered I was fine!? ANYWAY….. in my delusional half awake sleep I dreamed of the below picture. I decided I was going to find this or a similar fabric and I was going to paint my sewing room a lighter gray (someone on Pinterest also suggested this). Problem solved!! I had figured it out!! This is partially why I’m going to look at fabric one last time next week before I make any decisions, due to my dreams!!

I think everything lies in the fabric, so next week I’ll go check out my other options! Several people mentioned curtains. The room (or the wall w/ the windows) is really too small for curtains, but valances might be an option! Thanks again for everyone’s input! I really really appreciate it! Have a great weekend and I’ll update asap!

Filed Under: Design, Fabric | Tagged: Tagged With: ,

Fabric Storage

Posted by on January 3, 2012

Yesterday on Facebook I asked for some blog post suggestions for the new year. I got quite a list (which I printed – 6 pages worth) and am working through them as we begin 2012! Several people asked about FABRIC STORAGE. This is not my area of expertise, as you will see down below. But, I can tell you how I do things and then make 1 suggestion that I’ve seen and like (but am too lazy to do). First of all, I USED to cut a fabric swatch of my fabric (4-5″ square) and organize it by style or theme and safety pin each style together. I did this when I was doing a lot of customer work and had people in and out of my house picking out fabrics for appliques. This was a great way to show my fabrics and for my customers to be able to pick out what they wanted without them having to sort through drawers of fabric. Somewhere along the way I stopped doing this :(, so this is only a fraction of my fabric selection. As you can see, they are “organized” by colorful polka dots, ginghams (all sizes), boy stuff, stripes, color w/ white polka dots, seasonal, etc etc etc….

 Someone also asked about how to pick out fabric for an applique design. I would say my “go-to” fabrics are always polka dots and ginghams. They just “work” with any design you are doing! I use A LOT of polka dots, ginghams and solids. I look at a design, usually start by picking 1 fabric I know I want to use, and then try to coordinate with that. Sometimes I can pick out fabrics very quickly, and sometimes it might take me an hour! This is another post in and of itself!!

As you can see I had arranged these ginghams according to the colors of a rainbow! 😉

 I just pin the swatches together in the corner with a big safety pin. Nothing fancy! I guess I should mention that when I used to cut swatches of my fabric, I would try to cut a swatch out of whatever edge might have the name and designer of the fabric. Sometimes the piece you get (if you get 1/4 yard) doesn’t have that info, but if it does, it’s helpful to cut that piece!

 Now… this is MY fabric storage and it works for me, but I would not call it neat! Several of you said yours was in boxes and you had no idea what you had. I concur!! Sometimes I dump a basket out and go through it if I can’t decide on fabrics for a design. My fabrics ARE organized by style, so I do know what is in each basket (…sort of). Yes, I have 15 baskets full of fabric. I have a problem.

 This is how they are organized ~ solids, seasonal, boy fabrics, corduroys, minky dots, polka dots (regular to big dots), colorful dots, pin dots, stripes, florals, fat check ginghams, regular ginghams, microcheck ginghams, plaids/checked fabrics and more florals.

 My Expedit from Ikea is the 25 cubby Expedit. LOVE me some Expedit!! We had friends who were in Atlanta this past weekend and they were going to Ikea, so they brought me 4 more of the Pjas baskets. I am so thankful!! I’m hoping to go back in a couple of weeks!!

Here’s a look inside my baskets. They are just thrown in there! This is my go-to polka dot basket. All of my Michael Miller Ta Dots are in here. MOST of these have white dots too, although I see a teal fabric in there with big red dots!! That is Sissy’s hand pointing to the purple.

 Here is my basket of ginghams. They are all basically the same size regular ole 1/16th ginghams. My fat chunkier ginghams are all in a basket as well as my microcheck ginghams which are in another basket.

 Here is my seasonal basket ~ mostly Christmas, some Halloween and Valentine fabrics are in here. Notice the arrow pointed to the neatly rolled up fabric secured by a rubber band. That USED to be my practice (probably when I also cut swatches of every fabric). I still have some that are rolled and rubber-banded, but most are just thrown in the basket. Some are at least folded!

Now, I drool over this……

The above photo came from Pinterest ~ fabric NEATLY placed on boards and displayed beautifully on a shelf. I think most people who showcase their fabric this way use Comic Boards (see below) which usually come in packs of 100. Try Amazon or just Google “comic board”. I would love to display my fabric like this! But, I am too lazy and my system works for me and it would take me 6 months to iron and wrap all of my fabric like this! Maybe I should just take my favorites and try it??

 I hope this helps! I’m sure there are 1,000 ways to organize fabric! I find the best way is to organize it by style. The swatches are great too if you have customers coming in to your home. Before my Expedit I used the plastic drawer bins from Target or Walmart (see below). I think I was up to 6 of them before the cubbies.

Thanks to those of you who suggested FABRIC STORAGE as a blog post! I will be contacting you via Facebook for a surprise!

Filed Under: How To, Shopping, Supplies | Tagged: Tagged With: ,
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