Keep Embroidering!

I’ve been looking forward to moving back into my sewing room now that Molly and her almost fully grown, but still quite young, kittens have been moved to an outside enclosure. They took over the room for four months! I have lots of cleaning to do and lots of organizing; I also had even more enjoyment of them living and growing safely while they destroyed the room!

I had planned on doing the cleaning and organizing this weekend so that Monday morning would see me bright eyed and bushy tailed getting some of my backed up embroidery projects done. And, then, my loving husband springs some news on me. The house we are interested in will be vacant in three months. Last time it was vacant, we couldn’t afford it. Now we can.

As a bit of background, we all rent here in Greece. We have a housing office that shows us houses that should meet our requirements. Unfortunately, not all the best houses are always available. We were shown three houses and had a tough decision between two of them. One had everything we wanted except a view and a pool. However, it had modern amenities and plenty of space for my machine embroidery and quilting activities. The second house had the view, but still no pool. We chose it. It wasn’t set up as well as the other one, but we’ve made it work for the past three years. The house we are interested in will be ours if we want it, since the owner has known us the whole time we’ve been here. We won’t have to deal with the housing office telling us it isn’t available (because one of their friends wants it). All of this is in our favor.

Did I mention that the house has a pool and a view! Not to mention a perfect setup for my hobbies and my husband’s, too.

I had just finally gotten settled in my sewing room before Molly had her kittens. I’m just getting ready to get back in there. But, if we are moving in 3 months, I should concentrate on packing. At first, I was really stressed out about it and then I remembered something.

When I set up my sewing room this time, I made sure that all of my furniture pieces were either portable or could be taken apart, or both. I don’t have any large items that will be hard to move as most of them are light enough that I can move them myself. This is a huge plus! And, I still haven’t unpacked most of my embroidery supplies or fabric, and all of my embroidery designs are on the computer, so that’s less packing I’d need to do.

I’ve always been interested in sewing room setup since I got my first dedicated room ten years ago. Besides setting up areas for machine embroidery and/or quilting, it’s important to also have an area for cutting and pressing, and these should be set up at an ergonomically correct height (about 1-2 inches below your bent elbow), whether you stand or sit to do them. If a space needs to do double-duty, it needs to be thought out ahead of time and then tweaked until it works. Nothing should be set in stone!

I love the look of the commercial sewing tables! They are beautiful and look so organized. The truth is that they actually limit what can be done by offering only “stock” spaces. Whether you are trying to complete some large embroidery patterns or put together your latest quilt, the spaces are not big enough. Instead, opt for inexpensive smaller pieces like student or office desks. On average, it’s possible to buy 20 of these and use them how you want for the price of one of the commercial sewing tables. No, I don’t have 20 desks! I have three office-sized ones! Plus some folding tables and small pieces like stacked cubes. Everything on wheels.

And, a great sewing room can truly be put together for very little money! Use items you already have, repurposing where necessary. For a cohesive look, it’s easy and inexpensive to simply paint all the pieces the same color. Add a good desk chair, from the office supply not the sewing supplier, and you’re good to go!

If you set up a room on a budget, it leaves you wiggle room for that new embroidery machine or lots of fabulous machine embroidery designs! You decide!