My Sewing Studio

I've been working hard the last few days organizing and straightening up my sewing studio.  I love saying studio...makes it seem so professional.  LOL  Not sure if anyone remembers but going back a few years the TV reality show America's Got Talent had an audition of a woman singing, "I'll be in My Studio"  -- that song became my song when it came to sewing and my sewing space.  Because of my passion and love for sewing I sang that song to my family.  They think I'm crazy....by hey, they know where they'll find me...."I'll be in My Studio, Studio"  LOL

I'm sitting here laughing...now all the kids are singing, "I'll be in My Studio, Studio" -- it's such a catchy tune. 

Anyhow, here is my Studio.  I have a super small nook in our basement.  It's 10.5 feet wide and 7 feet deep.  I've made the space super functional and efficient. I have two over-head lights. Each fixture holds 3 bulbs and I use the daylight bulbs.  I love, love the bright light it gives off!

I bought a heavy-duty  L-shaped office desk (7.5' x 7.5') to set all of my sewing machines one.  The first machine is my stand-alone embroidery machine, then my main sewing machine, next are two sergers, and on the end is my cover-stitch machine.  I love having my machines in line;  my chair is on wheels so I literally wheel from machine to machine.

Inside my nook is a look at my small ironing station.  I have everything I need to press while I sew.  

Here is a view to the right of my studio.  It's the only natural light I have coming in, so good over-head lighting was crucial when we set up my area.  The only problem is....I get constantly reminded of my need to exercise!!  Hmmm....should I sew or exercise????  It's hard to find that balance.

I am a crazy organizer and love organizing things -- especially sewing things.  Here is how I've organized my thread. The tower to the left holds all my sewing machine thread.  Each bin is colour coded for easy selection. To the right are two drawer units that hold my serger threads.  Again, thread is grouped by colour. 

                              

I organize my patterns like this.  All my Ottobre magazines are stored by season in Ikea magazine racks.

I take a copy of the design page of each issue and place them in a 3-ring binder for easy access.  

I store my big three patterns quite similar.  I take a copy of the pattern front and back and place them in plastic paper protector and place the patterns in applicable binder.

I'm very fortunate to be able to store all my fabric on shelves in a walk-in style closet just in front of my sewing studio.  It's a tiny little room (4 1/2 feet x 4 1/2 feet), but its space is utilized to its full potential.  LOL

I organized the fabrics by type and colour.  

Denim, corduroy, sweatshirt fleece, velour and sherpa are on the floor.

Solid knits are on the first shelf organized by colour.

The 2nd shelf is girl knits. The 3rd shelf holds all cotton wovens, flannel, misc. type wovens.  The upper shelf is where I've placed my stash of PRR, Munki-munki, and my much loved Heather Ross collections.  To the left are all my boy knits.

I'm very pleased with how it all fits and looks.  Though I must say, I have more fabric than I know what to do with!!!!  Hmmm....I think I have a problem!!!!  LOL 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the tour of my Studio, Studio.  LOL

Happy Sewing!

A feminine 2-tiered flared top

Hmmm....guess I'm procrastinating!  I haven't started the Spring Clean and Purge yet.  Oh well.  I did sew though...so life is good!  LOL

After I made the denim skirt I knew I wanted to make a pretty top to go with it.  I had bought this pattern the other day at Fabricland (Canadian version of Joanne's).  My local store is discontinuing all Simplicity and New Look patterns.  They had all of them stuffed into a wire revolving rack.  I looked through most of them and found a few.  I had wanted to buy the Lisette Traveler Dress for awhile now and was thrilled to see they had exactly ONE left!!  Wahoo!!   Even better I paid only $2.00 each for the pattern.  Score!!

Anyhow, I liked this Simplicity pattern and knew my oldest daughter would love it!  

So I rummaged through my fabric stash and found a pretty cotton eyelet that had a nice drape.  I made view C but added the tier to it.

I love the back of the blouse.  So cute and such a simple touch to add the bow.

Here is my daughter dressed in her new outfit before we left for church on Sunday.

A better picture of the blouse modeled by Miss. Ally. ( Eeekkk - colour is off on this picture.)

Funny how patterns work out....I sewed up the shorts in this pattern and they are a fitting disaster...they are HUGE and the rise is ridiculous!!  So, for a $2.00 pattern the top is a success but the shorts = epic fail!!  LOL

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Sewing!

Ottobre denim skirt

What a crazy week it's been!  Spring is officially here and my to-do lists have gone out of control!  I have so much stuff that I want to do and get done.  The house is in desperate need of painting.  I need to get down and dirty and do a thorough Spring cleaning/purging throughout the whole house.  I have exterior house painting that I wanted to do in the Fall but never got around to it.  <sigh>  I sometimes wish I could duplicate or even triplicate myself.  The real me would sew all the time and the other me's would do everything else!  LOL  Wishful thinking!

Anyhow, in spite of everything else beckoning me, I did sew a bit.  I made my oldest daughter a denim skirt. It's from the Ottobre Spring 2012 issue.  Design #33 called Airmail Express denim skirt.  Hmm...where does Ottobre come up with their names?? LOL    I sewed up the size 170 and modified the waistband by adding 1.5" to it. .  I then added 1/4"  to each seam to accommodate the larger waistband.  

It wasn't hard to sew but just took a lot time.  Mind you I never got more than 5 minutes of uninterrupted time to sew.  It probably would have sewn up quicker if I could have sewn without a million disruptions. :) 

I added octagon decorative snaps to each pocket.  The prongs were not very long so I didn't use them on the skirt front.  The denim was too thick, so I used some heavy-duty snaps that I bought for my KAM snap press.

Each seam is double topstitched (sewing each line individually) with a thick heavy white cotton thread.  It was a bit tedious as I had to change the needle and thread every time I needed to topstitch.

Here is the back of the skirt.  I stitched turquoise bartacks on all the pockets.  

The skirt waistband and the the pockets are all lined with a pretty floral cotton.

Here are a couple of modelling shots. 

All and all I'm happy and Ally is thrilled with her new skirt.  I'm not sure when I'll be back with another sewing post, as I must tackle my to-do list.   Hopefully sooner than later!!  LOL

Until next time, Happy Sewing!!

Ottobre Kehra Tunic

I know I had said I was going to sew up the Oliver + S Jump rope dress, but I ran into a problem.  My older daughter, Miss. Ally was feeling rejected.  I've been sewing mostly for Miss. Jenelle and well, poor Ally was feeling glum.  LOL  

She picked out this fabric and asked for a tunic style top to wear with skinny jeans.  Sewing for a  tween (12 year old -- will be turning 13 years old this year) is challenging and I do feel a bit intimidated by it.  I find sewing for younger kids easier.  Guess it's because they never complain; wear what I make, and I pick fabrics and styles the majority of the time.   

Anyhow, we got hit was another snow storm on Sunday morning.  We hardly ever get snow!  Living in the Pacific Northwest our winters are mostly rain, and then some more rain, mixed in with even more rain!! Anyhow, church was cancelled so I spent the day puttering in my sewing nook.  We have a wonderful wood stove just by my sewing area so I was cozy and in sewing bliss! 

Pattern is Ottobre Spring 2009  #35 the Kehra Tunic.  Size 170.   I used snaps instead of buttons.  The snaps I used are some pearl purplish/grayish ones I had bought eon's ago from fabricland.  I have a KAM  heavy duty snap press which makes putting on snaps a breeze!  Fabric is a fine wale corduroy. 

I have to show you this.  When I was contemplating about starting up a blog I was trying to figure out what I would call it.  I came up with Cheryann Collections.  I then thought, wouldn't it be cool if I got my own Clothing tags made up with my blog name - Cheryann Collections!  I designed and ordered them from Miss. Label.    They were super speedy and awesome to work with.  I love how it looks with my own label and size tag in the garments I make.  Like I said, I get a big 'ol grin whenever I look.  LOL

Here is Miss. Ally doing her runway pose!  

Fit is good + good length = one happy Miss. Ally which then ='s one happy Mother!!  Yeah!

Thanks for stopping by!  

Happy Sewing!