A Sewing Room Finish . . . . . . (Sort of)

Greetings lovely friends & readers

I see I have a couple of new followers - the warmest   Welcome to you all  💗

 

Despite the dry here, the roses have decided to have a second flush ...  I picked some buds yesterday & even managed a small vase of Seafoam roses as well.

My sewing room is finished dear friends & I thought I would share it with you.  I only have a few things left to hang up but the rest is all done & the large mess in the lounge room is all sorted now - lots went to the Op-shop & I still have another load to go.  

As with most projects I undertake, I seriously underestimated what was involved.  But that's okay - I can tick it off my list & hopefully enjoy it now it's all clean & tidy & less cluttered.

I emptied every single thing out of the room apart from this heavy chest of drawers which I went through & purged.  The Mr painted the ceiling for me but I did all the rest.  It is not a large sized room, it used to be my eldest sons room ... but sometimes we just have to be thankful for what we have & indeed remind myself that I used to sew in a VeRy tiny corner of our bedroom.

I started putting things back in a week ago, sorting through every single item that went back in & cleaning along the way.  

Because this room is just off the dining area - which is where our fire is, I find it gets incredibly dusty.

I don't have any before pics unfortunately.  Standing in the doorway, here is the new layout of the room - it doesn't look a lot different to the before but it is more spacious & I have changed my sewing machine table to the other side as I was concerned about it getting too much sun on the left hand side. (the room gets lots of late afternoon sun)

My main intention with the room was to remove the cat sleeping shelf 😉  fabric shelf that I had on one wall - an old shelf that I upcycled in * this post * way back in 2013.  

I don't use so much fabric now that I sew less so I went through ruthlessly & managed to get the 3 shelves (7 baskets) down to just 2 large draws full instead.  The cat sleeping shelf teddy bear shelf is going to the op-shop when they bring their truck out to collect it.

Thrifted mini quilts covering my sewing machine & overlocker

I have my sewing desk in the room, along with a large trestle table that I upcycled in * this post*. This had become cluttered up with baskets & boxes & there was no space for cutting out etc so I was ending up doing this on the dining room table.  I now have a nice clear space for my cutting mat etc that I Promise Myself Not to clutter up again (!!)

I still have pictures & my clock to hang up yet.  I made sure I hung the gorgeous vintage Holly Hobbie Prints, a gift from my dear friend Sally & one of my favorite things 💗

As the room is not large I am lucky to have wardrobe organisers along 3/4's of one wall.  These are wonderful for holding boxes & baskets of things.

  I long ago chose to have my patterns in boxes as I find they get too dusty sitting in baskets, even though baskets are aesthetically more pleasing to the eye. I bought new boxes from Paper Plus & made some bright cheery Cath Kidston labels for them.  I also condensed 14 boxes down to 10. 

The room does have a large double wardrobe with shelves & a hanging rail.  I painted the doors & also the door into the room & hung my project bags from this hook which I already had in my stash.

I've had my scissors & paint brushes in these tin containers for years now but I repainted them as they were black & white with large bees on them.  I've stuck with a soft duck egg colour in the room as I already had this paint in my stash (leftover decor transfers applied)

The wooden trug was upcycled in * this post *,  the cream drawers in * this post *.    These little containers hold 

all sorts of things so that when I write "I already had this in my stash" ....... you know I am not lying!!

This decoupaged drawer was revamped in * this post *, & Emily, my sewing doll came to life in * this post * back in 2020.

I created this beaded lightshade for my sewing room way back in 2018 in * this post * & I don't think it had been cleaned since (!!) 😑

I took it down & gently washed all those teeny tiny beads & it sparkled again. 

In the last school holidays Sid & I popped into the Salvation Army Op-shop (Sid adores op shopping just like his Granny does).  While he came out with a $1 soft toy, I spotted this mini ironing board.  I had been meaning to make an ironing station for my sewing room & this came home & promptly got tossed in the sleepout. As you can see it was $5 & in very good condition.

Two days ago I removed the cover & drew around it to make a pattern,  I had this lovely piece of vintage curtain fabric in my stash so I used it for this as it was the perfect size. I also padded the underneath with 2 extra layers as I like my ironing board to be well padded. It fits on top of these drawers just perfectly & the hot point is just below for my iron.  

My sewing room has only one big window but good light comes in & looks out on to the garden which is pleasant.  I sent my Roman Blind away to be professionally cleaned & it arrived back just yesterday.  The Mr & I hung it at lunchtime today & I am thrilled with it.  Now all I need to do dear friends, is find some time to actually sew in there!

Thank you all so very much if you've stayed through this lengthy post.  We are having many computer issues again & have a new one on the way.  My son who is organising it for us tells me "2 weeks".  He has been saying this since New Year 😉so we wait patiently.  Today, oddly enough, it decided to work, so I grabbed the chance to do a blog post.  I am not sure when I will get to post again.

Wishing you a Happy Tuesday & a wonderful rest-of-the-week dear friends,

With much love & friendship to you all,

February Days . . . . . . . . . .

Greetings lovely friends & readers  💗

I hope these February days find you well ??

 

I picked the last of the sweet peas this morning - all that are left are seed pods which I will let dry & save some.  With the heat & the drought that we are experiencing, many things are bolting to seed early.

Some of you have asked how my little hothouse is doing ... the tomatoes are now right up to the roof & trying to push through. I trimmed them after I took this photo as I would prefer they put their energy into producing lower down.  I pick as soon as they show some red & then put them on my deck railing where they quickly ripen in the sun.  

This is todays pickings, although the cucumbers are growing in the veggie garden, everything else is from the hothouse.

I tipped out my potted petunias last week as they'd gone leggy.  I scrubbed the table & gave it a nice new length of hessian from Spotlight.  I attempted a simple display with some butterfly Impatiens I had purchased & planted in my old urn.  A friend commented it looked "a bit Valentines-ish" though this wasn't my aim at all.

This concrete Lady Urn belonged to Mum.  I found it in my garden & the head had broken off, so I glued it back on using concrete glue where the blue arrow is.  I then gave it my usual Rust FX treatment & was delighted with how it came up - all rusty & antique looking.  The artificial vine is a thrifted find, I pulled it out of the polystyrene pot that it was in & poked it in the urn.  

I needed a coloured taper candle to put in the rusty candlestick that I revamped in * this post *..  I only had a white candle so I painted it with mod-podge & then carefully wrapped part of a paper serviette around it.  Once dry I sealed it again with mod-podge.  

Using up the remnants of French General fabrics after the cushions I made in my last post, I made a hexie hot-water bottle cover using a pattern by Sew Sweet Violet.  Although it feels like a very long time before I will be needing to use this, I was really happy with how it looks sitting on my bed on Mums pink Mohair throw.

Jooles (sew sweet violet) used linen on the back of hers but I decided to use up this gorgeous piece of raspberry coloured chenille that I found in my stash - so soft & cuddly.  The cover has a nice soft wadding inside & is also fully lined.  

Many of you commented in my last post "no cat on the bed??".    Well this is what I find most nights when I go to get into bed ... Little One top left.   And I thought I'd share this photo of Blackie's latest sleeping place.  He has taken up residence in the big old water pump that sits in my garden, planted with tiny viola's - but rather flattened ones (!!!) 

Dear friends - this is currently what my Lounge room looks like !!  Last week, in a total moment of madness, I decided to empty out my sewing room, wash the walls down, paint the ceiling & then hopefully only put three quarters of it all back again  😉

I am at that stage of seriously thinking I might be just a teeny bit insane !!!  I have washed the walls down & am slowly sorting through every single drawer & container, while I wait for The Mr to paint the ceiling ... we may be a while dear friends  😉  Wish me luck as I have a bit of a sinking feeling I am going to need it (!!)

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,