Organization...Sewing Room Part 2

My post on Sewing Room Organization is here.  That post shows that basic room.  I have now drawn my furniture to scale.  Here is the furniture:

It was very exciting to get the furniture drawn.  After I cut out the pieces, I realized that I had missed drawing the miniature cutting table.  So, I measured the various sections of the table and created my piece.  Here is my current room set up:

The cutting table closed up is sitting between the Sewing Desk and the Singer.  Doesn't this layout look like it should work?  I really thought this would be a great setup but I can not seem to keep it neat.  Really I have too much stuff.  Here's how I thought this room would work:

This is how I thought the room would work when I needed to cut things out and the previous picture is how I thought things would when I didn't need the cutting table.  Perhaps, I should clean up the room and leave the cutting table open all the time.  This would allow easy access to all the storage areas under my cutting table.  When the cutting table is folded up and pushed into it's home, I only have easy access to one side of the storage.

I think I am going to rethink this whole re-organization.  I actually still like my room the way it is arrange.  I think that the real issue is my ability to keep the room neat.  If I leave the cutting table open in the middle of the room, I will have space to add an ironing board.  

So, does anyone have any advice on keeping the room neat?  I suppose the real answer is putting things away when I am done with them and then cleaning the room between projects.  I am really bad about not taking the time to clean between projects along with just dumping stuff in the room.  

Okay, I am off to start the cleaning process. If I can get the room cleaned up, I should be able to return the items to the room that have migrated to other parts of the house.  I would love to hear that you think of my layout.

Happy Stitching!

Organization...Sewing Room

 I have been in this house for three years now.  I did a few organizational posts when I was attempting to get organized.  Here they are - Rulers, Cutting Boards & Peg Board, Fabric Folding, and views of Fabric Storage (some).  Then about a year later, I wrote a post about reorganizing the room.  The reorganization isn't working either. The things that worked was the first round of organizing the rulers, cutting boards, peg board.  The things that haven't worked partly is how the room is set up.  This means moving furniture around once again.

With this round, I have drawn the room to scale.  Here it is:

It is not a large room at 11 1/2' x 10'.  One wall is mostly doorways either to enter room or for the closet. Another wall is more than 1/2 a window.  I do have a small cabinet that will sit between the closet and entry door.  You can see bits of it in the ruler post above.  There is a three tier cart that sits between the closet door and the window.  The peg board is behind the door which is the perfect place for it.  On the same wall as the peg board, I have an Ikea cabinet that somehow manages to hold a large portion of my patterns with a shelf above it that holds jars of buttons, and other small sewing related items. Then, there is a large Ikea book shelf that is full of sewing books, knitting books, quilting books, and magazines.  There isn't nothing wrong with the placement of the items on this wall.  

Currently, the corning desk is occupying is corner next to the window with a Singer treadle right in front of the window.  Between the sewing desk and the bookshelf is another Singer sewing machine (meant to be the machine for my quilting) and my folding cutting table.  The room is full.  The cutting table can be rolled out into the center and opened up.  At least, that was the original plan.  I can not keep my room clean.  I have spilled out across the house.  I need to come up with a way for this to work in such a way to keep things neat and clean.

Currently, I am contemplating putting my sewing table in front of the closet.  The next step is to draw my furniture to scale and start playing with the furniture placement.  It is possible that the cutting table will not open up with the sewing table placement in front of the closet.  Maybe the real issue is my table.  I have hauled it around for a very long time.  It is possible that it is time to replace it.

I will share the scaled furniture and the various placements as I figure this out.  There is one more thing that isn't working with this room.  It is my fabric scrap storage.  It is literally just crammed into a small three drawer cabinet.  Nothing neat about it.  How do you store scraps?  The majority of my scraps are cotton ones that could be used for quilting type projects.

I will share as much as I'm comfortable sharing.  It is very possible that I will not show the room set up with machines.  I know that I talk about my various machines from time to time but I don't necessarily want to show all of them at once.

If you have organization or furniture arrange ideas, please share.  I will listen to all ideas because I need help.

Happy Stitching!

  

Inspiration...Reversible Jacket

 As the season progresses into fall, we need jackets.  Here's a boxy jacket that would be easy to recreate:

This is the Filippa Reversible Wool Cashmere Jacket by Lafayette 148 New York. Price tag: $898.00.  Details: open front, zip front, long sleeves, patch pockets, boxy silhouette, hem sits a hip.  The topstitching on this jacket is well worth checking out.

If you want this double-sided you will need to do the figure out to do.  A double-sided fabric would be perfect.  Here's a pattern that would be perfect:

This is the Janie's Jacket pattern by Silhouette Patterns.  It will work perfectly for the inspiration photo.  The inspiration photo has beautiful topstitching.  Check out the post on Pinstitch or Pickstitch or Prickstitch here.

Hope you're inspired to create something beautiful.

Happy Sewing!

Inspiration...Boxy Cardigan

 As the days get shorter and the weather cools down, there is nothing better than having a cardigan to carry with you.  Here is a great cardigan:

This is the Eileen Fisher Wool-Blend Hooded Boxy Cardigan.  Price tag: $378.00.  Details:  Attached hood, open front, long sleeves, patch pockets, boxy silhouette, sits at hip.  

Folks, I think we could recreate this cardigan very easily with sherpa fleece or cuddle sherpa.  Here's the pattern that I think will make a perfect version of this cardi:

This is a freebie cardigan pattern by So Sew Easy.  This pattern will need to be shortened to make it perfect but you can't really get easier than that can we?  

Happy Stitching!

Pinstitch or Pickstitch or Prickstitch...

 Monday,  I shared a inspiration photo of a coat with a "pinstitch" detail.   Now, I thought this was going to be very straight ward to locate information on how to do this.  Guess what?  It was not.   I found tutorial for pin stitching in cross stitch, and heirloom pin stitch.  There were many of these types of tutorials available.  However, where is the information for using a pin stitch on a garment for top stitching or applying a zipper?  I was puzzled.  Perhaps I was using the incorrect term.

As it turns out, indeed it is the incorrect term. Pinstitch as used on the coat is called Pickstitch in the sewing world.  Here's a video from Threads - How to Sew a Pickstitch.  Here's another version - The Pickstitch.  This version also mentions that it can be called a prickstitch.

I found mention of this stitch in The Vogue/Butterick Step-by-Step Guide to Sewing Techniques circa 1989, and Sewing Couture - The Couture Cardigan Jacket by Claire Shaeffer circa 2013.  No doubt if I dug through more of the books in my library I would find more references.

Hope this information is useful.

Happy Stitching.