craft room updates

For the costume making extravaganza, I ended up moving everything downstairs to the living/dining room side of the house.  It was hot and stuffy upstairs, and I didn't have enough room in the craft room to really spread out my cutting board, and I was already taking up two rooms.  Because of this I realized that the layout of my craft room just wasn't working, and I made a few changes.

Phase Two: 'After'.  I'm just now realizing that the wig stand
floating above Jenny the Dress Form is a little creepy.

Previously, the banquet table that you can BARELY see at the bottom of the picture had jutted out into the center of the room, in the hopes that the ceiling light above me and the light from the bay window would help light up what I was doing.  It didn't.  It just took up floor space.  So I turned it so it would be against the wall.  

Phase One, 'Before.'That banquet table is
pretty good at staying out of the picture.

Then I added lots of wall shelves. I'd done Phase One of the shelves back in March and loved the amount of space it gave me.  I broke it up into phases because these shelves end up being pricy, especially if you attack the whole wall.  I LOVE this type of shelving unit.   Look at all the space I have!  And I can rearrange it if it's not working!  Each shelf can hold up to 80 pounds, I believe.  I don't bother to screw the shelves to the brackets, but I've always been very careful about balancing weight properly and moving things, and have never had a problem.  This is actually the third wall-o-shelves I've done.  I believe my mother still uses the shelves I left in the bedrooms at home.  

However, Phase One just wasn't enough.  Everything in the bottom half of that storage area was stuff I didn't actually use.  It needed to be put elsewhere, out of the way.  Most of the stuff got moved to the upper shelves or on the far left.  I'll be doing quite a bit of shuffling and organizing on those shelves for a while.  

On the other side of the room, I had several bookshelves and two Sterilite carts that had served me well.  The big bookshelf is an unusual width that proved to be absolutely perfect for holding two of those Michael's plastic scrapbook containers.  I store all kinds of randomness in those!  One of them holds small wood scraps, one has beads, one has polymer clay, one has *gasp* scrapbook paper, and one is full of ribbon and lace.  You can store the smaller rolls of trim upright inside, or just reroll them onto strips of cardboard.  I even had B. cut me an extra shelf to size in order to take advantage of every inch of space possible.  The smaller bookshelf, which isn't filled yet in that picture, which means I took it right after we moved in, was an awesome deal I found online some time back, and fit perfectly in the space restricted townhouse.  

Phase One: 'Before'

The carts, again, weren't actually in regular use.  One of them mostly held office supplies and old electronics.  There was ribbon cable in there.  RIBBON CABLE.  Do they still use that in computers?  I haven't gotten to play with computer innards in ages since I got my first laptop.

Oh yeah, back to the topic!  I emptied out one of the carts completely, and pushed the other into the 'other' room, along with the file cabinet.  I stuck the empty cart in the craft room closet and filled it up with my miniatures, which had been living, neatly packed, in plastic shoe boxes that liked to topple over.  

Phase Two: 'After.' I suddenly have a hat collection.

 Then I shoved the bigger bookshelf over, and brought up the huge full length mirror B. had bought recently so we could see ourselves head to toe.  (not that we really want to, but it's helpful when sewing.)  You can see my other storage containers on there.  I love those half width canvas bins, too!  I have spray paint cans and really tall paint bottles in there.  Keeps them neat and upright without having to look at them or be overwhelmed by the smell by closing it up.

So now I have plenty of space to lay out the cutting board, and I can set up my ironing board in a spot that ISN'T over the squeaky floorboard.  You just don't realize how much you move around while ironing until you iron while standing over a squeaky floorboard.  Urgh.

Yes, I know, I should show you a picture of the entire room, but I was moving stuff around just so I could take a picture, and the dollhouse table in front of the window is pure chaos.   Someday I will. For now, I'll show you one more detail.

When moving my minis around, I realized with horror that I didn't have any minis on display.  None.  At all.  And it would be a very long time before I finished renovating either of my dollhouses.  Fortunately, I did have two roombox kits I'd purchased ages ago but never displayed.  So I decided I'd quickly make up a scene in one of them.

This was a lot harder than I expected.  I could only fit a few small pieces of furniture in, and I had a hard time finding little items to display, because they were all so carefully wrapped up and thoughtlessly not labeled on the outside.

Then, of course, I had to test the new layout a little bit.  So I made a skirt.  Simplicity pattern 2609, to be exact.

I didn't have enough challis to make a longer skirt (this takes an amazing amount of fabric) but it turned out ok enough.  I'm not too pleased with how hippy it makes me look (I have another skirt just like this that isn't that bad) so I am definitely making future skirts longer.  It was an easy enough pattern (yay!  I had a PATTERN!) but I need to find an easier way to sew down gathered fabric so the gathers are all even.  What a pain!

I'd cut out the skirt a while ago, so I couldn't tell you if cutting was feasible in the room.  I did borrow B.'s fluorescent task lamp that bends in all sorts of directions, and was able to get a good strong light on what I was doing.  I think the new layout will be just fine, especially with the ceiling light now to one side and over one shoulder.

You know, I probably could have gotten three or four posts out of this . . .