Sewing Nook Progress!

The Artist and His Work

Yes, we thought we were finished but this is turning into the "neverending story" (cue my kids to hum the theme) and we thought of a couple more things to add. However, the nook is at the point that I can actually work here now. Note the additions:

A peg board which dad painted and installed. Today we added some braided elastic strapping (which truly may be as old as I am) to hold the cutting mats in place, a cute little holder for the rulers that have no holes for hanging, and some more hooks for various and sundry items. One of my favourite things is the scissors holder - so handy!

Track lighting! I don't know how I could function without it.

The surge protector is now attached to the wall just above the baseboard. Now I can keep both sewing machines plugged in without playing musical plugs and getting on my knees to reach the outlet.

The thread holder is something dad made years ago for mom to put in her sewing room. We had to make a slight addition to it in order to fit around the phone outlet, which I never use...who has a land line nowadays, anyway?

Interestingly enough, this is what started the entire makeover. I moved out ye olde Singer Golden Touch and Sew and wanted my Bernina to fit into the opening of the desk. (On its own, the sewing machine sits too high for comfort.) So, dad created a piece that sets into the opening, bolting it into place (removing the bottom piece of the desk and the extraneous mechanism that held the foot pedal in place if you wanted to use your knee to work it - does anybody use that option anymore?) I'll have to take a couple of pictures of that because I forgot - sorry. So, the Bernina fits down into place and, if I want to use the Featherweight, I have another piece that goes on top of the first and raises said Featherweight to the correct height. The wooden add-on that fits snugly around the Bernina gives me a smooth surface for large projects like quilts. We attached several pieces of weatherstripping to the bottom so it won't move around at all. :-) I'll take pictures of the inside of the drop-down section and also the Featherweight accommodations tomorrow.

Since I didn't want to have to reach over the top of my sewing machine to get to my scissors, dad also brought me a cool leather pouch to hang up under the thread rack. For convenience, I put my little Fiskars nippers there and my larger Fiskars rotary cutter (not shown in the picture because I hadn't decided what was going to live there when I was playing photographer). The cord that is wrapped around the top of the thread rack is for the lights - the control switch hangs down conveniently alongside the desk now.

Still to come: Dad is going to make another wooden attachment for the righthand side of the desktop so there isn't an open space surrounding the sewing machine. Both of these additions are easily movable so I can reach under to change the bobbin or drop the feed dogs, if necessary. Also, I want something underneath the desk to store the unused footpedal. I figure if there is something hanging on either side of the open area underneath, I can pop in whichever footpedal I'm not using and there won't be so many cords and accoutrements under my feet.

All in all, I am so pleased with the additions. Some days I felt as though we had to take two steps backward every time we took one forward but the end project totally rocks. And, the way my dad builds things, if we ever have a tornado, the place to go is under the sewing machine desk!