My "Studio"

Or maybe you would call it a sewing room.  Call it what you want.  I'll call it finished (mostly)!

We have this room downstairs that I have always used to sew when I'm not sewing at the kitchen table.  It has also housed our computer and office-y crap.  It has been called the office, the sewing room, the pit and other non-endearing names over the course of our living here. We had water issues when we moved in and finally getting that fixed has allowed us to use the room without wading in water after a rain.  But what we didn't fix was the mold problem we had...yuck!

In February we finally took that step too.  We had all of the drywall removed, walls and ceiling, moldy insulation removed and the room frame bleached.  Then new drywall installed and painted.  Mike laid the laminate floor to match the rest of the basement.

Let me try to convey to you how much I love my new room.

I LOVE my new room!!

It is so neat and tidy.  It smells good.  I have a space to do all the sewing and crafting I could ever care to do.  I can stand and cut out a pattern without bending over the kitchen table, Hallelujah! I LOVE my new room!

I thought for sure that I had some pictures of the mess of a room this was before.  This was all I could find. It was not much less of a mess than this but this was taken while my brothers were laying floor in the family room and hall.  Most everything was in this room from the family room too.

Check out my beautiful room now.  It is a plethora of Pinterest ideas.  It may not look all that neat and tidy in these pics but it was in use.  I was sewing and Maya was crafting.  Mike was even down here working on the threshold that my brother cut for the doorway.

My, my it sure is nice to have a place to do these things. My first project in my new room was a skirt for me.  Holy moly! Something for myself? Why, yes.  My pinterest addiction has opened a whole new world of wants and sewing/creating awesomeness.  I found this tutorial and pattern on Sew Mama Sew (a fave sewing site) and it looked easy and cute so I tried it.  No disappointment here.  Easy and cute!

I didn't have a top on my cutting table so I busted out my trusty card table and used it as a table top on top of the bookshelves to make my skirt.  That has since been fixed and now I have a nice firm surface upon which to cut and sew.  And of course my ancient cardboard cutting mat.  That old thing has been all over the place and used for much more than a simple cutting mat.

So, who gets the next item up for sewing?  Maya.  Simplicity # 5695.  No tutorial or online pattern.  Just good ol' tissue paper patten from JoAnn's.  My only modification was to make each tier longer to make the overall length of the dress longer.  My pattern is old and a size 4 is the largest.  Maya fits the 4 around but the length was quite short. With 3 extra inches total the length is perfect.  I even made tags. I have tried them before and didn't like the way they turned out.  I was trying to use cotton belt webbing. But then I found instructions for using ribbon.  Ha! Who knew?!

It's great for spinning.  Every dress or skirt Maya has ever put on gets an immediate spin.  The loft of the garment while spinning is the only true determination of like or dislike.

I suppose it passed the spin test.  And look at the super smiles I got from my beauty! Wow!!

Here is my favorite part of this little dress (aside from the fact that MY daughter is wearing it).  Check out the little vine hem detail.  Not part of the pattern.  Just a cute embroidery stitch on my machine.

No, I won't leave you hanging about my pinterest ideas.

#1. This is Maya's crib rail. This was one of the first things that I saw on pinterest that I knew I must have. We still had her crib.  It was handed down from her cousins and had been discontinued and deemed dangerous because of it's drop rail sides. I am so glad to get to re-purpose it.

#2 My cutting table was roughly based on this table. I don't have enough space for 4 shelves so we used two. Perfect! I am 5'5". If you are any shorter than this, this table is probably not for you. It is 36" tall. After cutting out at the kitchen table for all of my sewing life, this thing is a God send! My back has never been happier after cutting.

And this is where the "mostly"comes in.  I plan on making a curtain to cover between the two shelves and behind them.  I also plan on making a roman blind for my window but haven't had a chance to get fabric for those yet.  And I need to frame and hang some pictures for the naked wall.  Also ignore the dust bunnies and threads.  I need to vacuum.  I use my space.

#3 is my neatly folded fabric scraps.  Love! These were all wadded up folded neatly in the trunk you can see in the pic above.  It's really hard to see what you have when it's buried in a trunk.

#4 is my little Mod Podge fabric clock (roughly again) from Make it and Love it (one of my fave crafting sites)