Posted by sewoff on 2005-01-06 23:07:24
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there is a great book called sewing 101 - a great basic book for beginners
if you have never sewn - you might try making things for your home before you sew garments - pillows are a few straight lines - quick easy and successful first time out.
viking sewing has a web site husqvarnaviking.com - they have a virtual sewing room - you click on a technique and it shows and animated clip on how to do it. go to their site click on education then sewing room
Posted by AnnS on 2005-11-06 11:21:29
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Depends, do you like to look at your bags and/or use them? If you do use and want to look at them as a collection, you need some sort of display/storage. I took an online 'organize your sewing room' class (didn't do so well, except for my handbags).
One of the girls in the class said she used old doorknobs screwed into her closet doors (the outsides) and hung her bags on that as display. She had random door knob styles which added to the eclectic look.
Another suggestion was to install 'cubes' or 'buckets' on the wall (yes, buckets, turned sideways) and store in that.
I bought some inexpensive wood crates at Joann Fabrics and stained them a dark walnut color. I mounted them in a group of 4 on my wall and my bags sit happily in and on them (I left room between them to put some on top of the crates and/or hang from the sides of them).
It works well, I'm happy to see all my bags, I'm using them more and they're not in a heap on the closet floor.
Posted by Becky65301 on 2004-08-31 17:11:19
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The women in my family have a long history of crafting, and I was around it from very early on.
My great-grandma worked many years doing factory sewing, and later worked at an alterations shop. She used razor blades instead of a seam ripper, and she used to draft her own patterns on old newspaper. Had a sewing room, total firetrap in retrospect, I spent many hours in there making Barbie clothes out of scraps. She had me on the sewing machine when I was about 8. Until I hit about 5th grade, she made ALL my clothes (except underwear, haha), all of them, an entire collection of classic polyester pantsuits appropriate for the 70's.
Likewise, my grandma and mom can both sew, although they never took it to the same level as she did. They had other crafts they preferred. Mom can paint really well, and does ceramics. My grandma was a locally very well-known china painter and also made porcelain dolls. So I was exposed to those things as well. It seemed natural and obvious that I majored in Costume Design, combining the drawing skills with the sewing. I was the first to pursue a degree in it and kinda took the whole thing in a different direction.
My "heritage" story: When I started kindergarten, my great-grandma made me a jumper to wear for Valentine's day. It was a basic red gathered skirt and waistband, with a bib and straps. The bib was shaped like a heart and she embroidered "I Love You" with white thread. I wore it to school kindergarten, and every year she would get it back out, let out the waist a bit, let down the hem a bit, let out the straps... I wore that same jumper every year thru 5th grade! I have no idea how she made it to let out <that much> but it always managed to fit, it must have had like a 2 foot hem. In 6th grade I rebelled and refused to wear it. Years and years later, we were cleaning out her house, she was quite a packrat and Depression-era, and I found the jumper. The "I Love You" bib is in my display cabinet. It is so tiny!
Edited to add: The women in my family can't cook for s**t, and are not known for any other domestic skills. So I was on my own with those things. We (DH and I) are also now creating new traditions for our kids, like at Christmas and such, because neither one of our families had huge traditions like that, and I really want to do that for our kids.
Posted by microsinger on 2005-10-17 13:33:32
Post Subject: Mom Seeks Crafty Blessing/Karma for Blossoming Craftista
My soon-to-be-fifteen year old daughter has recently gotten crafty. She is sewing her own halloween costume, crocheting handbags and scarves, and has decided she wants to be a fashion designer that designs clothes for women with real bodies (she's a size 11). I am going to buy her a used dressmaker's dummy for xmas and set her up with her own sewing box and fill it with tools and notions to get her started. This is where the women of this community come in.
I am a little goofy about my sewing box. My mother in law (now deceased) gave it to me when I was a young mother. After she died, I was given some notions that were in her sewing room; little strips that she had embellished with beading, ribbon, a few spools of thread. There's also a thimble from a close friend, some buttons from my some of my mom's projects, lace from my wedding dress. I have used some of these things but I like the idea of having them in there because I feel like there is a creative energy that has flown through all of us and I like the idea of having a part of these women 'around' for my projects. I would love for her to receive some tiny token and a word of inspiration from some of you. Please understand, I am not begging for handouts. I can go out and buy these things and will buy the basic stock. But if you'd like to send a couple of buttons, beads, stick pins, length of ribbon, fabric, anything and note to encourage her to be her wonderful craftista self, I think that would be the coolest thing ever! I'd like to wrap the envelopes and let her open them one at a time. A button from Seattle, ribbon from L.A, zipper from NY.....she'd have a cow. As a measure of good faith, I'd be willing to send a few blank embossed notecards as a thank you for any who participate.
Please let me know if you'd like to help out. Thanks so much!!
Edited to add: In case you might be curious, Sara will be 15 in March. She has been a vegetarian for two years, loves Disturbed, The Ramones, The Rolling STones, the Beatles, and the Sex Pistols. She plays guitar and bass. At one dance she wore a vinyl dress with combat boots and for another she wore an adorable vintage style dress with a bouffant hairdo and mary janes. My proudest moment was when at age ten, she petitioned the city council not to replace "Smoky the Bear", a poor, deceased animal cooped up in a cage in our city park. She spoke in front of a room full of people, including cameras and reporters. They did not replace the bear.
Posted by deborahthecraft on 2004-11-08 18:35:49
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My favorit:When my Mom was dying we brought her home and set her hospital bed up in the sewing room (most room so we could take care of her) and the week before she died she was walking me thru the pattern/instructions to make a purple polkadot 16 gored skirt.I still have the skirt,instructions and the memory.
Fun ones:
Cutting out clippings and makeing 'cities' for my little brothers' Micro Minis cars out of paper,cardboard,nails,wood,glitter,neads,lincoln logs and more.
Beading 'daisy chains' when they were the hot thing at the end of the 80's with 50cent bags of seed beads from Ace Hardware.
Posted by delqc on 2004-11-09 10:31:23
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So many memories came back to me that I actually started to cry ...
Everything I know I learned from my nan, especially the idea that if you don't know how to do it, that's cool, you can do a practice one first to figure it out!
I remember sewing doll's clothes on my nanny's old crank-by-hand singer. There was no electricity in this baby. She used it up until the nineties, when she passed away. Then it was given to my aunt, where it now sits, unused, on her shelf. That makes me angry.
My nan made all sorts of really tacky stuff, but it was fun anyway. She would make "Christmas logs" with sawdust mixed paper-mache style, and then cover them with "snow" (whipped melted parrafin wax) and fake mini nutrcrackers, presetns, and christmas trees. They were TACKY, but they scream grandma and Christmas to me!
My nan always made latch-hook rugs as long-term projects. She would leave them set up in her sewing room and whenever we would visit we would work on sections. I still remember drinking tea (which I wasn't allowed to have) and sewing with her. That was amazing.
Posted by Miss M on 2004-11-06 08:34:16
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Fun thread!!
*making collages with my mom - we(my sis, bro & I) were little - 1st grade/preschool maybe? - and I always tried to make mine as nice as moms. Hers was a girl with a gingham skirt and yarn braids
*playing on the floor outside my moms teeny tiny sewing room with empty spools. Later, I would sew things using her scraps(by hand of course) and my dad would get mad about the pins I lost in the carpet and he would step on. I'd beg my mom to let me use her ribbon and iron-on patches
*My very first trip to a local bead store that I found in the phone book - I was in middle school. My mom took me there after school. The owner helped me make my very first pair of earrings(I still have them!). That was the beginning of my bead obsession that lasted a long, LONG time and the birth of this crafty girl!
*As an adult, a trip w/ my mom & sister to a creative arts convention. It was the first time us girls ever did anything like that. Because I didn't knit at the time or sew all that well either, I forced them to take classes they'd never normally take. Hello new hobbies! It was hands down the best weekend I've ever had with the two most creative, influential, amazing women in my life!
Posted by Sewlittletime on 2006-01-24 07:16:17
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I've been burning cds so I can finally bring my boom box up to my sewing room. Sometimes when I'm listening to music, I'll sing along and do my work or crafts at the same time. Other times I'm so absorbed in what I'm doing, I almost forget that I've got music on until my cd ends, or something else needs my attention, like one of the kids.
Posted by copacetic on 2004-10-03 13:56:15
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* a cleaner, bigger, more organized sewing room!
* someone to take my crafts around to local boutiques and to sit for me at craft fairs 'cause i'm super-shy when meeting new people so i have a hard time doing this!
* a magical way to fuse interfacing to any fabric i desire...like a magic wand or something i can wave! ;) ta-da!!!
Posted by Marina-Trilobyte on 2005-02-14 21:43:22
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I went to a school that offered Home Ec and Shop. My first year, Home Ec = Girls and Shop = Boys and then it was switched so that both were offered impartially to boys and girls.
Home Ec was sewing and cooking. For cooking we learned to make baking power biscuits, easter eggs made out of sugar, some hamburger dish, Welsh rarebit, homemade "reese's peanut butter cups" and a delightfully retro "rabbit" made out of canned pear halves for the body and various garnishes to make up the tail, ears and whiskers.
We were taught food hygiene and encouraged to think about how to add interest to a table (presenting the food, including centerpieces).
I kid you not, we wore yellow and white checked aprons. :) My most vivid memory of Home Ec was listening to the radio while Reagan was shot.
Sewing included how to thread a sewing machine, making a (simple) backpack out of denim, hand embroidering a "sampler" that included hemstitch...and uh...several embroidery stitches and other things that I know I've forgotten. The best part of the sewing room was the three way mirror, I remember everyone used to shut themselves in it to look at themselves reflectedly endlessly. Also, I remember the floor had relatively nice carpet and the instructor was always after us to make sure to get all our pins and thread so they wouldn't get stuck in the carpet.
Some of the other things people have mentioned, first aid was stuck onto Health classes and how to change a tire was included as part of driver's ed. Some of the girly girls put up an awful fuss at having to change a tire, but the instructor insisted that EVERYONE learn. Also gave tips to the smaller, lightweight girls on how to get a tire off without a lot of upper body strength.
Posted by bookish on 2004-10-07 16:41:35
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Will anyone be checking this again tonight? I hope so.... I have had a hellish day and will not be coming tonight. I would LOVE to meet everyone and hope there can be another crafty meet-up soon. :( I would only be grumpy and boarish tonight.
As it is, I am locking myself in my sewing room and not coming out until morning ;)
Posted by Diana on 2006-04-26 17:13:26
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I've been doing the spring clean for several weeks now. Dozens and dozens of boxes of stuff to the thrift store. I started out cleaning out my breakfast nook so I could use as a sewing room, but then needed room to put a few things that were stored there, so then I had to clean out my closet. The hallway storage alcove is next on my list. I usually do a good weekly cleaning so I don't do lots extra other than pull out furniture and wash all curtains. Mostly Spring cleaning for me is getting rid of the excess.
Posted by fairgreenlady on 2005-09-17 07:56:09
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Balance? There's no balance. Crafts win every time!
Seriously, don't look in my sewing room, and occasionally the kitchen since I use the table as my cutting table. Oh, and the living room where I do some hand sewing. The master bedroom is where the ironing board is...I'm trying to build a case for finishing the attic to contain all my crap :-)
Posted by sweetpea on 2005-09-18 07:25:16
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We have one room that's been sacrificed as the office/study/sewing room/studio that's been better since my fiance set up a table in there so I can sew (i used to lug the machine and all the stuff i needed into the dining room but rarely put it away afterward). We're ok with that room being a wreck. Otherwise, I try (not succesfuly) to stay on top of stuff. Lists help. On Tuesday I finally gave the house a good cleaning. By today, it's a wreck again. Our bedroom is always a mess, mainly because we hate to put away laundry. I know that if I'd just take care of things as they happened, as someone mentioned earlier, it wouldn't pile up. But when I just want to crawl into bed I don't want to put away clothes, so i pile them on the floor, and that's where they stay. :(
Posted by Sewlittletime on 2005-03-28 03:00:07
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My husband appreciates my crafty endeavors, which are mostly sewing. But I dabble in a lot of other little things too. He is an awesome at pencil sketching...it kills me sometimes, 'cuz I'm a little jealous of his talents! But occasionaly, I'll do pen and ink backgrounds for him, since I'm good at it and he claims he sucks at it. Or he'll draw a picture just for me so I can color it in like a little kid! He has helped me with color or fabric choices for various projects~he also has a really good eye for such things.
He's good about giving me time to do my own thing and I try to give him time to do his thing. Mostly, it all has to wait until the kids are off to bed.
One of these days I'll have a nice big upholstered chair in my future dream sewing room, just for him, with great lighting for him to draw by...and an art corner for the kids. : ) Anyone have some spare square footage we can add to our house??
Posted by Diana on 2006-03-30 17:25:16
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Is anyone else addicted to the Don Asslet books? They are so much fun to read and give me the motivation to dig in to my piles of clutter. I have almost cleared out my breakfast nook to turn it into a sewing room. Previously it had been used for storage and was almost completely full. Now I'm down to just a few things and it will be cleared out by the time I leave for work Monday morning. Then I can move the sewing machine in!!! I think when you really have a concrete purpose in mind it really can help you get rid of the junk. I have even been cleaning out my bedroom (only) closet so it even looks and functions better. And you'll never believe this but I was finally willing to get rid of some fabric and craft supplies that I knew I would never use. And it has really felt great!! If you are having problems parting with anything, just read a Don Aslett book!! Then you will have no problems.
Posted by Diana on 2006-03-20 17:01:19
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I'm in the midst of my big spring fling-- too much junk that I own and no longer need. Can you believe 52 pairs of shoes!! I guess my mother and I are really related. After this past weekend I'm down to 16 pairs. Now I am moving on to the really hard stuff--all the craft stuff that I no longer use. I need room for the stuff I do use and want to use my breakfast nook as a sewing space, not a junk closet!! So far I have taken 19 boxes of stuff to the thrift store. Most of this stuff was moved from my parents home to my apartment over 3 years ago and hasn't been used since. And a lot of it I didn't really remember even owning. I think you just finally have to be sick of it all before you can let it go and feel good about it. One box at a time and soon I'll have a sewing room, plus be able to eat at my kitchen table again. Hope everyone who wants to de-clutter can really make it happen. Getting a friend to help is a great idea. And make your path public so it's harder to quit. Just remember that most of the junk came in one piece at a time and it can go back out the same way. Just keep at it!!
Posted by chpico on 2007-03-17 15:20:43
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Hi, I've enjoyed looking at all the fun websites. A lot of creativity here! I have an etsy account, but nothing in my store yet. I have been busy downsizing my overflowing sewing room, so I have setup an ebay store filled with fine fabrics, trims, patterns & fun 100% cotton quilt binding / bias tape made by me. Hopefully, once I weed out some of my stash, I'll be able to make some cool stuff for my etsy store. :-)
Thanks for looking!
