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Aunt Norie’s Sewing Room

By Eleanor Mckee - | Jan 31, 2012

I’ve always had to have space, real space, for my sewing machine, cutting board and ironing board (for pressing). As my family grew, I had a sewing room. I could just get up, leave it all and come right back to it again. That’s an ideal setup, as I was very fortunate.

Our sewing machine was very busy. All of the kids, boys and girls alike, learned the basics of sewing, as they also learned cooking, hammering nails, sawing and nailing boards, etc. Real “family life” back in those days; not so in today’s world I know, but …

Back to that sewing space: So many times all one has is a portable machine in its case on a shelf. Maybe that’s all you really need. However, there are so many ways of adding real space. Do you perhaps have a large walk-in closet? Many of them have been converted into very compact and comfortable sewing centers, usually by taking the door off and widening that space, if the door is on the end as it usually is. Close that end, open the side of the closet and have two doors, sewing machine with shelves overhead and on the walls. Use your imagination. Add a fold-down ironing board, a mirror, good fold-out, or pull-down lights. You can just close the door, leave it and come back. You’ll get so much more sewing done and really enjoy it all.

In my small apartment I now have my sewing machine set up, good light coming in over my shoulder, under a window, in almost the corner of the bedroom. I can just get up, leave and come back. Old antique fold-up snack trays and three “firing strips,” I think they are called (slats), are the frame under my cutting board, which is just the same size as my twin bed, and I’m “in business.”

A friend recently said, “I wish I had seen your little setup a long time ago. This is so neat.”

With that in mind, I thought this column material might help several.

Hugs now, and God bless.

— Aunt Norie, P.O. Box 265, Tonganoxie, KS 66086; auntnorie@att.net.