Saturday, May 7, 2016

Sewing Room Revamp - The History

I thought it would be fun to share some history of my sewing room in this house.  

Here I am in 2008, sewing my wedding dress.  I think this is how my sewing room was set up right from when we moved in.
 These two desks followed me from my parents' house.  They fit really well in corners, and I had them like this even in our apartment.  Believe it or not, we were lucky enough to have two extra small rooms, and I got to have a sewing room!
 As you can see, I have had an eternal struggle with extra junk that doesn't have a home.
 I always loved that cubby over the desk.  It was very helpful.  I've since given that desk to my mother in law, and she loves it.  It is a perfect simple sewing desk.
 This poor old brown bookshelf has followed me through a lot of stuff, too, and I am really hoping I can finally get it out of my sewing room!
Sometime in 2008, after my wedding, I invested in an IKEA Expedit shelf and attached desk, and they have served me very well for a long time.
 Look how organized I was!  
As we all know, it's hard to stay that clean.  This is in September 2009, when I left the Bridal House (I worked there for 7 months and learned tons about bridal alterations) and decided to work for my dad 3 days a week and start my own sewing business for the other 2 days.  It's extra messy because I was painting.  ;)
 So, I did a major overhaul of the room, and painted one wall lime green.
 I believe the name of the colour is celery.  I still really really love it.  :)
 Here is the revamp.  I took these pictures in January 2010, months after I rearranged the room.  Who knows why I didn't take them right away?  Oh well.  Isn't it pretty?  I also invested in a Juki industrial sewing machine, and it is my pride and joy.  :)
 I didn't even have that much junk under my table!  Although, I haven't shown you any pictures of my junk closet, which is always a total disaster.  ;)
 I guess I decided that the Expedit desk wasn't big enough for both machines, so I dug out the old little one.  That Expedit desk was really good at holding clutter.
 I think this mirror is the only thing that hasn't moved, and it will continue to live there, simply because it fits perfectly beside the door and won't really fit anywhere else.
 These pictures are hilarious.  According to a photo I took of my clock on the wall (among close-ups of literally everything in my sewing room, plus about a dozen selfies), it was almost 4:00 in the afternoon, and I was majorly procrastinating.
 This is Digit.  She's our first cat.  She had some health problems, so she lives at the farm with Ma & Pa now, and is very healthy.
 She was a fantastic sewing companion.  She loved to hang out with me while I sewed.
 Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen?!
 Occasionally, at fittings, I would be lucky enough to have a second person willing to take photos.  A couple of them were very creative.  I absolutely love this shot.
 This is the other creative photographer.  By the way, this dress was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  It was more than 2 sizes too big, and I had to make major alterations, including the straps, the armholes, the side seams, the hem (which I cut from a train to floor-length), and had to re-sew the beading.
 But I powered through, and it turned out to be one of the most beautiful dresses I have ever had the privilege to work on.  She looked like a princess, and the hem was absolutely perfect.  I believe it was for this dress that I installed a heavy duty hook in my ceiling to hang the dress from.
 This is one of my proudest accomplishments.  This is a custom Medieval overdress that I designed and made to go over her existing wedding dress, which I also had to do minor alterations to.  I absolutely love this dress and I still can't believe I designed it!  (By designed, I mean this is a major frankenpattern.  The bodice is made from three different patterns, and the skirt is simply gathered rectangles, with a bit of an angle where they attached to the waistline.)  (you will find the blog posts in June and July 2010)
 This was another labour of love.  I designed and made Lindsey's wedding dress (it is essentially a very complicated frankenpattern including a corset with a strapless bra, crinoline, skirt, lace overlay, and overdress with lace cups and lace cap sleeves.  The overdress is made from three different patterns.  The bodice and sleeves aren't finished in this shot, but this is one of my favourite photos.  I also outfitted her 3 bridesmaids with tops and skirts, and made a couple other minor things.  (you will find the posts in August 2010)
And in case you didn't notice, all these dresses were photographed in my sewing room.  I thought that would add a fun touch to this post.  

So, that is the history of my sewing room from 2008 to about 2010.  Next up, the saga of the big mess, the beginnings of my next big revamp, and what it currently looks like in my sewing room.  :)

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