Hello...I'm back with a tour of my new sewing space.

Just thought I would check in and let you all know I'm still alive, despite my sudden and unplanned absence from the blog since March. To be truthful, my sewing mojo has been MIA and I have had no sewing to share with you, my lovely sewing friends. Also, my wardrobe is rather full and I had no real need for more clothes. Life has been busy and those of you who follow me on Instagram @sewjeanmargaret will know I have been working on a completely different DIY project over the winter months. I have built a raised vegetable garden in our backyard, based on Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening method. It is now mid Spring and the vegetable garden is growing beautifully. I may do a blog post about it down the track, if you are interested.

Over the weekend, I decided to move my sewing area from the family room, back to the dining room (where it was about three years ago), and move the dining table out to the family room. Here is a quick 360 degree view of my sewing space set up in the family room, before the move.

This was all in an effort to ignite my lagging sew jo. The dining room is a much smaller space, but it is cosy and practical. I have a very efficient work triangle set up between the cutting, sewing and ironing areas and everything is almost in arm's reach. I am feeling excited about getting back into sewing already. Here is my new sewing space after the move.

As you can see, most of the furniture is from Ikea. Hubby shortened the legs on the sewing table so that the machines are at the most comfortable height for me to sew. This certainly reduced the back and shoulder strain I used to experience. Next time I get to Ikea, I plan to buy an L shaped table top that will fit into this corner perfectly, and give me enough room to have all three machines set up on it. At the moment my coverstitch machine is sitting on the draw units. The drawers contain all my sewing machine threads, overlocking threads, sewing tools, machine manuals and accessories etc.I have a lovely view from this window across our back verandah and narrow backyard and into the neighbours palms and banana trees.

This is the view from the kitchen doorway. The large Ikea Kallax unit houses my fabric stash in the pink boxes and my pattern stash in the white boxes. The drawers and cupboards house all my sewing haberdashery.  When I am sewing I will set up my ironing board in front of this unit. The rolling cart houses all my ironing supplies including a sleeve board, point presser/clapper and tailors ham. I have a desk lamp set up on the shelf to shine directly onto the ironing board.

This is the view from the lounge room (you can see the doorway into the kitchen on the left). My custom made cutting table resides in this corner. It is on wheels and can be pulled out into the centre of the room enabling access to all sides when cutting out a project. It also has a shelf underneath for more storage hidden behind the curtain. I have a couple of cheap cork boards from Kmart mounted on the wall above it to display sewing ideas/inspiration etc.

This is the corner between the two doorways in this room...the kitchen to the right and the lounge room to the left. I just managed to squeeze my Singer treadle sewing machine (circa 1910) into this spot by removing the hinged top flap so that I could have the actual machine on show. It's a lovely bit of sewing memorabilia. 

The picture mounted above the Singer is a special bit of fabric and embroidery art that my mother did for me many years ago. It is her interpretation of our house that we (my first husband and I) built back in the 1990's when our children were quite small. It is a little bit moth eaten, but I love it anyway.

You may have noticed this True Bias Ogden Cami on Vera. I have been trying it out in a knit fabric. I have made a few adjustments and it is yet to be hemmed so I will share the details in a future post, hopefully not too far away.

Happy Sewing

Jean