Therapy through blogging

It has been so nice since my last post. Having vented all my frustration on the blog, I have not been as frustrated with my space. I was even motivated to clean up a bit. Now it's slightly more organized chaos. It also helped that my husband took some of our stuff and put it in storage (aka parent's house).

I bought a new storage container for my jewelry making. It has four drawers and consolidating has helped immensely. Hopefully, this will help the creative juices to flow a bit more so I can put more out there and maybe sell some items. I really want everything to sell over Halloween. Here's hoping!!!

Frustrated with my space

My desk. 

 

I happen to share a very small apartment with my husband.  I would be much roomier if we didn't have so much crap.  We were bursting at the seams when we first moved in and now a year later, we're practically exploding out the door. It is in this space that I have tried to make a studio for my sewing projects. Needless to say I've made a mess in my living room and it has stayed a mess. It looks like a tornado crashed through it.

If I had the proper space and storage it wouldn't be half as messy as it is now. I need an alternate means of storage for my fabric; a work surface that has storage for small tools; a storage space for my tools and space to set aside works in progress without putting them completely away.

Project storage.

Instead, my tools are pretty much scattered throughout my apartment, localized mostly in my living room. My cutting/work table is a piece of plywood with a fitted sheet pinned around it draped over my couch. Needless to say this can be a bit inconvenient because there is no place to sit and watch TV, so my husband is banished to the bedroom to play games or watch videos on his laptop. I had devised a cutting table using my existing piece of plywood. I put detachable legs and supports on it but the stupid thing was too rickety and it could only fit over my bed. So my choices are either to cover my bed or cover my couch. Neither of these work at the end of the day. Well, that not completely true. If I drape it over the couch I don't have to tear it down when I want to go to sleep.

Cutting table.

So my frustration with my space flows into my frustration with my equipment.  Bless my mom's heart she gave me a sewing machine for Christmas several years ago, sadly though its not very sturdy. My little Kenmore has traveled with me wherever I have gone. It moved with me when I moved to Utah and then back again. It is a bit worse for wear because of it. It's been dropped a couple of times, and the bobbin winder doesn't work anymore. Its a good little machine, but I need something that can stitch through leather and/or upholstery.

Left: Sewing Machine. Right: Borrowed Serger

For the longest time I didn't own a serger. I've wanted one almost as long as I've wanted a sewing machine. Last year for graduation, one of my professors gave me her old serger. It was awesome. It was a five thread, so it was capable of stitching the seam and serging the edge. Sadly, it died right before Halloween last year. I ran over a pin and couldn't remove the replaceable moving blade. So I took it in. A few weeks later I get it back and instead of cutting fabric like it should, it eats it and makes a royal mess. I'm thinking what the crap. The samples that were attached to the machine to show that it was working fine were perfect, why is my machine doing this? So I take it back to the repair shop. A week later they finally call me and tell me what the problem is. My serger is pretty much toast.  I can try to fix it my replacing the stationary blade, but it still might not work, so my other choice is to buy a new one.  I opted for the part, and it proved to be a phenomenal waste of time. Word to the wise, if you have an old model Elna serger that is more that 5 years old, good luck getting a part for it. I didn't get my serger back for six months. Elna merge with another company and they no longer make parts for any of the machines manufactured before the merger.  The biggest rub of all was after all that time and waiting the serger was still broken. New parts, some labor and nada. So now if I want to use my serger I have to very careful about the edge of the fabric and not catching it in the overlooper, or I can disengage the overlooper and I will have an over-glorified sewing machine. Sadness. Thankfully, my work has a serger that I can use. I hate working without one. It so messy, and I feel less professional without it.

So there is my saga on frustrated with my space. *Deep Breath in...I feel better now.