A few small additions to Tabatha’s Sewing Room

Hi guys!

Back in March 2012, we moved house, and my first decorating project was to turn the front reception room into my very own sewing room.  We have a large back family room which we knew we would spend all of our time together in, so this room was surplus to requirements.  It’s a beautiful room.  The house was built in the 1930s, but the front room is Victorian in style, with a bay window, an open fireplace, picture rail, cornice and ceiling rose, and original floorboards.

If you click here you can see what my sewing room looked like shortly after completion (and what it looked like before we moved in!).  So why am I blogging about it again?  Well, there are two reasons: 1) We have more readers now and 2) There are a few things I have acquired since last year that I want to show you!

The first thing to show you is this beautiful artwork by Annette Tirette.  A few weeks back the very talented Anneke shared with us some of the art work she had produced for her masters in comics and illustration, and she mentioned that she would like to make and sell postcards of her work.  I fell in love with the images from her story ‘Josephine’ (a story about a seamstress!), and ordered six prints for my sewing room, which I then framed.  I love the prints, and I’m so glad to have supported such a talented artist!

Anneke’s postcards, framed, plus Cath Kidston sewing box and a framed print of Butterick Fashions Autumn 1915.

The next thing to show you is just my mega-expanded collection of thread!  I recently inherited all the sewing notions and haberdashery that had belonged to my mother and my grandmother (and maybe even my great grandmother!).  I had to throw away quite a lot as it was just too dusty or dirty, but I salvaged quite a lot of thread.  I don’t normally associate these spools with machine sewing, but I don’t know why as it turns out that they fit onto my machine just fine.  I don’t think I’ll need to buy thread for a long time now; I have many, many different colours!  I did consider buying a spool rack, but I quite like the way they look in the drawer of my sewing cabinet, and it keeps the dust off them too.

Older spools of thread in the bottom drawer. Bias binding, elastic, zippers etc in the mini crates.

Newer spools of thread and bobbin spools of thread in the top drawer. Ribbons and trims towards the back!

I also have a picture that my Mother-in-law bought me for Christmas, of a load of vintage spools of thread arranged into a heart shape.  That’s hanging above my sewing machine cabinet at the moment:

Sewing machine cabinet (which folds away compactly if necessary)

What else?  Well, you can’t exactly call this a new addition, but my 7-year-old guinea pig now lives under my cutting table!  We moved him into the sewing room last year to make more space in our living area.  He is called Scruffy, and he keeps me company as he scurries about in his house and munches on hay etc.  I have to be extra careful about dropping pins now that he has taken up residency in the sewing room!

My sewing buddy!

I LOVE my cutting table.  It’s just under a metre high, so I don’t get back ache when cutting or pinning or tracing, which is a blessing!

Here are a few more pictures of my sewing room in its current state.  I love it, and I know I am very lucky to have such a nice, bright, pretty space to sew in.

Taken from the doorway…

Bookshelf 1. Contains sewing, art and photography books, a huge tub of yarn (on top), buttons, and patterns and fabric stuffed in the boxes.

It always makes me laugh that so often the book ‘1000 Nudes’ is in clear view when I photograph my projects!!!

Bookshelf 2. Contains my antique 1913 Singer, and more boxes of patterns and fabric.

My sewing machine can be pushed down inside the cabinet and the table tops fold back and cupboard doors close, meaning that everything is kept dust free and the cabinet can take up much less space if necessary.  When it’s all unfolded like this, it’s almost two metres long!  To be honest though, I sew so much that I practically never hide it away.  I don’t need the space for anything else, luckily!

My overlocker desk

This is my 1930s teacher’s desk, where my overlocker lives.  My old Elna machine is in the corner there but I only use it for quilting.  The chest of drawers houses more yarn, more patterns, stationery and the like, and the desk has my paints inside.  I haven’t done any painting in a while, but I would like to get back into it one of these days.

So there you have it – an updated view of my sewing space!