Creating a "Sew Space"

Up until this February, the majority of my sewing has been done on our kitchen table, while one or both of our kids were occupied on the trampoline, or by the TV, or occasionally covering the lounge room with Lego. This February, our youngest (Mr 4) started kindergarten, and this meant I obtained two full days each week to dedicate to this business, rather than squeezing it in during the evenings, or in gaps while the kids were occupied with something else. The embroidery machine has always been set up in a room the kids don't have access too, so we decided to set the rest of the sewing gear up in there too, so that I didn't have to continually set up and put away the machines!

The first step (which took about a month!) was to sort through the boxes of things that had been put in the space for storage. We built a shed, and moved the things deemed worth keeping into the shed. The next step was to gather up all the sewing equipment from all over the house, and put it all in one spot. There was a LOT, when it was finally all together. A friend moved it all into the middle of the cleared out space for me, and it took up almost the entire space. So then I had to go through it all and sort it all out - again. Which took another month! I finally got the space semi-sorted again, which is when we could move onto the stage we're at right now - storage!

I had all the fabric stored in 35L clear plastic tubs, which while it kept the fabric dust-free, made it difficult to see what I had, and where things were. We made a trip to ikea for two large bookshelves with doors, and I have been slowly transferring the fabric from the boxes onto the shelves. It's been a slow process, and I'm still sewing at the kitchen table at the moment, but there is progress!