I love fabric. I love to sew up the creations in my head. This is why I really needed my own dedicated sewing space. Yes, I had one before, but it was shared w/ my hubby's ugly, unused (stuff collecting), office furniture. There were the hideous hand-me-down unmatched bookcases holding my fabrics and supplies. Everything was piled everywhere with no rhyme or reason because there was no proper place for everything, I had outgrown my containers, bins, drawers...I felt like "A Fish Out of Water" (one of my favorite childhood books!).
So, I made plans. Big plans for improvement. The kind of plans that include large shopping trips to Ikea, and many hours of my dear hubby assembling swedish furniture. I had it all measured out, planned, pages marked, prices estimated. It was all shattered when my Hubby and I decided it would be to the benefit of the whole family if he could convince his boss(es) to allow him to work a 32 hour work-week. They agreed to it. Great! But that means my dreams of a whole new Ikea based sewing studio just flew through the window. Back to the drawing board, as they say.
It took a while for the plans to shift gears in my head. But eventually, I figured out a way to reorganize and fabulize (not really a word, I know!) my sewing room, using almost completely what we already had. It's a hodge-podge of furniture, to say the least, but with some creativity and lots of sanding, staining, painting, decoupaging, and sewing later, it's getting there!
...And the best part is...the ugly office furniture and the mis-matched bookcases are not a part of it anymore! THOSE pieces really DID have to go!
So, here's what's done so far...
Here's the "before" shot of the top of the main cabinet in the space...the bottom was just like this, only with solid doors. Pretty heavy and dark looking, as you can tell!
Now, here's the same cabinet...re-done! It houses all my quilting weight cotton prints, and shows them beautifully, I think! Under the skirt is hiding all my odds and ends books, magazines, sketch pads, extra pics of the kids (there's a million! I should be scrapbooking majorly to catch up!), and yes, even freezer paper!! (for that freezer paper stenciling project I never have gotten around to yet!)
On either side of the big white china cabinet, are two shelving units. Yes, they are from Ikea, but we already had them! They were in use in the girls' room, but I swapped them an antique dresser from my old sewing area, so that these could get a face-lift and help store all my "other" fabrics (well, some of them, anyways!) They were not pink leopard print when they were in the girls' room. But, thanks to some fabulous wrapping paper at Target and some hand-dyed cotton candy colored muslin, now they have a whole new life!
Well, this has certainly been my longest post so far, but I'll keep updating as more progress is made in the studio..
~Ruth Elizabeth
