Tag Archives: sewing room

Sew My Stash Sunday – 5

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Well, this week I have not done any sewing but I have been working on my stash in a roundabout sort of way.

While a lot of my sewing room is quite well organised there is always some that seems to defeat me.  Some months ago I tossed it all in a plastic laundry basket and shoved it under the table until I had time to deal with it.  At the beginning of the week I sorted it into 2 piles – fabric and pattern pieces.

Most of the fabric has been sorted but yesterday I spent quite a bit of time sorting sorting out pattern pieces.  There was a mixture of commercial drafted patterns.  Over the years I have offloaded quite a few patterns and more have gone in the op shop bag.  They are ones that I will never use again – either due to the sizing, being dated styles or simply not fitting with my current style.

2015-02-08 01As you can see from the photo, this is still a work in progress but I am determined to finish it before the weekend as the bed will be needed when Miss O and Izz come to stay for the weekend.

On a more positive note, here are the completed patterns all sorted and stacked.

2015-02-08 02Now that I know what I have it will be back to the sewing and I will hopefully have some more to show you next Sunday.

A Gadget

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Tonight I want to share a small gadget that we have had for a couple of years.  I don’t even know what you call it.

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This small device plugs into a standard power point and then you can plug any appliance or powerboard into it.  It comes with a remote control which you can use to turn the power on and off at the switch without actually having to manually reach the switch.  We have two of these.  One is in the lounge room and has a powerboard plugged into it.  We have the television, DVD player and hard drive plugged in so that with a single press of the remote control everything is turned off at the power point.  It is completely turned off – not on standby.  Did you know that any appliance where there is an illuminated light glowing is only on standby and is continuing to draw power even when it is not in use?

The other device was in the office where we had the computer and associated peripherals plugged into a powerboard. Both devices are programmed to the one remote control.

We realised recently that we had not been utilising the remote control to turn these devices off as the computer has some serious issues when you turn it off and try to turn it back on again.  The problem may be terminal but we have solved it for the time being by leaving it turned on at the power point.  So we removed the remote control device so that we could continue to turn the television off when not in use.  The question then arose as to where we could use the spare device.  We routinely turn all of the appliances off when not in use so it seems superfluous.

Last weekend when we cleaned out the top of the cupboard in the office I found this powerboard but did not have a use for it so put it downstairs in the workshop.

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This morning I worked out a way that I could put both of these items to good use.  I have a long sewing table in the spare room, however, the power point is under the table which necessitates me clambering under the table every time I want to plug in the sewing machine or iron.

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So, I plugged the gadget in and then the powerboard into it.

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The powerboard sits on the tables where it is an easy matter to plug in the sewing machine, iron or anything else.

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The individual power outlets on the board have their own switches so even if the main switch is turned on due to the remote control the individual outlets can remain turned off unless they are being used.

I am so glad that I came up with this solution as it is infinitely easier than crawling under the table to turn the power on and off.

Small Steps

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During the week I do not have much time to do housework but some of the smallest things can make a difference.

I have managed to do 2 loads of washing since we arrived home on Sunday evening.  The folding is done and put away but I have not got near the clothes that need to be ironed.

2013-02-14 01Last night I quickly sorted out the pile which had been upended on the single bed in my sewing/ironing room into piles of similar items – The Duke’s business shirts in one pile, my skirts in another etc.  It now looks much more manageable and I plan to do at least some it tomorrow morning before I catch the slightly later train in the morning.

Do you have any tips and tricks that make a task seem less daunting (and look more organised in the meantime)?

Rescued & Re-homed

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Although we did get our dog from the Animal Welfare about 8 years ago, he is not the subject of this post.

It may seem strange to bring something into my home when I am constantly decluttering but I rescued this ring binder from the rubbish pile at my office yesterday.  However, it was brought home with a specific purpose in mind.

2012-04-18 01When I was sorting out things on my sewing table last weekend I was confronted by a number of loose pattern pieces that I had drafted from my Enid Gilchrist pattern books.  I put each pattern in a separate plastic sleeve (I have a box a spare sleeves in the stationery pile) and wished I had a spare ring binder.

My wish came true when I saw this brand-new folder containing obsolete training information destined for the rubbish.  I put the contents in the confidential recycling and brought the folder home.

2012-04-18 02Here it is with the pattern pieces in sleeves (on the left) and I have also placed the pattern books each in their own sleeve as they are rather fragile from age.  I still have some more to sort out but this will help to streamline the paperwork in the sewing room.  It is good to know that I will easily be able to find the pattern pieces when I need them.

2012-04-18 03Here are all of the patterns stored on top of the sewing cabinet.

What storage methods do you use for sewing/craft books and patterns?

Minimise For Multipurpose

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I know that keeping our stuff to a minimum and simplifying as much as we can is a good thing but sometimes it is difficult to articulate why this is the case.  It is not until something occurs that we are reminded of just how useful it is to live with less.

Last weekend we had 20 guests for a BBQ lunch on the verandah.  About an hour before they arrived, The Duke announced that we could use the folding table as well.  This happens to be my sewing table and it was far from perfectly tidy.

I quickly tossed a few pieces of fabric and UFO’s on the spare bed and almost instantly we had an extra table for our entertaining.  Even though I had to move a few things it was no real imposition.  It makes sense that this table is being used almost every day rather than being folded up and gathering dust, waiting to be used once or twice per year.

This is the spare bed with everything that was on the sewing table.

2012-01-19 01The BBQ is over and the table is back in the room.  Everything is still on the bed as I am going to take this opportunity to sort out a few more things and find proper homes for them.  The table is pretty well bare at the moment apart from my sewing machine.

I will have to get the sorting done before Saturday afternoon when Miss O and Izz come to stay the night as this is the single bed and trundle bed that they use.

Repaired and Refreshed

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Today we did not need to go anywhere so The Duke and I spent the day working on various projects around the house.

I mended a pair of The Duke’s jeans which were starting to look a bit threadbare but he had declared that they would be OK for working around the yard.

2011-08-14 01I used some double-sided iron-on backing which is normally used for applique work.

2011-08-14 02I ironed a piece of this to the wrong side of the jeans where they were very worn and then added a piece of strong, black cotton fabric.

Using a zig-zag stitch I overstitched the torn areas and around the entire patch.  Here it is from the wrong side.

2011-08-14 03And the final view from the right side.  Very classy for wearing at home!

2011-08-14 04I also reassembled the newly-painted chest of drawers and mirror and here they are in the corner of the sewing room.

2011-08-14 05I lined the drawers with some used gift-wrapping paper and have sorted out some more fabric which will be stored in them.  I am gradually making progress with the sewing room decluttering.