Sewing Space Makeover

It is past time to pretty up my sewing space. Ever since I started sewing, my machine has migrated around the house. It's currently housed in the "office" which works out well except that its the only room in our house that we have yet to remodel. The walls are wood paneling. The furniture is a bunch of odds & ends that we've procured from random spots (including the side of the road).  It is without a doubt my least favorite room in the house and it's time for that to change.

I'll be purchasing a new (cheap) white desk (for the "office" portion of the room). And painting our bookshelf from black to white (that should be interesting). And I'll be making that collapsible sewing table you see above. I sew--woodworking can't be that hard--right?? Right! The wood paneled walls (gag) will be painted with that beigy-taupe you see above which is the same color we have in the adjoining living room.

I'll use the green fabric to make a pressing board on one of the leaves of my (made by me) collapsible sewing table, the rectangle fabric will be backing on my soon-to-be-white bookshelf and that turquoise blue fabric will become simple curtains.

I've seen been hunting around for pegboard inspiration & have not been disappointed. I'll be using one to house as many of my tools & notions as possible.  Feel free to take a look at my Office Makeover pinterest board.

I'm very excited about the whole thing, particularly having a pressing board attatched directly to the sewing table. And I like that the table can just fold away when sewing is forced to take a back seat. I love even more that I'll make it with my own 2 hands.

I find planning to be much more exciting than the actual execution of said plan, but that's alright.

On the sewing front, I've muslined the Minoru, traced & altered my lining pieces, and now I'm just waiting for the fabric I ordered from Fashion Fabrics Club. I ordered purple canvas from FFC & fabric.com and I'll be sending one back. I really like the canvas I got from fabric.com but FFC is much cheaper, so I'm holding out to see what their's is like. I also still need to get thread & zippers for my coat, but I anticipate getting my fabric cut out by the end of this week! Woo Hoo!

Minoru Muslin

I got my muslin all sewn up & I find myself putting it on just to wear around the house. I love it that much. It is quite fitted, which I wanted, but I'm thinking I'll need a little extra ease in my final version since I'll be using a bit thicker fabric & I'm also planning to underline with flannel for extra warmth. I'm toying with the idea of just sewing with a smaller seam allowance at the side seams.

I did make some minor adjustments that I'll transfer over to the final pattern.  Here's what I've done:

Shortened 1.5" at the hem
Raised the waist elastic 1"
Took it in at the hips 1" at each side seam (My hips are a size 4 according to the pattern measurements, rather than the size 6 that I cut out)

I'm also feeling some tightness in the back when I stretch my arms forward, which is actually really common for me in jackets. But I never associated it with a broad back.  Fit For Real People recommends cutting & slashing the pattern down the back for a broad back alteration in a Raglan sleeve so that's probably what I'll do. I just need to figure out how much to slash. I DO have a raglan sleeve sweatshirt I can measure & compare to the pattern.

Sewing mostly knits, I've never really went from fitting a muslin to transferring the changes to the pattern pieces and on into the fashion fabric. It's quite daunting :) I'm just taking it nice & slow and tackling it one alteration at a time. 

I'll also be adding welt pockets to the outside.  This is something I've never tried before so I'm really excited to delve into something new! 

I'm still awaiting my fashion fabric & once I have that in hand, I plan on sending a swatch to zipperstop.com so they can send me the closest matching YKK zipper.