The teaser


DH I started getting tired of the craft room envy and since we don't have a ton of space and a great abyss of wasted space also known as our unused foyer, I decided to turn that into my craft 'room'........especially since twin 15 month old girls can still "see" mommy and "learn" by observation all things crafty and good.  Befores come first then I'll try to caption the afters with some comments.  DH gives his thanks to all of you 'wonderful peeps' (as he calls you......you have helped at least 25 massive items make it in from the garage....I'm still working on finding homes for my fabric....that might have to stay in totes in the garage for now

BEFORES:






AFTERS:


Lg shelving unit Ikea Expedit, Baskets something from Ikea (all FREE from the neighbors who were getting rid of them ), Bins are Itso from Target
Sm shelving unit is also Ikea...the powers-that-be would not let me return it even though they told me this particular unit was bookcase-depth....NOT!  Meant for DVDs...........or in my case spools of ribbon and tulle and various other bow-making notions


The bins and baskets hold the stash of yarns I think I am super-attached to...the rest of the yarn I am hoping to sell off (9 giant totes worth...EEK!  are still in the garage awaiting new homes).  The train case is an antique I use for my sewing box.  Then you see the 'babies' (2 sewing machines and a serger...all Brothers LS-1217-my first, an XL-3750 then the 1034D) and books.  The pile in the cube on the lower right is a bunch of UFOs.


The hook to hold longer length WIPs....we're into making clothing over here now and sometimes have multiple things on the dress form or machines at any one given time.  I have another hook for smaller WIPs over the desk.  The black 'wall' is a card table for extended workspace and craft fairs, etc.


What's hiding behind the curtains?


Ribbon and bow-making notions!  Sorry for the blurriness!  I am not a photog (OBVIOUSLY LOL).  I used tension rods to hang 'curtains' that I made to hide the innards so it wasn't looking like a giant pile-o-crap out in the open.  Said curtains are made out of 1/3 of a black twin-sized flat sheet where I sewed the raw edges (only 2 sides on each while folding over/pinning so you wouldn't see the raw edge) then a fold-over for a rod casing...I then used grosgrain ribbon to trim the bottom and to tie the color scheme into the colors of the Itso bins on the bookcase.


View from the front door....I didn't feel like clogging up more space on the shelves with my fabric with the leftover piece of twin sheet, so I basically sewed a giant pillowcase to cover the blue elephant in the room (dress form) and then sewed two pieces of the grosgrain ribbon from the curtains to cinch the cover at the waist.  It's not perfect but looks better than a giant blue dress form in the middle of nowhere in there


The DESK!  My awesome DH refinished this desk (and the chair) with spray paint and new hardware.  The desk was painted this horrid 70s yellow and cream theme with scrolly-looking hardware.  The desk was $24 and chair was $6 at a local thrift store.  The cost to refinish, down to the cushion (which I did) was prolly around $50 for absolutely everything.  The drawers on the left hold trims/elastics/etc, thread/cutting mat/ extention table for sewing machine, foot pedals/sewing patterns...the drawer on the side where I sit are my scissors/cutting implements, pins, needles, etc.  The lamp was only $8 (including bulb and tax) at Ikea (sense a theme?) and swivels all sorts of ways...it works as an awesome craft light and I didn't need to spend a fortune for a craft lamp....that has to be my favorite find  It puts a great spotlight right on the needles when I am sewing.  The picture looking thing is an 8X10 acrylic frame covered in fabric and 'pouches' so you have an easily accessible place for tools when you're working on a project.  Besides my Edward Cullen voodoo pincushion, this has GOT to be my all-time favorite item received in a swap from here


Alternate angle of above


Closeup of the desk and chair


"Now get in that foyer and make us something mommy!"


Thanks for looking!  We're (DH and I both) proud of having just gotten the foyer cleaned up amidst the first year of our twins' lives and the 'crafty engineering' of baby girl #3.  We're always downstairs, and this provided me with a place to do make some crafty goodness with the girls in close proximity.  Hope you've enjoyed looking and have gotten as much inspiration for yourselves as much as I have from stalking this board for as long as I have.  Oh yeah, and thanks for overlooking my pregn-emotional long-windedness

I just bought a bunch of itty bitty baby clothes for our twin girls (due in June...YAY!)....however, the thrift store is kinda dumb and used staples to tag the clothes and a few of the pieces I bought have holes/runs in them from where the staples were.  Mind you, I was extra-specially careful and gentle removing the tags, but it still happened.  Any advice on how to fix the thrift store's "my bad"?  I didn't know if that fray-stop stuff would work well on that or if I should just try to do minute sewing over them or what

I broke down and finally got a serger......after 2 or 3 years of shopping around, this is literally the only machine I could thread in all the stores I went to and that I could afford.  We've had nothing but awesome experiences with our Brother products, even my first machine which was a lower-end one from Walmart is still in AWESOME working condition and is nearly 10 years old.  Here's to hoping this is the same

I would love to organize a swap for foster/adoptive parents.  if anyone would be interested, i could really see this going as a multi-round swap.  We could do any number of things like swapping items we could send with our kiddos when they are moved back home or to another foster family or to be adopted or perhaps items that we could use to keep on hand to care for any number of children that may come into our care.  Perhaps another round could be something to help us destress like a mommy/daddy care package...maybe even things like supply kits to help create or add to lifebooks.

anyone interested?

My mom got me a Brother LS-1217 for christmas 2002, and it has sewn like a champ until today.  I think 'Bertie' has kicked the bucket.  My question, i suppose is whether or not to get it fixed or buy a new machine altogether.  i'm a thinking it will cost more to repair than what was paid for it (about $100)

The next question would obviously be what to go with? then what I should do with the old machine?  i think I'm going to buy new/new to me and perhaps save the brother to see if my husband can figure out how to work it.  I am sort of at an intermediate stage for sewing.

thanks for the advice and input

Any advice?  My husband and I are pursuing a domestic adoption and have no clue where to start with this.

You know I don't think I ever use the fibers anything calls for....I'm a little afraid to use anything more expensive than acrylic or cotton :X

For this, I used Caron Simply Soft

Designed by my friend at Nutella Dreams.  I bought this pattern from her at Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=12988440

She's so nice too.....without further adieu:

Bushy Stitch Dishcloth
http://www.geocities.com/lindaslists/bsdc.htm

I did a 'round' of the same sticth around for a more uniform finish.  I also added a loop of maybe 5-10 chains in the last corner for a loop to hang them with (we have limited drawer space and I wanted it to be able to hang on cabinet hardware and to be able to more easily hang dry and not just sit in the sink or over the faucet....i do the same with all dishcloths actually)



Pointed Granny Dishcloth
http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2008/12/19/my-pointed-granny-dishcloth/

I called it this b/c I was using colors to match our nursery theme (Fisher Price Rainforest) but then thought what a lovely present it would make as part of a layette for my friend.  So here's the blanket and the things i made to go with it.  Pattern links are posted with the pictures

Rainforest Nursery Blanket
http://web.archive.org/web/20071019040723/http://members.aol.com/fourleafcl1064/page24.html





Newborn Roundie Hat
http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/hats-hats-hats.html

I added 'special' trim around the base of the hat. This is a good 'winging-it' pattern



Mary Jane Baby Booties
http://knottygeneration.blogspot.com/2007/05/mary-jane-baby-booties-crochet-pattern.html

I added flowers like those in the pattern for the hat.



Baby No-Scratch Mitts
http://www.roxycraft.com/crochet_baby_mittens.htm

I had a really hard time with these for some reason....perhaps a little C-ADD (crafty attention deficit disorder :lol:)