Workroom Tour!

Here's a little workroom tour for you! This is my sewing room. I have a patternmaking room too (which doubles as the spare oom), but it's hard to photograph! It's pretty plain and functional, really - the cutting table is a big sheet of customwood/MDF on storage boxes on the double bed; lots of boxes of fabric and interfacings live under the bed; rolls of paper are stacked to one side; there's a wardrobe full of craft supplies; there's a little fold-out table with the overlocker and some patternmaking text books on it; there's a male mannequin(or a female one, depending on what I need to use). I like to use interesting paperweights :)

Anyhoo, on with the sewing room tour...

This is what you see when you first walk in. My Singer sewing machine gets great light! My ironing set-up is  very basic, but works for me for now. Client work. my mending and my oak-tag patterns are hanging on the rail to the right. The full-length mirror lives under the rail, along with little old suitcases full of vintage sewing patterns. (The smallest suitcase there was my BFF Adam's school bag when we were very small!).

Turning to the left you can see my bookshelf, Flossie, and my lovely Bernina. Mum sent me the beautiful christening gown (because she knew I'd love it) and my friend Katte made me the gorgeous picture with the tatted edge. There's an old map of Venice and a moving paper penguin (There are a lot of penguins in my house, and this one was a gift from my friend Galen).

Further around and you can see a wedding gown hanging on the door, awaiting alteration, then  the Georgian  embroidered waistcoat and Victorian trousers I made for James. And the Heath family portrait, with my wonderful grandfather :) To the left is a little window seat which is currently occupied by STUFF, hehe!

Huzzah! Sunshine! I took this a few days ago, whereas the others were all taken in today's gloom!  Here is yet another sewing machine (needs a bit of fixing up), my red stays and my 1950's dress - both made by me. Oh, and my original panniers, with their insanely experimental construction. They are very, very functional!

Next up is the garment rail. I hunted high and low and got myself a really sturdy one that extends up to 6' and has baskets top and bottom. No way was I getting something flimsy! I have my patterns hanging on there at the moment, along with some mending, client work, James's living history gear, James's duct tape mannequin and, on the end, the cloak I made for James for Christmas (which I am very pleased with!). Up top are many boxes of trimmings, and I even sorted them into colours! 

Just one more corner and we're back to the start! You may have notices that there are THREE double wardrobes in this room. THREE. This is one of the things I like about this house. Plus, this is the third time James's embroidered waistcoat has appeared in these photos! I moved it around to see if I could get a decent picture of it. The satin is really hard to photograph. Look, you can see the post box outside the window!

Here's a full-frontal view of that waistcoat. It was a practice garment in terms of the embroidery, when I hadn't embroidered for a while. I made the design intentionally stylized, and it's worked entirely in chain stitch. The pockets are functional and the back has eyelets and lacing.

Close-up, albeit a little shiny and fuzzy! You get the idea :)

So, that's my workroom today. I'm pleased that I got my trimmings organised into those boxes on top of the rail. I've been trying to get that job done for aaaaages. What I didn't photograph are the two enormous boxes in the middle of the room, overflowing with fabric. My next workroom chore is to find homes for all that fabric! Yes, I am a horder and a fabricaholic.

Many of the things in my workroom have huge sentimental value for me. I love having them around me for inspiration and connection to my family and friends. It's entirely possible that everything I own has a story :)

I hope you enjoyed this visit to my workroom. I enjoyed showing it to you :)




xx