Love Your Sewing Spaces–Part II

Hello!  Today we get to have some more sneak peeks into some more sewing bloggers work spaces and see how they work.

First up is…

Rae Hoekstra  from Made By Rae

I signed the lease on this space two and a half years ago, right before I discovered I was pregnant with my youngest, Hugo (he’s now almost two). For the first six months that I had the space, I worked there full time — I design sewing patterns for women and children, and I’m also a fabric designer for Cloud9 Fabrics — and I hired an art student from U of M as an assistant, so I did quite a bit of sewing here. I hosted two weekend sewing workshops focused on garment sewing with a dozen women (that was so fun!), and my friend Karen LePage worked with me two days a week sewing and developing patterns. Karen and I also host free sewing nights here once a month (the group is called Sew Ann Arbor if you’re local and want to join us!).

Now that Hugo is a toddler (I also have two older kids, Elliot and Clementine, who are in elementary school), I work two days a week, so I sew less than I did when I first got this space. I’ve definitely thought hard about whether it is still worth it to keep renting a separate space when I’m not using it as much as before, but right now it’s still working for me. It helps that rent is pretty cheap in Michigan so I can afford it. I’m hoping to start teaching a few sewing classes here this year, and pretty soon Hugo will be in preschool and I’ll have even more time to sew.

I love that my fabric and machines are in a separate space away from my house, so it’s easy to keep a clear boundary between work and home, something that was harder to do when my sewing room was in my house. It also helps me take myself more seriously as an artist and a business owner, which is a good thing. Finding time to sew and work with three kids will always be a balancing act. But for now, it’s working. I feel so lucky to have this place to make it happen!

Next we have…

Melissa Mora from Melly Sews

My sewing room is my happy place. It’s got the best lighting in our house (which I love) and it’s set up for me to easily be able to sew or photograph tutorials.
It’s in an upstairs bedroom in our house so it’s not the biggest space in fact it’s smaller than where I used to sew in our formal living room. However, after a play date where I found pins stuffed in my sewing machine and stopped someone seconds before they cut into an almost finished dress, it became important to have a room with a door, and this one does. I love my huge cutting table, the fact that I can see all of my fabric, the organization, and the light and feel of the space.

And last but not least is…

Amy Ellis from Amy’s Creative Side

My sewing room is about as real as it gets! With constant deadlines, and a small space I’m regularly shifting piles of fabric, and personal projects, while carefully stepping over the sleeping dog, my constant companion Gus. One thing you probably notice, is there’s not much fabric – I tend to sew what I need to and move on to the next group of fabric or project. I obviously don’t have much space to store it either, so that has been a good motivator to purge, and not purchase too much. Current projects are cut from the fabric below the cutting mat, I sew on my Baby Lock Soprano, and quilt on the Crown Jewel with the Pro-Stitcher, which is a god-send when dealing with deadlines! The shelf above the long arm holds my printed paper patterns, and a little fabric that I had to keep. There’s lots of little things I would like to do in the space, but most days I’m just very thankful to have a space of my own!

I love the seeing the spaces where others create…what they have in their spaces..where their spaces are located…their fabric choices, etc.  And we have more spaces to share on Friday…but in between we have a fun giveaway planned for you tomorrow!