I love Instagram, it is a truly inspirational site but it also makes me green with envy at times! As I scroll through my feed, at least on a daily basis, a fellow sewer will post a picture of their beautiful sewing room with all the cotton reels on little pegs attached to the wall, baskets of beautiful stash fabrics in nice gloss units, patterns all filed away in stand tall desk folders, scissors and other items all hanging from magnetic strips attached to the wall and then the pinnacle…. the sewing table…! A perfect table with a machine and sometimes a serger sat side by side, nothing else…just the two beautiful machines sitting on a table especially allocated for them! I have even seen a room with an ironing board and a cutting table in it….jealous, jealous JEALOUS!!!!!!
I simply cannot be the only person whose reality is somewhat different to this absolute dream! I use my kitchen table to sew, my bananas, apples and grapes keep me company whilst I sew! My ‘cutting table’ is the rug in the lounge…now so engrained with scraps of cotton I’m not sure it’ll ever be the same again! Whilst on that subject, how do scraps of cotton find their way all around the house?!!! They are everywhere…I hoover ALL….THE….TIME!!! Anyway, let’s get back on track. My cutting table poses various issues from the cat wanting to use it at the same time as me, to my son wanting to use it to get a snack from the fridge. I must book my time with my sewing table carefully as it is always a major walkway through the house!!! The same applies to my sewing table as we are a family who eat dinner at the table so I have to move my beloved machine around to be in keeping with meal times.
The top of my fridge brings me the biggest smile and giggle. No longer is it the top of a fridge but a storage space for fabric scraps, my tool box and my patterns. My favourite happening being reaching for my tool box and the piles of patterns falling to the floor…breathe Emma, breathe. Don’t swear. Just pick them all up and put them back on top of the fridge. FOR F**************k sake!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sorry – I do only ever say that in my head! I promise!)
My fabric stash doesn’t live in pretty baskets either. It lives in my airing cupboard with my towels and other various items!! The same happens here, as I reach for the piece I’d like to use more often than not the whole lot comes down and I find myself biting my lip again. Heaven forbid the two things happen on the same day…worse again if they occur at the wrong time of the month!!!!! Arghhh!
Seriously though, I’m sure I’m with the majority here. Please tell me that you don’t all have beautiful sewing rooms or I might have to go and do some seriously ugly crying somewhere!!!! (I am, of course, only jealous!) I think the point I’m trying to make is that I do it anyway. Would I stop sewing so I could have the top of my fridge back? No. Would I stop sewing to have a tidy kitchen table again…No. I love it. I love the chaos that sewing has brought to my life, it’s a beautiful creative chaos where fabrics are waiting to be made into garments, it’s chaos that brings me calm, helps me to relax and makes me smile. It’s a way of life now. I have only been sewing for a very short time so there is also hope, I guess, that I may tidy my workspace over time as I realise that this is a more permanent hobby.
There is always a way though. If you have a dream you just have to make it happen, you have to work with what you have. I never look at the negatives – what’s the point and where will it get you. If you want to do something, do it…find a way because there’s always a way. It might be a little inconvenient, it might not be ideal but it might also light a fire inside of you that you didn’t know existed and if that happens, well, it’s worth everything.
Until next time…
The Zipper Foot.
The Zipper Foot 