Once an English teacher, always an English Teacher. I ❤ Dickens.
When I first started sewing, I had a tough decision. Should I take up sewing residence on the first floor of our home (where our bedroom, living and dining rooms, kitchen and life in general happen) or should I take one of the three rooms upstairs (where our guest bed and lots of boxes reside) to turn into a sewing room? On one hand, having a dedicated sewing room would be nice. On the other hand though, nothing ELSE is upstairs at all. No husband, no TV (Don’t you dare laugh, it is important to me! My brain cannot be left alone for great stretches of time!), nothing but boxes to keep me company.
I *thought* I could get away with staying on the first floor. I *thought* I had it all figured out. You see, about a year ago my parents brought me my Grandmother’s sewing desk and a six-foot table.
Months ago.
We converted our dining room into a dining/sewing room combo. I went on with life thinking I had it all figured out.
Then we inherited some furniture from my sister. Actually, we’re “holding” it until she gets “settled.” You know how that goes, right? Anyway, we got more furniture. What you don’t know is that I already have a LOT of furniture. Big, heavy, antique furniture. Grandma’s sewing desk got pushed out of the dining room into the hallway. From there, it wasn’t that big a stretch to set up that six-foot table to use for “cutting.” Soon enough, I had fabric, furniture and notions all over the downstairs. Seriously, it looked like a hurricane of sewing mess blew through our house.
AND THEN I volunteered to have a dear friend’s bridal shower at my house. Enter my “OH SHIT” moment. I’m not kidding when I say it took every bit of THREE ENTIRE DAYS to clear out the bottom floor. The six-foot table had to be cleared for food and gifts, the sewing desk was relegated to the garage, (I’ve LONG ago given up on sewing on it. Though beautiful, it is NOT functional.) all the fabric and notions had to be stashed. Not to mention all the cleaning, shining, repositioning yadda yadda yadda. The shower was beautiful, I had 20+ people in my home and I felt like I could actually get the hang of that whole “entertaining” thing.
A funny thing happened. My home, which had mysteriously been annoying the stuffing out of me, suddenly became a beautiful place. AND THEN it hit me. My sewing things cause clutter…and piles. Clutter and piles annoy me (amusing because I make them without noticing) and my home is annoying me because the sewing things don’t have a real place to live and consequently “live” all over the place.
@*&!$ You know what this means, don’t you? This means that my dream of having a downstairs sewing room has effectively been shattered.
The shower was last Saturday and since I figured out the “problem” I promised myself I wouldn’t bring any of the fabric type stuff back downstairs. My new problem is that I currently have sewing supplies stashed in three (maybe four?) rooms around my house. Because when you’re trying to hide a veritable fabric store in your home and the clock is ticking, you just start shoving things wherever there is space.
I have fabric in one (of my two) china cabinets.
China Cabinet Fabric
I have books in my living room.
Crafty Books
I have notions and boxes in our guest bedroom.
It's EVERYWHERE
Honest to goodness I know there is more. I can’t find it. I seem to have hidden it from myself. ::sigh::
Wondering where I’m going with this? This weekend begins the transformation. The upstairs “office” is officially going to be my new sewing room. Luckily, my dear, sweet hubby has agreed to help with the cleaning and building and what not. He may or may not have I don’t even care that he’s got ulterior motives (our house is cleaner than has EVER been).
On the agenda for this weekend:
- Clean out office (no small chore in and of itself)
Future sewing room.
- Organize and decorate (hah!) the new sewing room!
I even sent my sewing machine to be serviced so it can’t distract me. Hopefully by the time it gets home I will have a new sewing room!
Wish us luck, I think we’re going to need it.
Homemade Pineapple Marshmallows's Blog 
HA! Before you know it your sweet husband will be doing things upstairs because you are there, which will bring the dogs upstairs and Good L-rd watch out, you are going to be using your whole house!
I used to have my stuff scattered all over the house too, but I never kept anything in my china cabinet! That is hilarious! I bet you two are going to get all the sewing goodies into one room and get it super organized. You will never want to leave your new room! Have fun!
Good Luck! Put an iPod with some good speakers, your computer and a tv with the channel on HGTV and you will LOVE YOUR NEW SPACE!
Hubby will even come up if you put a comfy chair in there too!
Have fun! Can’t wait to see the outcome!
Oooh I’m so jealous! I share a small two-bedroom apartment with a fantastic roommate. Lucky for me, she doesn’t mind my taking up about a third of our living room with my crafty mess! You should check out this blog before you pick a desk. It used to be called “knock off wood.” The woman who runs it posts instructions on how to re-create Pottery Barn and other amazing designs. Have fun this weekend 🙂