Ugly Closet turned Cute Sewing Room

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Jennifer Wingard

Well…it’s nearly finished. That’s right. I have a sewing room, and, except for minor details and personal touches, it’s finished!! We had a very small walk-in closet. I’m talking small for a walk-in: 45 inches wide by 6 ft. 4 inches deep. It wasn’t large enough to do much with, and it had some wire shelving that had been put up very poorly before we moved in. They hadn’t hooked the shelving into studs, so it wasn’t secure and kept pulling out of the drywall.

Here’s the ugly closet after we removed the shoddy shelving:

Ugly, empty closet

Charming, huh? Yeah, not so much.

So, we picked out paint, and we were going to do board and batten like we’re planning for the rest of the house (faux, of course, because it just doesn’t pay to sink a buttload of money into the place right now), but we decided against the vertical boards for the small space and went utilitarian with just the one horizontal board to use in the future for hanging tools and such.

Pretty colors, but oh so empty!

Then we got BUSY: cutting boards for shelving and making sure those suckers were in the wall really well. Then more painting for the shelves. Then, since the room is teeny tiny, it’s nearly impossible to find a perfect fit for a sewing table, so I had to go to the drawing board and plan one. The room is so narrow that we had to prep the boards outside in the garage and assemble them inside the closet, and, finally, painted it a soft grey. It turned out pretty well.

The pretties with just the overhead light

With just the overhead light, which is quite dim, sewing is going to be an issue. So I installed a plug type slimline fluorescent under the shelf (the cord is an issue for me, so it’s going to be hidden soon) and got that lamp with a daylight bulb. It’s WAY bright when it’s on, therefore, very hard to get a decent picture, but I should have no trouble seeing stitches.

Plenty of light

Don’t even ask for a picture with both the fluorescent light AND the lamp on. My camera cried when I asked it to take a picture with both lights turned on.

I still need to buy pretty trim to face out the front of the shelves and the table, but it’s definitely a vast improvement from the teeny, ugly closet it was a couple of weeks ago when we started tearing out all the stuff that had accumulated in there since we moved here.

Also, I should mention that comic book boards make the. best. mini bolts EVER.

Mini bolts made using comic book boards

Now that you’ve got the scoop on the ugly closet turned sewing room, I’m off to pretty it up, hide cords, and hunt down the owners of a gorgeous wooden swivel desk chair that’s posted on craigslist so I can buy it, sand it, and paint it grey to match my table.

The chair I am planning to buy

Swap box and Friday Night Sew-In

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Jennifer Wingard

Well, my partner (and new friend) for the Simply Notable “Make a Crafty New Friend” swap on Ravelry received her package today. I think I was just excited packaging everything up for her as she was to get it.

Lots of Goodies

There were a few skeins of Caron’s Spa yarn, an infinity scarf knit in Caron’s Spa in a taupe color, a set of four coasters made with Liz Scott’s Domestic Bliss for Moda, some crochet stitch markers I made when I couldn’t find any pretty ones to buy for her. She was hoping for bamboo crochet hooks, so I found some of those, a yarn/needle gauge, a few things for embroidery, the Doodle Stitching book (one of our favorites here), some note cards, a bag full of spiced pecans, and a dozen hand rolled truffles that I had a seriously hard time parting with despite being able to make more any time I feel like it. She loved her package and I can finally stop being a bundle of nerves about it!

Now that that’s all wrapped up, I can start working on a couple other projects…perfect timing really, since tonight is this month’s Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Handmade by Heidi. There’s still time to sign up for tonight’s sew-in if you want to head over to Heidi’s and sign up. It’s fun, and you could win a prize for participating. And the rules…yeah, they’re super easy. Sign up, participate, and blog about it tomorrow. It’s that simple.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to be working on tonight. I want to work on something fun and for me…I had planned to make a blouse for myself tonight, but my material did not arrive in time. Sadness. Instead, I’ll either work on knitting one of about four scarves I owe people, a crocheted scarf, my February feathers FMQ challenge for Sew Cal Gal’s Free Motion Quilting Challenge, or maybe work on the blocks for the Craftsy BOM Course. I’m seriously behind on the Craftsy blocks because I’m not entirely certain I want to spend the time learning to make these blocks because I just don’t love them. I am probably going to attempt it anyway, because, as the ladies in my quilting club pointed out, even if they look horrible on their own, they may look really lovely once they’re all pieced together and you see the quilt top as a whole.

Anyway, feel free to pop over and sign up for the Craftsy BOM Course (free) or join in with the Friday Night Sew-In tonight.

I’ll be back tomorrow to update on what (if anything) I managed to accomplish this evening.

Have a fantastic weekend!

According to plan?

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Jennifer Wingard

Well, today didn’t go to plan. No surprise there.

I’d been looking forward to spending a bit of time with KK today, working on the two craft kits she got at Michael’s recently. Not shockingly, she decided it would be more fun to spend the day outside tackling the 7 or 8 non-brother boys that had invaded our yard. Can’t really say that I blame her. I’d probably have chosen exactly the same thing when I was her age. Heh…who am I kidding. I’d probably still be out playing football with the “boys” if my stupid foot worked properly.

Anyway, it was cold, my foot was aching and I had one very grumpy little Punky on my hands while our yard was being overrun with a neighborhood’s worth of kids. I tried to keep Punk from screaming by cutting out snowflakes for her and helping her paint and decorate a Christmas tree cutout. She was all for the painting. Decorating, not so much. She just wanted to use the stick-on gems for earrings. We did eventually get her one little Christmas tree decorated. I would like to point out that it should never, in any reality, take over an hour to decorate one paper tree.

I tried to get her to settle down and veg in front of the tv while I painted the plaques for decorating the kids’ bedroom doors. She did not want to settle down. At all. (I did mention that she was grumpy, right?) She messed me up twice while I was painting names on the plaques, so I got the joy of repainting. Twice. And waiting for them to dry. Again. And again.

Needless to say, I’m very thrilled that they are all in bed now. It’s been a trying day.

But the plaques look kind of cute and the kids love them. I keep telling myself that’s what matters. Then I argue with myself that my sanity is more important than their happiness. Then I answer myself that their happiness is far more important than some sanity. And then I know that I’ve already lost the battle because no sane person would carry on a stupid argument like that. With their own mind.