New Sewing Room Tour

Why is it that tasks that seem straight forward always end up huge marathons? I originally thought I could easily sort out and organise my somewhat chaotic sewing room in say, a couple of days. I was much more nervous about the prospect of painting my room on my own since I've never done that before and was convinced that it would take FOREVER! Turns out I was wrong on both counts...

But First! The before pictures (I'm not proud of this - but I think it clearly illustrates WHY a sewing room update was needed)

As you can clearly see - this is not a place conducive to creativity, clear-headed thinking or actually being able to find anything! Notice my sewing machine and overlocker aren't even on the desk intended for them - by this stage they had given up on the mess and moved themselves down to the lounge room! Part of the problem with this room is it only has one tiny window that doesn't get much light. They room itself gets plenty of light from the big window in the opposite bathroom. The catch? In Winter this room is easily the coldest in the house so if I put on a heater and close the door to keep the heat in you lose all your natural light no matter what time of day it is. What resulted is I moved sewing down into the front lounge room with our beautiful combustion heater and a lovely view from all the big windows for Winter.

New Sewing Room Pre-Paint

But what's the point of having a sewing room then? So it was executive decision time and so I decided to move into another one of our back bedrooms since it gets better light and change the current sewing room into a guest/spare room instead.

You may also be wondering where the paint colour came from? I've wanted a lemon yellow sewing room for a while now. Sadly I can't wear much yellow near my face as it makes me look like I have jaundice! But it is such a happy, sunshiney colour I wanted to find a way to surround myself with it. The colour is called "Lemon Delicious" by Dulux - so now my sewing room even sounds delectable!

How amazing is this colour? I love how fresh and light it looks, especially with the white shelves and table (all courtesy of Ikea) Also, much admiration is due to these epic shelves installed by the Fabric Folding Assistant (otherwise known as hubby)

I think it is quite amusing that I let my sewing space take over so much - those of you who know me also know how pedantic I can be about being organised and how much I looove my label maker! I have acquired  quite a lot of new sewing things recently when I started StaceyMade Fashion so I think this, combined with such an increase in my sewing activity is to blame. But now I have ample space to store my sewing gear, Hooray!

Onwards to The After Photos!

And Yes, there are lots of them Sorrynotsorry ;-)

 

Fabric and Patterns and Notions! Oh My!

I got these handy plastic drawers and containers from cheap as chips and they are perfect for storing patterns and fabric. I've sorted patterns by type (sundresses; formal/cocktail dresses; tops; bottoms; outerwear; sportswear; costumes etc.) and I store them in ziplock bags to keep all the pieces together after I've traced them off. The fabric is also sorted by type (cotton lawn; cotton sateen; ponte di roma; jersey; crepe de chine; evening fabrics etc.) and I tried folding it around cardboard strips and sliding it into the drawer or box so I can instantly see all my fabric options. I do have my own special box of fabrics just for me that I could never part with but I was surprised at how much I had that I liked but wouldn't be devastated if a client wanted to use. This process of sorting out and folding did highlight how much of a fabric problem I have - lol looks like I'll be 'shopping the stash' for a while yet!

I even have a pretty view now looking out to our backyard and veggie patch - see the strawberry tower? I'm pretty damn excited about that strawberry tower. We need to get planting soon ready for a Summer harvest, YUM!!!

My Sewing Girls (and the FFA) are up on my wall

I made the cute pin board by covering a cheap cork board from cheap as chips in this upholstery fabric Mum gave me for Christmas last year - don't you love it? I have to have a pin board in my sewing room, it's like Pinterest but in real life lol.

Eventually that cord will be secured to the skirting but I couldn't wait to show you the 'finished' product

Teddy's are clearly the most helpful sewing companions so they have to have a spot!

So there's my new sewing room. In the end the entire transfer took about a week or so - including only a day and a half of painting - the rest was all moving furniture, building storage solutions and sorting! I'm so excited to start working in here - actually I already did some yesterday, as you should be able to tell from the pretty way Merry-the-Mannequin is dressed. It is light, bright, a little girly and a whole lot of creativity. I'll be trying out spots to take pictures in here of my finished makes so expect to see a lot more of these delicious lemon meringue walls!

Glad to share my new space with you - if you have a beautiful sewing space (or dream of one) please share it in the comments! I'd love to see anyone else's favourite creative spaces!

Happy Stitching,

Stace

OXOX

New Blog Feature!

Heya!

Just a quick little blog post to say you can now Follow Me By Email!! Hooray!!

Just enter your email in the field at the top right of my blog and follow the instructions and then you'll get happy sewing emails whenever I post something new. :-) Hopefully this makes my blog a little more accessible to those of you who don't have bloglovin or similar.

I've been super busy this last week working on my lovely new sewing room - can't wait to show you as it is nearly finished and I. Love. It.

So I'm heading back into it and will leave you lovelies to get subscribing ;-)

Cheers!
Stace

Cherry Bomb! A red hot Nettie Dress

Sewing for myself has been on the back burner for the past few weeks. With one thing and another I suddenly found myself with a pile of orders to fill for StaceyMade :-O which is no bad thing but did mean I wanted to knuckle down a bit and get stuck in.

Fortunately one of those orders was for a new pattern - a Nettie Dress from Closet Case Files. If I've never used the pattern brand or design before I like to make a trial version for me first since I know my shape better than anyone's. This way I can iron out any fit issues or strange sizing etc. before cutting into my friend's fabric. Bonus here was I have been eying the Nettie Pattern since it came out. It looked like such a good basic design and although I doubt I'll ever make the body suit up (maybe as a costume?), the dress can also be altered into a t-shirt so for only $10 or so you get a good basic dress, t-shirt and bodysuit pattern. When I had a friend after this exact design I rejoiced because now I had a reason to buy the pattern finally!

I won't lie, part of the appeal of this pattern was the very low scoop back combined with a built in bra. I adore low backs, particularly in combination with long sleeves and high necklines - I think it is the epitome of understated sexiness. Add in fire engine red fabric and I think this is one hot dress!

Ok maybe not so understated sexy from this side...

I cut a size 6 high neck, low back dress after a LOT of deliberation given the pattern is designed with negative ease and I am not a hugely confident stretch sewer. I have been dipping my toes into stretch sewing this year and I do love how quick and easy it is to sew up but I still struggle with fitting and sizing issues simply because my brain isn't wired to think in stretch fabric terms just yet. The size 6 turned out to be a perfect fit even though the body measurements given for this size were slightly smaller than mine. I think it also depends on what sort of fabric you use so each new make will have to be individually assessed.

I used some cheap and cheerful bright red cotton interlock stretch fabric I bought in Melbourne at G & J's fabrics (I think). It only just had enough stretch to make this dress but as it is a little heavier than a jersey it did help smooth out my silhouette lines in the final dress so :-).

I included a built in bra which I've never attempted before. The process was relatively easy although I wanted to insert foam bra cups to give a little more support than just the standard elastic + fabric set up. They look ok in pictures but in real life they are a little lumpy and poor fitting. I think the main problem is that between buying these cups and making the dress I've lost weight and now the cups are too big. I'm probably going to rip them out and see how it looks without them and if needed I'll buy some smaller, lighter ones to try again with. This sounds quite tricky and there was a lot of mirror scrutiny time but the actual process of inserting the cups was quite easy - I followed the Nettie sewalong on Closet Case Files site and the instructions were excellent and easy to follow for this step :-)

Overall, this is a fantastic basic pattern that is quick and easy to sew up. I finished all the seams on my overlocker and top stitched the neckline and hems using a stretch twin needle. My only DUUUUUH! Moment came when I perfectly attached the neckband using my overlocker only to discover it was attached right side to wrong side! Cue cutting off that band and starting again. As a result of this the back neckline is quite narrow on the shoulders and has a tendency to fall off a little but I don't think this will be a problem if you sewed it normally in the first place!

This was a great run through before making my final version for my friend - she was after the scoop neck and high back version of the dress and since we are the same size (yay) I could try this version on to check fit and there will definitely be a version of this in my life soon, along with a t-shirt version with the medium back using the left over scraps from this project. I'm actually planning a lot more Netties. They are quick and easy to sew up - great instant gratification sewing, they look great on and are super comfy to wear while still looking really polished :-D wins all round!

It's so nice to whip up some quick sewing projects :-) I love beautiful detailed makes but sometimes you just want a finished project right now!

Special special thanks go to my awesome Dad (Happy Fathers Day!) for taking these great photos - so much better than the goober shots I usually take on timer at home ;-)

Happy Sewing!

OXOX

Stace

P.S - If you'd like to see the other version of this dress I made up, head on over to my Facebook page for StaceyMade Fashion at https://www.facebook.com/StaceyMadeFashion