My happy place - a sewing room tour
I don’t know about you, but I get serious sewing room envy on a regular basis. Instagram is always showing me these amazing spaces, with pastel colour schemes and huge cutting tables, beautifully lit from every angle. That’s not a description of my room as you are about to find out. My problem is space, or the lack of to be exact. These aspiring rooms are usually from our North American friends who are in general blessed with plenty of space, unless city based, with the bonus of open plan homes but these styles are pretty rare here on our side of the pond and for some of us, well let’s just say our spaces are more compact and bijou. Add to this the fact that I am a terrible hoarder then you have a recipe for disaster and sometimes a very disorganised sewing room. This sad state of affairs led me to have a bit of an overhaul this weekend and boy did it need it. To celebrate I thought I’d take you on a little tour of my “Happy Space “, with not only all the usual accoutrements you would expect to find in there, but also perhaps a few surprises hidden in there too.
My Happy Space….
a revamp!
Until last week I had a sofa bed squeezed into the room, which we bought here from our previous home but it really took up too much room that could be put to better use so we found that a new deserving owner and I have found myself with nearly double the space I had previously. I’ve been able to move the table to under the window to get more light which has been an issue for year’s and with home working now, I probably could use this space for the day job when the weather starts to get really chilly if I wanted to, as it’s a lot cosy than anywhere else in the house when I’m on my ownsome. I am loathed to do this really though as this is, as I said my, “Happy Space” and sanctuary from the bad bits of the outside world. We have all been reminder this weekend with Mental Health Awareness Day that looking after our head space is so important and now that we are much more isolated than previously that combined office/sewing room thing is up for debate at the moment with me. The view is pretty though, and I can watch the changing clouds as they zoom across the hill tops. I am surrounded by special things that make me happy. Photos, keepsakes and a weird and wonderful mix of things that make me who I am.
Perhaps an even better view if they moved those houses though ?
My friends on IG will have seen a tester shot for the paint job on Thursday night for a feature wall spruce up and luckily that came out better than I had initially thought as I had a fright it was going to be far too dark with the first few strokes. Its setting off some mini quilts pretty well and is doing a particuarly grand job with my latest purchase. The print “Under the Clock’ is by the very talented @bonzoart, in North Berwick and we spotted this a couple of weeks ago on our travels out and I completly fell in love with this picture. It so makes me think of me and my girl meeting up at Waverley on a friday evening when she was younger, huge hugs and many tales of her new young life away from home. Our house has quite a lot of art already but this picture drew me in so much that I had to buy it and I knew I had to find a home for it I my special space, so here it now lives, in pride of place.
Looking at it finished, it’s a shame that my stacking boxes block so much of the wall but at least now all my solids and scarps are organised and accessible, as before the scraps had been exploding out of a very pretty French shopping basket, all across the floor in a great impression of Versuvius circa AD74! Anyway, shall to continue the tour? Lets’ see what unexpected items turn up?
unexpected items lurking
No self respecting sewing room is compete without the odd bit of Ikea and the boring book shelves here serve their purpouse, packed to gunnels with a combination of sewing books, fabric boxes, paperbacks and a few recipe books but also far too many daft objects that a woman of my age should have packed away year’s ago- but each and every one of them makes me smile. For instance, how about my little row of moose guarding my row over yardages? I might have confessed to my obsession with Moose before but here is un-denying proof that these beasts are indeed spectacular. My favourite of this little line up has to be the tiny carved mum and bay, a gift from a very dear friend on one of her Canada trips. Quite adorable I think.
Did you spot anything else you weren’t expecting? Perhaps Indianna on his bikes escaping from the Nazi’s with his treasure map, or was it the fisherman relaxing on his porch with the passing moose for company? I’m not actually sure why my family thought Lego was a great gift for me at this stage in my life but weirdly they were completly correct of course. I love them and they make me smile daily (I am also the proud owner of a very large London bus made out of lego but that has yet to find its way in to the sewing room as its so enormous … there’s one for another day I reckon).
The last highlight on the book shelves that’s not sewing related is Papa Moomin and his chum the dodo. Of course it is you cry- just what you were expecting. The Moomin, I think, is such a cleverly designed little thing and came as a card which we found in Helsinki and he is standing next to a beautifully carved Dodo, which has an even tinier version inside the intricate hexie pattern of his body. As you would expect, Mr Dodo is from Mauritius and holds memories of a very decadent and indulgent holiday a few years back and is a perfect friend for Moomin Papa I believe.
too many pins ?
So, let’s get back in the real world of the sewist. My purge of the sewing room meant a really good clear out and that included the peg board which had become over run and I was struggling to find anything, so the whole lot came down and hopefully is now organised to the nth degree. I did discover I had rather a riduculous amount of needles and boxes of pins somehow, as I’m sure every time I’m in the haberdashery section I buy more, so note to self- no more pins and needles required. This habit needs to stop! You may also think I have a bit of an overload of scissors going on there? Oops.
Anyway, I think that’s about all in the way of my tour and the oddities you may find in my space. I think you will agree it is all looking very spick and span currently. I don’t think I will make on to any influences Top 10 sewing rooms to aspire to, but it’s me and I like that. The fabrics are organised now, and safe out of the sun and the QIPS (quilts in progress…) have all been noted down. All I need to do now is to get some time to sew them and all will be well with the world.