CSC Sewing Spaces: Ruth

Hello and welcome to the next stop in our ongoing CSC Sewing Space series!  Today we’re dropping by to check out Ruth’s sewing space!

Tell us a little about your sewing space.

My sewing room is located in the basement, under the living room, so it’s large. I see a blank wall from my sewing machine, but I don’t tend to look up, so it doesn’t bug me.  One end of the room has a futon, TV, etc. for guests.)

What is your favorite part/feature of your sewing space?

The flexibility to reconfigure the space as needed, e.g., extend the back of the sewing cabinet to support a quilt when needed, or slide out the rolling cabinet with sewing supplies.

I’m also rather proud of how I assembled my room over time with a lot of second-hand items which enabled me to put together a nice room without spending a fortune. I swiped the drafting table from my ex-graphic designer sister who no longer needed it. I found the Horn serger table from someone in the local sewing guild who was downsizing. The special document bookshelf was a freebie from work that they no longer needed, and has lots of small cubbies where I store my too-many UFOs, so I cover the front with a colorful piece of fabric. The small bookcase next to the ironing board I got at a consignment shop, and has various ironing supplies all in one place, which I really like. I’ve picked up the wire grids from various garage sales & just keep adding on to them. I found the dressform at Goodwill. It really needs to be padded to my shape to be very useful, but “Matilda” is a fun addition to the room.

I designed & built the LED light bar over my sewing machine. Having good lighting made such a difference for me, enabling me to sew longer & more comfortably.

I found an oversized ironing board one year at Sam’s Club, and it’s large enough to iron a fat quarter without moving it. I talked a vendor at Houston’s quilt festival into making me a custom gridded cover for it.

The banquet tables can go on risers when I’m cutting for a long time or basting a quilt so my back doesn’t get so sore.

Some sewing-related items are from my mother’s & grandmother’s sewing rooms, like a button tin or the container of wooden spools which are there for nostalgia as I’m pretty sentimental about them. An embroidered scroll was made by a very talented cousin whose needlework skills are amazing.

How do you organize your fabrics, patterns and notions?

Fabrics are in bins in the wire grids (both in the room & in a closet off an adjacent room), and plastic bins under the banquet tables. Notions are in plastic bins stacked on plant dollies under the cutting table, the rolling cabinet under the cutting table, the small chest of drawers to the right of the sewing machine, on the bookshelves, and hanging from the grids on the walls. I love gizmos that promise to make things easier/faster, so I have a lot of notions. Patterns are in boxes on the shelves. I often make multiples of the same pattern once I get it figured out, so my collection isn’t that large.

What is your favorite thing to sew?

I love playing with color & design on quilts. Practicality means that I’m trying to work on garment sewing in order to have clothes which fit, are appropriate for work, and are comfortable enough to accommodate some medical issues. I’m trying to work on my various fitting issues & to fine-tune the alterations I need. My time in the sewing room is limited due to my heavy work schedule right now. I tend to dream about what I’d like to sew, and have accumulated enough project materials to keep me very busy for a long time.

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Would you like to share your sewing space on the CSC?  If so, send us an email to:  admin@curvysewingcollective.com.  We love spaces of all sizes!