I’ve spent the better part of two weeks cleaning up my workroom to begin a new venture: Sage Row – Alterations / Custom Sewing Service (home based for now).

Maybe I should’ve listened to that bell in my head, when at 16 I tried to hand sew a man’s tailored jacket. Now to stop chasing butterflies and settle down….. that’s going to be tough!

Anyway… Here are pics of the newly cleaned up and renovated workroom (food for all you 900+ voyeurs that visit daily – maybe you’d like to comment?):

Lewis – A new addition to the little family of Ozzie and Harriet, from David at Atlantic Sewing. His job is blindstitching – as soon as I locate a manual, legs and motor for this wild child:

My sewing room thus far: Still have to make room for Lewis but this is the basic setup. I did have a 10′ iron surface made from pads and extra flooring on top of tables, but I’ve used that wall for the industrials (for now anway) and made a pressing surface from 2×4 plywood covered in insul-bright, batting and cotton twill. I moved the pressing surface in front of the window to make it more enjoyable and easy to see my work and the kids in the daylight hours. Plus, the shelf above will hold my gravity feed iron that I know will follow me home in the near future.

On the flip side of the sewing room is My Tower of Babel…
or the fabric I collect as I find it on sale. (Slobo is getting so artsy with his photography!) I’m proud of the fact I got it this organized! Shirtings for the kids on top left, Plain Shirtings for whole family on middle and bottom left, Flannels for kids on top right, bottom weights for kids on middle and bottom right, bins on top contain knits – singles, doubles, interlocks) There are dressers and shelving below that hold patterns, books, and denims. Fleeces and Buttercup Inventory in other room.
Between the Tower and the Canning Pantry (off the cutting room) we should be clothed and fed for at least two years! Now if I could only print a housepayment or two on the press (j/k)!!!

Next Room – cutting / printing / design area. For this room I was fortunate to get a library card catalog that a neighbor of Mom’s was throwing out! Can you believe it? Solid Maple – too – no less! When it wouldn’t hold Mom’s jewelry (mostly costume) – she gave it to me for fat quarters – but I never seemed to get around to filling it up. It’s now labeled and repurposed to hold all my threads for the industrials – parts – notions for alterations and custom sewing work. JC Sprowls and Carol Kimball were very kind to give me a head’s up on what to stock, and the storage cabinet worked great – having exactly the right number of drawers that fit thread cones beautifully. It has sliding metal panels that ride along a series of notches – keeping everything in place so it doesn’t roll around. (Heaven Sent!)

Interfacings, Buttercup Goods, and such held on the shelves nearby:

and the sweetest part of the organizing and cleanup (besides fantastic lighting in the sewing area) is my new cutting surface!!!! I added 1″ thick MDF (with additional support) 48″ wide by 13 ft. long! WOOHOO! I polyurethaned them for ease in printing and now – NO MORE DIPS or dragging fabric on the tabletops!!!!

Definitely Organized Chaos!!!