Sewing Nook Update 2, Lego and Other Things

It wasn't until I was writing a post about waiting for a cyclone way back in March(!) and reflecting on how much I loved my little Sewing Nook that I realised that somewhere in 2024, it had an upgrade that was not blogged! Rectification time is here! 

A couple of factors in this kind of minor updated. Firstly: the desk top we had put in in 2022 was bowing slightly. Not an urgent need, but giving me some concern none the less. Then there was the lego. 

We'd had a table and lego out for at least five years, but towards the end of 2023, there was less interest. I had covertly packed things away, lego kits went into zip lock bags and then into tubs over the course of a couple of months. I had put the table with what remained out on the deck to clean the floors and it sat out there for at least a week or two without the girls batting an eye lid, so I quickly relocated it under the house without them noticing. Stealth parenting at its best!

I think we had about three or four months when they didn't even mind, but something triggered Sophie and she asked for a set. I got it out and put it on a tray table for her. I had been thinking the lego phase was over, but unfortunately for me, this was not the case. The lego creep was real and the girls had a huge renewed interest in it. Soon, lego was back in force, and the table was again required. 

Where to put the lego table now that it was officially back? I ended up sacrificing the desk that I had in the living room. It was two birds one stone, because moving the desk out of the living room and into the Sewing Nook made space for the lego, and meant we didn't need to actually fix or replace the bowing table top we already had in the Sewing Nook. We just took it out and slid the pre-made desk in. Then there was space in the living room for all the lego (and I mean: All. The. Lego.) and the bowing sewing desk was no longer a problem. 

The other thing that happened was Olivia the Overlocker stopped working. Some plastic casing inside her broke, and the repair shop people said it wasn't worth trying to fix, since they don't make replacement parts for the plastic and it would end up costing me the price of a new machine if they did. Sadness! I ended up donating Olivia for parts to the sewing repair shop, and have been without her ever since. 

I don't think anyone would mind if I wanted to get a new overlocker, but the reality is, there are other ways to finish a hem. Ways that I've learnt function just as well and look equally as neat if not better (French seams, and bound Hong Kong Finishes, I'm looking at you (and swooning slightly)). So I can go without. It also means there is more space for the now present iron and small board that I have. And I also have space to lay down my cutting board right at the table. 

My goodness, my Sewing Nook gives me such joy and oh do I miss it! So so much. I've been doing lots of hand sewing here in Japan (Red Yukata, sports bags, sewing kit and sitapons to name a few) as well as getting a lot doing on the cross stitch project, but all the hand sewing has given me an injury (I'm hoping it's minor?) in my shoulder. It's been pretty painful and I've intentionally had to take a stitching break to try to let it recover. I'm nearly a full week of "sewing rest" now, and while the whole shoulder is feeling better, I don't want to risk restarting too soon and having an even longer recovery time. Sadness! 

On the plus side, I've been reading - mostly the Tamora Pierce books that Sophie bought to Japan with us. So nostalgic. And you know me, I'm keeping busy in other ways too. More on that later! 

The girls have been surviving in Japan remarkably well with the limited amount of Lego that we have on hand. I had let them take a very small selection each. They mostly chose a few small animals, a base and then whatever fit on it. I also strategically bought two small and one medium set of Lego to bring with us as a surprise for them too, knowing how much they were going to miss having the huge range when we got here. 

The sets I bought were a hit. They had all the right kinds of small animals that the girls love, fun nature elements and enough parts to tear apart and rebuild in numerous and various ways. Rachel actually said on day two of having them: "I can never be bored here because these are the best ever!" Spoiler alert: she's been bored. But they have had a lot of fun too. 

Waiting for a Cyclone

It is a beautiful day here in Brisbane and it is almost incomprehensible that schools are closed, local services like public transport and rubbish collection are suspended and shops are shutting their doors. While the rain and wind over the last few days have been intermittent, preparations were made around our yards and houses; everything is tied down and put away. Now, the day is beautiful and we wait for a cyclone to come. 

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is getting flash backs to March 2020, when Covid hit and we were all "sheltering in place" which was the nice way to say "lockdown". The shelves in the supermarket were looking pretty bare the last three days as people rushed out to get supplies. There is lots of unknown and trying to do all we can to make the most of the time we have before the storm comes. 

The girls are across from me as I type this, each working on their own school work and Steve is in the office on a Teams call. It shows the five years that have passed though, since they are both on electronic devices, rather than using colouring pencils, glue and scissors to complete their work. 

We've been unable to get bread, so last night I started a focaccia dough, and this morning, I have a put together the beginnings of some cinnamon scrolls. Lockdowns are the perfect time for carbs right? While we wait, now is the perfect time to catch up on some blogging that I've not been able to get to. And the bonus on the cyclone delay is that now I'll have time to recharge the laptop after as well. Silver lining! 

As we have been busy thinking through the logistics of our Japan plans for 2025, one of the things I was considering was shoes. Obviously I'd want to take my ultra-comfy sports shoes, but since I wear them for pretty much any outdoor job, including painting, oiling the deck and mowing the lawn, they were pretty grubby. That doesn't matter so much in Australia (well, to me anyway), but Japan are a bit more conscious about outward appearance. I figured if I want to take them to Japan, I would need to clean them up or I'd be so aware of how dirty they are every time I went for a walk. 

My initial plan was just to dye them, but Maria said that that wouldn't hide the oil stains like I wanted them to. Instead, I opted for fabric markers and did some colouring. Trying to make the stains and paint part of the design. My other idea to hide the stains, or at least make them less of a feature, was to sew some new fabric shoelaces, thinking that if people were distracted by beautiful unique fabric, they'd be less likely to notice the other, less delightful parts of the shoes. 

Shoelaces are pretty easy to make - just need to cut strips of fabric, do some folding and sew down one side. I did these without any fuss Sunday morning before Church. 

I was sitting I my little sewing nook enjoying the calm quiet morning and the wonderful way that this little part of our house makes me so happy. Incidentally I picked up that little iron off our community grapevine for free from someone who was moving and didn't need it. It is so super cute (even though it's pink :P) and I made a little ironing board to use with it from a bamboo cutting board covered in leftover quilting batting and some more of the flannelette cot sheet I had from the girls (used before to make a bunny or two). 

So happy with the shoes with their new laces (although don't love how the blue hearts-that-hide-the-oil-stains look), ready to go to all the cool places in Japan. Hopefully if you are also are sheltering in place waiting for a cyclone, you are also enjoying some small things to help pass the time. 

Renovated Sewing Nook: First Produce

 In cleaning things out when we renovated the sewing nook after Christmas, I rediscovered the bag of ties that I still had donated from my dad when he finished working. I've only used two of these in over ten years of having them (shorts, dress, shirt), and it was really time to make the call. I donated most of them to someone in the Brisbane sewing community, but kept three that I decided I could absolutely reuse. 

Years and years ago I had made a stack of drawstring jewellery pouches using this tutorial from Sew4Home. I made so many for gifts for friends for Christmas that year that I was over sewing them before I took the time to make myself one. Now it was time to make one out of these lovely ties that needed another life. 

I sat and unpicked the ties to salvage all the fabric I could, and ironed everything multiple times. Lots of piecing to get enough fabric for the circles and I used interfacing to keep things stable because bias-cut ties do not want to stay flat by any means. 

So pretty and functional! I took this to Bundaberg when we went up to meet our new niece, and it's all I've ever needed in a jewellery pouch. Hooray! I'm glad to have used up my dad's ties at least a little, and also glad that the rest of them have gone on to live with someone else. 

And so happy with my new sewing nook set up, which made sewing this so easy. Winning all round. 

Sewing Nook Upgrade

When we renovated the house in 2018/19, an unexpected surprise was the addition of a sewing area for me near the laundry. I talk about it a lot in this post here. That little sewing area saw me through a stack of sewing in the last three years and worked amazingly as my change table for all the day care nappies that I changed. 

But it had failings. The sewing cabinet that I had (inherited from my Yia-yia) did indeed store both Sally the Sewing Machine, and Olivia the Overlocker (also inherited from my Yia-yia) as well as a bunch of sewing related supplies. All good. It was also on wheels and folded out to make lots of sewing space when I needed it. Also good. The down side was that when it was all folded up, I couldn't keep a chair underneath it. 

This wasn't a problem when I didn't have a sewing chair, but my parents graciously gifted me one for my birthday one year and I found myself storing it in the ironing cupboard and pretty much never using it. Oh well, right? Except that at Christmas, my parents also gifted me a dress form, and the moment I opened it up, all Steve could think was "Where will we put that?"

I was stoked with the dress form, especially given that only a week before Christmas I had asked both Steve and the girls to pin a bodice to fit me with mixed results (although, to be fair, also a great final dress), but I had to agree with Steve - "Where would it go?" The sewing nook, for all it's capabilities, was not generous with space by any means. 

We got home from all the Christmas festivities, dress form in tow, and I think Steve said that very night, "What if we got rid of the sewing cabinet and had a desk/bench set up instead?" The solution here was that the sewing chair could then be stored at the sewing bench, and the dress form could be stored in the cupboard. 

Not a bad solution. I had wanted a peg board and a hanging thread storage solution for a while, so this was a good nudge in that direction. I also negotiated another shelf to go at the top of what I already had for more storage, given that whatever was stored in the cabinet would now need a new home. 

We ummed and ahhed over how to make the desk/bench solution work - Steve researched options at Bunnings since we figured all we would need would be a slab of wood that would be mounted to the wall. While we thought about the options and how to make it work, I took Rachel to Bunnings myself one morning to buy some 6mm dowel to use in my creation of thread storage. 

All the other wood was stuff I found under the house. I just made what lengths I had work, knowing roughly the size I wanted it to be based on where I was going to hang it at the end. Then I got the tools out and put it together. Steve's brother (who is a handy kind of guy), despaired at my description of how I drilled the 45 degree angle holes for the dowels to go into, but I think given that it works, my method shouldn't matter too much right? 

I have to say I was delighted in the end result, because it was everything I had wanted and more. Coincidentally, we also happened to be going to Ikea that week after Christmas, and so I measured the space for the pegboard and was ready to buy. While we were there, we walked past the desk displays and discovered you could purchase a desktop that would fit the space pretty perfectly. 

We didn't overthink it. Initially I wanted the wooden look top, but they were out of stock, so I just cut my losses and we bought the white. I was thinking I'd rather it be done, than have to wait or go back to Ikea again. A day later and Steve had mounted it to the wall and repurposed a shelf from the study for my extra storage. Unbelievable; in less than a week, the makeover was complete. 

Here is an action shot of Steve getting that black shelf (leaning against the cupboard up onto the wall. You can see the bit of wood we attached to the wall at his legs. There is another one on the other side that the desk top rests on. The desk top is leaning against the cupboard too. You can also see my dress form there - already doing a great job of modelling a work in progress dress that I'll blog about soon. 

Funny story about mounting it to the wall though - we couldn't quite find the studs by tapping on the walls, and not wanting to risk the thing falling down (it was going to have a desk top and two sewing machines on it after all), started to think of other ways to mount it (vertical supports, desk legs etc). Suddenly I had a revelation that there must be studs there, and that we had a way to know where they were from all the photos and videos that I took when we were renovating and the walls were being built! 

We looked up the video, paused it as I panned passed the wall and there was the location of the studs. Brilliant. If you are ever renovating, document everything - you never know when it will be very useful. 

I got some new storage boxes and sorted through all of my sewing gear with Maria. We culled somethings, probably not as much as I expected, but in the end, everything fit and there was space to spare. Hooray! I switched out the curtains too, just for a change and I have been sewing happily ever since. 

In the big clean out, I also found the receipt for Olivia the Overlocker, from when my Yia-yia first bought it. Olivia celebrated her 30th birthday this year on the 24th of January. Happy Birthday Olivia! There is so much sewing potential here now and because the case numbers were up, it meant lots of time for sewing too. Time to use up the stash! 

PS sorry for the bad photos. The Sewing Nook is unbelievably hard to photograph. Best photos I could take were opening the laundry doors behind the sewing table and siting on the sink. 

Shorts: The Sewing Nook's First Produce

A sudden turn in temperature at the start of Autumn prompted me to clean out the girls wardrobes again. Having done so, there were obvious gaps that needed filling. Sophie had gone through a major growth spurt and suddenly only had one skirt that fitted her any more, and no shorts.

Needs must, so I got out some fabric and started to sew.

The sewing nook worked admirably, and having the shelf above meant I could easily store the work in progress during the day and knew exactly where it was when it came time to sew again.

I used the Clover Shorts pattern, because the material was so pretty it deserved to be a really nice pair of shorts. Dinosaurs are so awesome right?

Those unicorn shorts are almost identical to the pair I made last year for Rachel. Too bad I accidentally sewed the waist band on upside down this time.

Renovation Update: Epilogue

So I realized after my last post, that there were a few things missing of our final renovation that I didn't get to share with the world at large. And that I really should redo the video walk through so that people get a better idea of what happened and where everything is.

So I did, and here it is:

The most notable thing that I missed talking about was my sewing nook. Probably because it is insanely hard to get good photos of, because sewing nook, is an extremely adequate name for it. But I am super excited about it.

We weren't originally sure what to do with the space. It was across from the laundry, next to a linen cupboard. We floated the idea of a bench with storage underneath, and then a vague notion of giving Steve an easily accessible space to store tools inside. About two and a half months into the renovation, I realized, as I walked around the sewing cabinet that had been stored in our bedroom, that it was just the right size for that little area.

It grew to be even more perfect when I realized that during the week, I could use it as a change table, thus removing the need for a change table in our bedroom. Hallelujah! The final moment of perfection came when I realized that being next to the ironing cupboard and a linen storage cupboard meant that I could store my material close at hand (again, out of the bedroom) and I would have no excuse not to press seams given the location of the iron.

Almost too good to be true.

But it is true. It's small and will take some juggling if I'm working on a bigger project (like a quilt), but it's an area that is all for me and for sewing; and I love it. What an unexpected bonus of renovating a house.