Welcome to the next sewing space in our ongoing series. Today, we’re visiting the sewing room of Nita.
My name is Nita, I blog at NitaDances, and I’m excited to give you a tour of my sewing space!
Just over two years ago my husband and I took early retirement, relocated to a new town and downsized into a smaller house. Even though our new home is very tiny, we’ve still managed to have individual hobby rooms – very important when you’re living in each other’s pocket, so to speak.
I turned the spare bedroom into my sewing room. The room is 9×10 feet, which is tiny by anyone’s standards!
At my request, hubby built a pine desktop with matching shelving inside what had previously been the closet. This expanded my usable working space an amazing amount. My sewing machine and my laptop share the desk – I just push the sewing machine to the side when I’m writing. The shelves above hold my collection of sewing and quilting books.
Another sewing room renovation happened over the summer…an exterior door was cut into the wall! My sewing room is on the shady side of the house, so having the extra ventilation is a lifesaver in the 30 degree summer heat. I love to work in here with the breeze wafting in and out, and I love being able to step outside right onto the deck. I bought a lace curtain at the thrift store and sewed a strip of pretty fabric on the bottom to give it some extra weight. Besides being practical and pretty, it makes my heart happy.
My stash wall consists of two pine shelving units from the hardware store. I store my quilting & sewing stash in plastic tubs and my on-going knitting projects in woven baskets. Patterns are stored in fabric boxes on the same shelf. I also have storage underneath my cutting table, which is under the window (which I love for the natural light.) It’s a constant battle to keep the room tidy, and tidiness is essential when working in such a small space.
I sew on a Janome 2030QDC, my retirement gift to myself. I’m also considering purchasing a Janome 7700 because it has such a large harp space and I like to quilt (plus I’d also love to play with all the decorative stitches. Wouldn’t it be fun to include some decorative stitches on the neckline or hem of a summer shift?) It’s a huge expense, so I have to give it careful consideration. If any of you own a Janome 7700, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Is it worth the price? Would you buy it again?
I also have a vintage Brother Festival 451 that you can see here. You’re going to want to click over for a look because it is watermelon pink!
I’d love to have a serger someday, but I don’t know where I’d put it…
As a newly retired person living on a limited budget, I am hyper-aware of the need to be thrifty, so I mostly practice garment sewing on fabric I get at the thrift store, saving actual fabric store purchases for when I’m more accomplished. Besides, I love experimenting with non-traditional fabric choices. For example, right now I’m wearing a pair of shorts I made out of a tablecloth! See them here. Or this shift dress I made out of three pillowcases, here.
Because we live in a small house, most of the rooms are required to do double duty, my sewing included. I practice yoga, and there is just enough floor space to roll out my mat (which is another incentive to keep the room tidy). I also have a television mounted under the shelving in the former closet to allow me to follow along with my favourite yoga DVDs. The treadmill on the north wall does double duty as a walking desk if I’m putting in a long day at the laptop, and both hubby and I use it for exercise in the winter when it’s too icy to walk outside. Also, the north wall holds a full-length mirror…indispensable when you’re trying to figure out if your dart placement is correct! And lastly, when company comes for the night the laptop and sewing machine are stored away, the cutting table gets folded up and everything goes into hubby’s den for the duration. A double-sized air mattress takes over the resulting floor space, and the empty desktop is handy for suitcases.
Over all, I’d say my sewing space is 99 square feet of fabulous and perfectly suits my new lifestyle!
Check out Nita’s blog — Nita Dances — to see more of what she sews in her fabulous sewing room!
Nita:
I currently have a Janome 7700 for which I am seeking a new home. It is a wonderful machine, but I am an aspiring minimalist, and realize that I am perfectly content with my Janome 6600 and my DC3050. Please let me know if I can help you realize a dream!
Love your sewing room – with a space for everything. I have owned the Janome 7700 for 2 years now and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The extra throat space is great for quilting and the built in Accufeed foot is brilliant. Well worth the money.
I hope to enjoy the ranks of the retired soon, and desperately want to downsize. Thanks for showing that it can be done.
You can do it! And being retired is so awesome, you’re going to love it so much, once you get adjusted to not measuring your value by what you accomplish in a day, lol.
I bow at your feet. I am humbled by your organization and your energy! If I could be half as good I’m sure it would be time to move on to the next life. So much in common, buttered biscuts, ginger cookies, cat pattern weights, love of kneedles, fishing, fabric hunting and, and
you get it.
Now if I could just get the energy and the organizing to happen at the same time… lol and
“isn’t woven in pet hair an extra gift of love?”
Thanks for the smiles.
Oh yes, woven pet hair is absolutely an extra gift of love, lol! Amazing how many kindred spirits we each have, and what fun to discover them. 🙂
Yay Nita! Love the sewing room – you are SOOO organized! Love the shorts from a table cloth! LOVE the Valentine’s dress from 3 pillow cases!!!!
Isn’t that what the thrift store is for??? So you can make “gourmet” things from someone else’s leftovers??? YOU CLEVER SUPER GIRL, YOU!!!!
Congratulations!
P.S. Thanks for the “button” tip on the shorts. I too [can’t tell which is the front] need decoration!
Thank you, thank you, Julie, you made me feel so great! 🙂 Now I’m walking around with a big smile on my face. 🙂
Dear Nita 🙂
I love how you’ve put your abundant creativity to work to sustain your hobby into retirement! Smaller space? Make the closet a machine room! Need more light? Punch out another sliding door! Need to spread a retirement income? Buy fabric in thrift stores! I own the Elna Excellence 740 which is really almost identical to the 7700 (both are made by Janome) and I just LOVE my machine. I bought it used from a quilter here in town who wanted to sell it to go up to one of these really dedicated quilter machines and she had maintained it yearly (I knew this because I know the store and the staff in the store had confirmed it and knew that machine well which I recommend you do if you’re going to buy used) I have seen some amazing deals on sewing machines on ebay sold by dealers and that might also present you with a better option. Many will be selling their 7700”s now because Janome has come out with a few new models now that honestly if you owned a 7700 you would want.
Thank you, Kathleen, it’s so nice to be validated! You’ve out a big smile in my face. 🙂 And thanks for the sewing machine tips. I’ll put the word out around my local sewing friends and see what I can come up with. I didn’t know Elna was made by Janome!
What an ingenious and versatile use of your space. I have a fold up cutting table which i put up over the bed in my spare room when I want to cut anything out! 🙂
Thanks, Janice – it feels great to think outside of the box and give a space multiple uses. What a great idea to put a table over your guest bed!