Setting up shop (metaphorically speaking, of course)

It's been about month since I got myself my lovely sewing machine. After trying out a few stitches on some old T-shirts that were going to be thrown out anyway (and getting a bit of T-shirt scrap so horribly tangled that the machine ate it and I had to call my husband to help me figure out a way to get the material out), the machine pretty much stayed mostly untouched on its temporary perch at the end of the dining table.

Until now...

My little sewing corner currently consists of a desk, a swivel chair with wheels, a couple of magazine holders for my sewing books and a paper bag holding cloth I bought from Jakel in Masjid India

I finally got round to visiting Ikea to get myself a table and chair to set up a proper workspace a few days ago and managed to put them together yesterday. And this morning I finally got a chance to work on a small project at a sewing designated area. The table and chair came up to just under RM500 but the satisfaction of having this area is priceless.

The view I have from my sewing corner - my mum-in-law has her plants at the front and the TV can keep me company if i need a break from sewing

It's fantastic to have a proper area to work on my sewing - the first chapter in the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook discusses setting up a sewing space. Though there are some lovely ideas I'd love to incorporate later on, a good table and chair are all I need now.

I found the drawers to be handy for keeping small items and supplies. The desk is also long enough to hold my books and a couple of old T-shirts I use for practising stitches.

I'm thinking of getting a transparent box or something for cloth - one for the new uncut ones and another smaller one for scraps of material that might come in useful for future projects.

While working on my first project (which I will get to in a bit), I still ended up using the dining table and the floor as surfaces to cut my fabric and running to my room to press it in the process of sewing. Ah well, this is just the beginning, after all. Details can be ironed out as I go along.

Step 1: New beginnings

Books to get started.

Okay, so I decided to take up sewing, which is what brings me here. As this is a new project I'm embarking on, I hope to chart my progress via this blog. 

I figure I will kill a few birds with one stone this way. I will (ideally): 1) get to write what I want (which is different from the writing I do for work); 2) get to practise photography (and finally learn how to use the Nikon DSLR camera I bought from a friend a year ago); and 3) stay committed to this new hobby (my current sewing skills are limited to some light alteration work - i.e. fixing a tear in my pants or something like that).

A little on where I'm coming from: I neither liked nor saw the value in sewing as a kid. I hated Home Ec because of the sewing component in the syllabus. The only exception was when I did a tie-dye project for school (I didn't mind sewing then because it was related to art, which I loved). 

In the past few years, though, my perspective on sewing changed. I met people who not only like sewing but do wonders with it - homemade bags, cloth toys and dolls, and individual pieces of clothing. I have admired and "ooh"-ed and "aah"-ed over what these ladies can do but did not think much about doing anything myself.

But the notion to take it up happened somewhere along the way (the fact that I can no longer find clothes of my liking in my size and at a price I'm happy with also helped with this decision) and recently, it's all I can really think about. So I decided to do something about it.

I'm part of a closed sewing group (although at this point I'm still a silent member as I haven't got anything to contribute to the discussions), have started looking things up online and have invested in a few sewing books and am deciding on a sewing machine to get to start my sewing adventures.

Ooh, this is going to be fun.