My Sewing Corner

Lots of people are like me: they like to sew and have no space so they sew on the dining room table and put away the machine and supplies in a closet. When we moved here, G kept asking if I would like to set up a corner for sewing in the living room since it's a very spacious living room (it basically has three areas: dining area, a conversation area, and a TV corner with a couple of armchairs). I didn't want my sewing paraphernalia in sight so I kept the usual custom of storing in a closet and used the dining room table.

Then, it became a chore, after putting A to bed at 8pm every night and cleaning up dinner, to get my machine and tools out, set up the machine, running back to the closet every time I forgot something while sewing, and to put all the stuff away by bedtime. It was a hassle and I was losing interest. I was going long bouts without sewing. I began to feel starved of a creative, productive outlet.

I finally unbent and said I was willing to part with some money to set up a sewing corner in our bedroom. It's also a pretty spacious room. The original bedroom furniture arrangement left a lot of inefficient, dead space so we rearranged our bed and wardrobes to free up a great deal of space along an entire wall.

Then, we went to Ikea to get a cheap but sturdy table, a chair, seat cushion, and a desk lamp for less than a hundred dollars. I needed my table to double as the sewing table and cutting table so we got the perfect size. The table is unfinished pine and I plan to paint it white as a noncompeting backdrop for fabric and matching colors together.

So, I claimed a corner of our bedroom by the window for my sewing space. The desk lamp clamps onto the table so I don't need to use any surface space for the lamp base. I love the natural light from the window but it's most likely I will be sewing at night.

We had an unused TV stand that we'd inherited as part of the household of furniture and appliances we bought from another family to set up our home last summer. I turned it into a shelf of sorts to hold my fabric, supplies, tools, rulers, etc. within easy reach of my sewing machine, perpendicular to the sewing table.

Yes, my seat cushion is hot pink :-) I love it!

I'm pleased with my sewing corner  and I hope to add some shelves on the wall or a pretty board to tack things onto.

(We plan to paint all the bedrooms. They're a dreadful dark, gold/mustard color that I've tried to get used to but after 9 months, I still hate it.)

Sewing Again, Sewing Again, Jiggity Jig

This will count only the third time I've sewn since moving overseas. One time, I finished Ava's duvet cover and the other time, I made curtains for our bedroom. A friend asked me to make an apron for her sweet 2-year-old girl so I decided I'd try my hand at making patchwork and turning it into an apron. I took fabric scraps left over from Ava's very bright duvet cover and started cutting simple squares to make a simple block patchwork. The squares are quite small and quite tedious in piecing together....and quite time consuming. I made a mistake in cutting the squares too small. Oh well, my first attempt at patchwork and lesson was definitely learned. I put away the patchwork for another project - maybe small pillow for Ava's bed - and made a simple apron.

So, I finished the apron tonight and sweet Lane will have an apron to wear as she plays with her kitchen set and pretend to serve cupcakes and tea! Lane's mommy is a great cook and I think she wears aprons from time to time so now Lane can mimic her mommy.

Pazar

Pazar is a word here for bazaar, an outdoor market. I have been to one close to my home a couple of times already because I have heard that curtains there are cheap. Sheer curtains are standard here like blinds are standard back in the States and gives you privacy. So, when in Rome...

The pazar is pretty cool. It's a produce market, too. The pazar has all sorts of things - clothes, hair things, kitchen items, make-up, curtains, bedspreads, towels, bed sheets, shoes, bags, scarves, and nearly everything except appliances. They also have fabric on bolts and also masses of cut fabric. Buttons, zippers, elastics, and some thread. The produce is probably the best part, though. They have fruit, root vegetables, greens, herbs, etc. You can buy a variety of nuts and dried fruit in bulk. 

This collection of buttons is astounding!

Some fabric 

One section of the produce market in pazar

Ribbons - all in a pile 

Curtains - they just pile curtains and let you sift through them. Couldn't resist including the napper under a curtain...

Bolts of fabric

Zippers 

Ribbons and notions

Sorry these pictures relate mostly to sewing. The rest of the pazar is just ordinary. It's not really a flea market - more like an outdoor Walmart on a limited scale. No one is selling artwork, antiques, knick knacks, and random things like you see in flea markets. 

Anyway, that's one of my cultural experiences so far...

Banana Yum-Yum and Two

I made some gluten-free banana muffins yesterday. They're a big hit with A. I have literally had to hide them from her. Here's my favorite recipe for all youse who know gluten-free peeps and can pass along:

Gluten- Free Banana Bread

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

3 medium ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

2 cups sorghum flour

1/2 tsp GF baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp milk

1 tsp GF vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup finely ground pecans

1) Preheat to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, beat sugar and oil. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Add mashed bananas and mix well.

2) In separate bowl, sift together sorghum flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry mixture gradually to the wet banana mixture, beat until combined.

3) Next, add milk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon; beat until mixed well. Fold in pecans. Bake in a loaf pan for 35-40 minutes until an inserted knife comes out dry and clean. For muffins, bake for 25-30 minutes. 

*Note: you can substitute the sorghum flour with something else. Sorghum flour is sweeter than most gluten-free flours so it's used often for baking sweets. I have used flours from beans and rice and they make the banana bread taste different so you will need to experiment. 

Credit: (I've been using this recipe for over two years and can't remember when I got it from; possibly from www-dot-celiac-dot-com.)

A little quick sewing project tonight: an applique on a shirt for A's second birthday next week. I know every mom says this about their own child and I will say it, too: "I can't believe she's turning two!"

Sorry for the yellowish tint -
I usually sew at night and take pictures of my projects at night.
At least you can make out the "2".

Sewing Hall of Shame Commences

I plan to document sewing projects that I've botched. Nothing like that to keep me humble. I was making a sleeve for my Kindle and wanted to use this bird fabric with a white background that I had in my fabric stash. Bird fabric are all the rage right now and I've jumped on the bandwagon. Anyway, I was worried about the predominantly white fabric getting dingy quickly from lying around the house, from Ava's grubby hands, and riding at the bottom of my bag along with sticky Cheerio crumbs.

So, I decided to laminate the fabric so I can just wipe it clean. I used iron-on vinyl for the first time. Easy as pie. I looked at a free tutorial online briefly and then just made the Kindle sleeve my own way. It didn't turn out well because the opening of the sleeve was so tight and could barely fit the free arm of my sewing machine to get underneath the pressor foot. That caused the gigantic wrinkle that you can see in the flap.

I can't rip out the seams and try again because that ruins the vinyl. I'd already nicked one part of the sleeve with a hot iron and melted the vinyl. Bleh.

So, my friend Carrie felt sorry for me and offered to make me one since I had no time to sew another one before I headed out of town with my Kindle and no protection for it. She did a far better job and no ugly vinyl:

Note the compass lining fabric. Very appropriate, isn't it?

I love my Kindle cover!

Men Are From Mars

And women are from Venus. I guess y'all have heard of that book. This title came to mind because G and I have started packing and we are definitely learning that we both think and pack differently. Our most recent challenge was centered around our collection of books and it wasn't about which ones we wanted to store and which we wanted to take with us. We were very agreeable in that sense. The challenge was how we wanted to catalogue and pack them. I was vexed because I wanted to immediately take the books off the shelves straight into boxes to be catalogued while G wanted to catalogue them and then put them into boxes. I had visions of books being strewn everywhere as he catalogued. It took about fifteen minutes of...slightly heated conversation for me to realize that I didn't care about how they were catalogued and packed. I only cared that they were not strewn around the house while being catalogued and packed. G came up with a solution: designate shelves in the bookcase for books to be stored, to be taken overseas, and to sell. That made me perfectly happy and we set to work sorting the books into three piles and putting them on designated shelves. I was a happy camper because there was no mess and G was happy because he kept his system of cataloguing.

Let's put the subject of packing aside. I ordered a beautiful fabric - not quite sight unseen but "touch unfelt" - which I was nervous about but I was not disappointed when I opened the package. It's voile which is the lightest, smoothest, softest, silkiest cotton of quilting weight that I'd ever felt in my short sewing career. I want to make a light summer kimono-style wrap in a serene color from Amy Butler's "In Stitches" book and wanted something soft but not silk. Most quilting cotton isn't the most pleasant fabric to wear and I'm not a fan of making garments for myself from quilting cotton. I put this summer wrap project on the back burner until I discovered viole.

This voile is called "Diamond Mine" in Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks fabric collection. I wish you could reach through your computer screen and touch the fabric and marvel at how soft and smooth this cotton feels.