My Sewing Studio

March, 2010

Larry finished my downstairs sewing room in January.  He put knotty pine on the ceiling and below the chair rail.  My cabinets, machines, cutting table, and dresser are moved in.  I'm ready to sew!

My very first sewing machine was a Singer that my brother Loren gave me when I was about 8 years old, and he was selling sewing machines.  He helped me make a lined triangular-shaped scarf with grosgrain ribbon ties, showing me how to sew it right side to right side, leaving a hole to turn it, hand-stitching it shut, then making a little loop with the ribbons to hide the cut edge and sewing them onto the corners.

And so I was off and running!  I still have that little red polka-dot scarf.  It matched one of my favorite red polka-dot dresses, as we made it with the leftovers.

This is the Bernina 830 Electronic Record I bought with some of my first few paychecks when I was 16 years old, back when the world was very, very young, in 1977.  I'd just started working in the Word Processing Center of Nebraska Public Power District, a job I enjoyed immensely.  I thought those big word processors, the computer's predecessor, were the cat's meow.

I came home with this wonderful machine, which I purchased for $600 at half price (we had friends in the Bernina sewing machine business) -- and was promptly informed by my father that I should have asked before making such a costly purchase.  After a bit of a discussion, he inquired, "Where will you put this sewing machine?" 

"On my card table," I replied.

"An expensive machine like this, on that flimsy little card table?!" exclaimed my father, aghast. 

And with that, he walked to the phone, called the friend who had sold me the machine, and before I knew it, I was not only the owner of the MWMITW (The Most Wonderful Machine in the World), but I also had the store's nicest desk in which to put the MWMITW!

This has been my only sewing machine, all these years, and with it I have sewn thousands upon thousands of clothing items and household decor.  I have diligently kept it oiled and cleaned, and it has repaid me by never causing a moment of trouble, just humming quietly along, even at top speed, like a, well, like a sewing machine.

"Nothing runs like a Bernina.  Nothing." ~ that's Bernina's motto, and this little machine has done its bestest to make it true.

The sewing chair belonged to my mother.  I had it reupholstered.  The seat opens for storage.

I got this table at the Used Furniture Store in town, along with four regular chairs and two armed chairs, padded.  The chairs don't match this table, but they do match our kitchen table, and we badly needed new chairs.  This heavy maplewood table and the six chairs were only $75!

It always makes things seem more homey when the decorations are on the walls.

The serger desk is a $10 vanity from a second-hand store in Lincoln.  Larry removed the hinged top, took off a piece at the front, and repositioned it at the left of the machine to make a wider sewing platform.

The closet doors were not up yet.

There wasn't enough lighting over the cutting table, so I made a trip to Menards.  This rustic lamp suited my fancy -- and it was on sale, and that suited me pretty well, too.

Because I so loved my machine, I purchased 830s for daughters Hester and Lydia 830s, too.  They are good machines, but I wish I would have made sure I got the electronic version.

Here is Victoria's -- it's an 811.  It was commonly used in Home Economic classes in schoolrooms around the country.  It is a flatbed desk version, as opposed to my open-arm version.  It has only 10 different stitches, while mine has 20; but the ones it does have are the most often used.  I spotted this little machine on eBay for only $100, put it into my watch list, and didn't really give it too much further thought. 

Larry was the only one home when the auction ended.  He was using the computer when the eBay end-of-auction notice popped up.

Imagine my surprise, upon arriving home shortly and retaking custody of my computer, when an eBay 'Pay Now' notice popped up -- and I discovered he had bought that Bernina!  Victoria, of course, was totally delighted.

We found the chair, which matches better in real life than in this photo, at the Salvation Army for $2.50.

 We put the machine into my mother's Necchi desk, still like new even though it was new in 1965, and sold the Necchi on eBay.  Larry revamped the wooden piece that goes around the bed so that it fits perfectly.

That Necchi was advertised as 'able to sew through yardsticks'.  Well, that's fabulous, but have you ever tried sitting down in a dress made of yardsticks?

Each of these two chairs were $5 bargains from the Goodwill.

The serger is a Bernina 1300 DC.  What I wouldn't have given to have had one of these machines, all those years I was cranking out multiple sets of children's clothing, each and every week!

This machine has only one malfunction.  Well, two.  It does not do the dishes or the laundry.

Closet doors up now.

Ceramic door knobs.

The kitten in the pictures is Tad, our much-loved kitten

who was killed by a car when he was only 14 months old.

He was the cutest kitten we ever had.

Found a shelf and some cute little decorations at the Goodwill.

Total cost:  $7.50.

A good friend gave me this stuffed cat.

My serger needed a cover. 

It hadn't come with one, because I bought the floor model.

One day I came downstairs to my sewing room to find this:

Doesn't take much guessing to know who did that.

Yeah, Caleb did it.

    

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I have a brand-new (to me) acquisition for my sewing studio!

It's a Bernina Artista 180E:

This is one of the squares on a customer's quilt.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Decoration found at the Goodwill for $2.50.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Here is the lightbox Larry made for me today:

Monday, June 18, 2012

This afternoon, Victoria and I went in the Used Furniture Store, and there I found the softest blue and white hooked rug – a short runner – that will be perfect in my sewing room in front of my cutting table. That should help my feet and ankles a bunch.

All I had in there until now is a porous … um, jute, maybe? indoor/outdoor rug with no pad, over cement. It’s a good thing that’s all I had, though, because shortly after putting it in that room, we had a pipe break below the kitchen sink – and water came pouring into the sewing room in a torrential flood. Thankfully, the room was not quite done yet, so I hadn’t moved my machines into it. The rug was easy to vacuum and dry because it was so porous.

At Menards, I bought a couple of hanging lanterns. Rustic-looking lanterns – though I’m not sure just how rustic they look with those spiral fluorescent bulbs in them – to hang above my ironing board and my cutting table, where I have a hard time seeing what I’m doing. I got a little kit for each of them that includes cord, chain, and switch, so they don’t have to be wired into the ceiling or wall, but can be plugged into an outlet.  Larry put them up tonight -- and now I can see!

As you can see, the room is now in full use!  I'm making the Graceful Garden quilt.

*     *     *

    March 21, 2020

Today I cut the binding for the Atlantic Beach Path quilt, and got it sewn to the top side of the quilt.  AND! -- I'm using my new-to-me Bernina Artista 730 for the first time!  (It says 200 on the machine, but it's been upgraded to a 730.)  It worked perfectly.  We bought the machine from Sue Halter; that was one of the reasons we went to Texas last month.  Her husband Johnny made the surround-table for it.  So helpful, when working on a big, heavy quilt.  So thanks again, Johnny and Sue!