organized, for once!

this almost never happens! my sewing space is clean! i sometimes say sewing room, but it has to share the space with our elliptical machine, so it's more like a sewing corner, but usually i take over the floor and there are pattern pieces and fabric and pins (yikes!) everywhere. i tried to get organized and hang up some stuff. so here's the result:

 

i put a few nails in the side of my desk to hang my ruler, pinking shears and fabric scissors. so hopefully i'll remember to keep them there. very handy. (the fabric in the background is the curtain covering the window and the door on the left side goes to the closet, which is jam packed with my stuff, mostly artsy stuff. i should really clean and organize that. but instead i just close the door on it)

 

my grandma gave me this little glass display case, so i hung it up and stored my larger thread spools. i've started using Gutermann mostly now and i have those in a cigar box, but i think these look cool on display, esp. the 2 old wooden ones which i think i borrowed/stole from my mom at some point over the years.

 

i found that my bias tape stash fits nicely into a box that greeting cards came in. the box was just so pretty that i had to find a use for it after i sent out all the cards. love me some greeting cards.

p.s. the desk and chair i scored off craigslist for a pretty good price. an adjustable height chair would probably be better though, and a cushion. oh too bad i don't have another one of those curtains or i could sew one in matching fabric. man.


moving along. this is the bodice of the dress i'm working on. it's Simplicity 1652, posted a pic of the pattern here.

 

i like the back cut out. this is kind of a wearable muslin, hopefully. if i get the fit right, i have a blue and white striped fabric or a plaid seersucker that i'd like to do this pattern in. it has princess seams, so i thought it would be a good opportunity to play with changing the direction of the stripes, zig zags in this case. (or chevrons, or zigrons or chevzags, right?)

sewing with cotton is such a nice break from the slippery fabric i was using on my last dress. so much faster.


but then i bought more slippery fabric. couldn't help myself. okay only one is slippery (the one on the right), the other two aren't. but i made sure to pick fabrics that don't really need a lining. need a break from all that. these are from the joann's the opened last friday. did i forget to mention that? we got a joanns! yeah yeah, they don't get a great rep among sewing bloggers. but i had to see for myself. and we don't have a ton of fabric store choices, so any new fabric store is a step in the right direction. so i went the day they opened. we weren't super impressed with the selection of apparel fabric, esp the knits. so i didn't end up with any knits, sad face. but these three did come home with me. (thanks to a joann's gift card from some sewing friends!) who doesn't love getting some new fabric? yay!