New Sewing Set-Up

Hello, hello! Now that Ba-chan, The Ninja Grandma has officially launched, I am sewing like a fiend.

You may or may not know that I sew in my bedroom. In our sweet little townhouse, we have a disproportionately huge master bedroom and though I love me some airy minimalism, it seemed a shame to let all that space go to waste. I’ve carved out a little corner as my “atelier” and for the last 6 or so years, this has been working out pretty well. One of the downsides, however, was that I pushed one of those massive craft/cutting tables from Jo-Ann against the corner of the room and it wasn’t optimal in terms of functionality. I couldn’t really access every part of the table and dust collected at an alarming rate underneath all the bins and boxes I had crammed under it. Additionally, my ironing board was mostly an unsightly dumping ground and I was forever bumping into it.

This summer, after some extensive research I decided to ditch the craft table and ironing board. In their stead, I got this Sullivan’s Ironing Center to serve double duty as both cutting table and ironing station. Oh my goodness. I LOVE IT. It’s changed my life. It’s crazy heavy and I pulled a shoulder muscle lugging the box up the stairs to my room, but the manual labor involved — including the two hours it took me to build it — was totally worth it.

First of all, its slim profile takes up very little room, and the table top is collapsible to further diminish its size when not in use. The dimensions are 22”L x 59”W x 37”H when fully extended, and 22”L x 34”W x 37”H when collapsed.

Also: wheels. This baby is completely mobile, yet sturdy and stable. Such an awesome combination! I’ve been wanting to blog more about my sewing again, but without my trusty white living room wall with the beautifully diffused light cast by the adjacent window, I was at a loss. When we inherited our neighbor’s piano for K a couple of years ago, we shifted furniture around and a ginormous credenza now occupies the former photo wall. You wouldn’t think such a minor detail would derail my dedication to blogging, but it did. And yes, there were a few other extenuating circumstances that I’ll share in the near future, but now, at long last, I can scoot this table out of the way and I have a lovely expanse of pale grey wall with an adjacent window equipped with light-giving goodness. I still have to figure out the camera/tripod situation but that’ll happen soon!

The other major benefit of this ironing center is the built-in storage beneath. As you can see, my monster pattern binder fits easily in there along with other essential sewing accoutrements. LOVE.

Now, this table comes with an ironing pad, but I didn’t like how it looked and felt (oddly bunchy), so I got a smaller cutting mat and ironing pad. So far I’m liking this configuration, though I’m toying with the idea of getting the 59” wide cutting mat designed for this table and plopping the smaller ironing pad on top. We’ll see.

On a side note, the fabric scrap basket you see on the left was our laundry hamper in a former life, but it fits that space beneath the table so perfectly, I had to repurpose.

So what am I sewing? For starters, I’m making K some leggings that actually fit her. I tried a pair from New Look 6445 in size 10 and she’s drowning in them — I’m so confused. They unexpectedly fit me really well. I don’t know why the sizing runs so big; she’s a size 10 in other commercial patterns. I just might have to self-draft them. I’m also in desperate need for outerwear for myself. In a hasty flurry of summer purging, I got rid of all of my worn out winter coats. Which meant all of them. I was guided by the usual erroneous assumption: “I’ll just whip up a coat or two before winter is here.” Well, here we are in late October and I have yet to sew anything that will keep me toasty. In the meantime, I’ve raided M’s closet and am looking like a fleece-clad blowfish on most days. Or maybe I just look like a sheep.

How are you, my friends? What have you been up to? Are you making things? Are you happy with your creative space? It’s amazing how a few adjustments can increase my productivity level and enthusiasm a millionfold!

Okay, I’m off to sew, and I’m wishing you all a spectacular weekend!

P.S. I just finished reading Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and it’s the most charming book I’ve come across in a long time. Highly recommended! For tweens, K recommends The Warden’s Daughter and Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli.