MMM '13 Friday Theme Post: My Sewing Space

I am wearing me-made pajamas, which you don't need to see. The MMM photo theme for today is Your Creative Space, so here's mine. Any of you who are embarrassed by the mess in your sewing room may now relax and feel superior.
First: the beating heart from which the flow of creativity gushes forth:



It's an old computer desk. I slide the machines back and forth to get at the one I want. Miscellaneous little plastic boxes and shelves hold stuff I might need or haven't put away. Whenever I use the serger the table vibrates so much that everything falls off the back. My sewing and general DIY library is on the lowest bookshelf over the desk, where I also tape up the instructions for whatever I worked on last. In this case the instructions are actually live as I finish up Vogue 1291 which I may wear this weekend, if I also make a cami and skirt to wear with it. Yeah.
You can sort of see my pattern stash under the desk in the green baskets. Also under the desk are two grocery bags full of final exams to grade. Their very presence inspires me to sew. Or blog. Or sleep. Anything but grade.

Here is where I carefully catalog my projects:



I'll explain my system because I know you may want to adopt it. In the upper left corner, below the beer coasters and beside and below the little pink pig, is my fabric stash database. When each new acquisition comes in from fabricmart or wherever, I cut a little piece off the corner, label it with content (if known) and size, and pin it up on the bulletin board. Of course, I haven't gone back and indexed anything I had before I got the bulletin board, but maybe I'll do that now instead of grading exams … . Also tacked up are the downloaded patterns for Three Hours Past's Blank Canvas Tee and Colette's Sorbetto, and the information sheet for Sandra Betzina's pants fitting class on Craftsy. Hey, maybe I'll make a pair of pants this afternoon… . The tea towel was a gift I demanded for my birthday last year: you'll never guess how old I am. I don't remember what's under it but I'm sure it's important.

Then there's my fabric stash itself, and my dress form wearing my nearly complete Vogue 1291.



The bottom bin is for linings and interfacings, I think. I forget what the top bin was suposed to be for but I can see remnants of stuff I made in the past. Several nice active wear knits, some dupioni silk I got at the ASG convention in Los Angeles a couple years ago and a pretty burnout that Margy of a Fool For Fabric Oops, no, it was Jilly Be at JillyBeJoyful (but it's black and white!) made a lovely top and scarf of but I've just sat on for 3 or 4 years are all hanging in there. It looks pretty bare in there, actually, and I don't have a major league fabric stash, really, but fear not, there's more.

Here's my desk (aka my treadle table with a 1953 Singer 15-91 in it--the treadle machine is pretending to be a knic-knac in the living room) where I write and catalog patterns in an excel spread sheet. And grade. Next to the desk you can see another couple of bins of fabric. I don't know what is in them. The shelves hold some UFOs and bits of yarn and lace.



Then, finally, there's my … well, my, um, guest bed, which holds stuff I want to alter, or listen to, or read, or put away, or send to somebody else.



If I ever have another guest I guess I'll have to buy another bin!

Me-Made-May and -- All Better!

OK, I'm in with 500 or so of you in taking Zoe's Me-Made-May Challenge. I had been hoping to spend May sewing and wearing new me-made clothing. As soon as I finish this paper which I am about to begin (it's all written in my head, don't worry). And then finish grading. And then attend a memorial service in Washington, D.C. and then my little brother's wedding in Ohio the next day. And then visit with my mother until the end of the month when I'm off to present the still-hypothetical paper at a conference in Boston. In my still-hypothetical me-made clothing. But I can do it, right? I am Woman! Meow. So anyway, Day 1 I wore this, including these shoes (which I did not make) although this is an old picture.



Meanwhile, back at the ranch. I wanted to comment on some blog or other and had to sign up for Disqus to do it. A Perfect Nose mentioned Disqus as a way of evading spam on my own blog such as the following, which I find kind of cute in a delusional psychedelic way …

A гaw onion may pеrhaps be гubbed on unbrοken chilblains with exсeρtionаl good reѕults. This have nearly alwaуs bеen a favored actіvity іn my household. Continue 11 miles, and observe fastidіouѕly for the indication to Laupаhοehoe Level Seаshore Park on the correct.

… without subjecting people to impossible Captcha exercises. So I (think I) signed up my blog and (think I) imported all your comments but I don't know where they went! FWIW, I can still read them all on my Blogger Dashboard, but until I test commented every post showed 0 comments and 0 reactions. Now the last post says it has 1 comment (mine) and over a billion reactions which I can't see. Oh well.

Update: On the advice of my wise friends, I dumped Disqus. Happy again.