Settling in and unpacking my epic fabric stash

Well, it's been a while. Let's just say it's not an easy thing to move from Germany to California.

A few weekends ago we finally were able to reassemble some IKEA wardrobes we had bought in Germany and moved to the US. When I bought them I had planned to store both fabric and clothes in them, so I designed them with big pull-out drawers as well as hanging rods. I only used the wardrobes for a short time in Stuttgart - and my fabric stash was actually quite small then - but in Wiesbaden they didn't fit in the apartment so they were stored in the basement cellar. I wish I had more drawers, but they don't make this version of PAX anymore - or the color, so I'll just use what I have.

I spent the last few weekend unpacking many, many plastic storage bins. I had a lot of fabric stored in the states while we were in Germany, and of course I managed to buy more in Europe. I really hoped I could store all of it in the wardrobes but I still have storage bins containing bulky fleece, thick wool, children's fabric (I need to find some babies to sew for!), swimsuit and lingerie fabrics, quilting cotton, fake fur, and home dec fabrics. The wardrobes are filled with some really nice stuff though! I organized them by color because that makes sense to me, and I like the way it looks.

I put wools and suitings on the top shelf - these are mostly black, gray and some pink and fuschia. The next shelf has black and blue fabrics, mostly solid ones in larger yardage in the back. I turned some fabric cubes on their sides to keep them contained but visible. The small bins in front hold smaller pieces of mostly printed knits and lightweight fabrics. The bottom shelf in this picture shows my pink, coral, and yellow fabrics and some more prints. By the way, the puck lights are stick-on battery-operated LED lights. They're remote controlled (and you can set them at 50%, 100%, cool, warm, or on a timer) or you can just push them to turn them on or off. Bought them at Amazon.com!

The bottom of the wardrobe has two drawers. The top drawer holds blue fabric and the bottom drawer holds black and gray. The very bottom has red fabric and though you can't make it out in the picture, the left bin has black knits

The drawers are full extension. See how nicely I can view and get to my fabric now!

The right cabinet has a hanging rod, so I used that to hang up some pieces of woven fabric. Just some! Haha! The top shelf had my bulkier or not-likely-to-be-used-anytime-soon pieces of brown wools, blends, and knits.

Two drawers on the bottom hold the brown, green, and white fabrics. More white and brown fabric is stored on the very bottom. I do not know why I have so many pieces of plain, white fabric.

My fabric store is open!

Good thing I have a brand new sewing machine to sew (and embroider) on!

And today I just bought this!

It's from Tailormade Cabinets. 

I'm still keeping my Pfaff 7570 but the software to send designs to the machine won't work on Windows 8+. Once I was reunited with all my threads and designs and stabilizers I had in storage I felt the urge to embroider again. And then I saw the cool things a new sewing machine can do, like auto tension and a presser foot that you can raise with a touch of a button or automatically when you touch the foot control - just enough so you can pivot around curves and corner. And it automatically cuts the thread. The 7570 is a great machine though and I won't sell it and since my new machine won't fit in the old cabinet the 7570 gets to stay in its home and I had to buy a new cabinet. I don't have a huge sewing area but the space will work as long as I can move the cabinets and cutting table around when I need to. 

I still have some organizing to do before I can return to garment sewing. But I did come across a great little project to work on and practice with the new sewing machine. I found that I had already cut out all the pieces, so it's some Christmas sewing in August!

More dreaded home dec

So I'm headed to Germany next week for 2 weeks and what am I doing tonight instead of packing or getting a knitting project ready to take? Making Roman shades. And writing a blog entry!

The shades are for the French doors in the back of the house, which let in a lot of light. While the light is great to have, it's not very forgiving on any fabrics I may leave out on my cutting table in the direct sunlight. The room also doubles as a guest room and it's not very private with only the sheer drapes I made last year:

The shades have been on my To-Do list for a while and I already had the fabric, a light purple seersucker. I even had lining in my stash. I found this Roman shade kit on clearance at Joann's and I hoped it would help quickly me make these shades. Well, not quite.  

 

 

The kit includes enclosed lift tape, which is cording encased in a thin strip of some polyester type fabric. There's also some hardware: screw eyes, shade rings, cord cleat, cord condenser and some brackets for mounting a board. (I ended up only using the lift tape, shade rings, and cord condenser). After reading their instructions, I decided that using just the kit to make the shades wouldn't result in the shades I really hoped for. First, the instructions don't call for any battens or rods to be used to help the shade fold properly. Also, they suggest stapling the shade to the mounting board and using the enclosed screw eyes for the lift cord. Since my French doors open outward, I need to be able to wash these shades when they get dirty. So, I searched the internet for other options and found some good sources. I found this video particularly helpful for overall instructions on how to make the shades:

 

I like the hardware calculator on www.terrelldesigns.com and ordered flat pulleys from them to use instead of screw eyes. I decided against the cord lock since they warned that it can fray the cords over time. I maybe should have ordered them because the alternative is to use a cord cleat and that means putting more holes in the door for the cleat. Drilling a hole in a door feels more damaging than drilling a hole in a wall. I started to use the instructions on Terrell Designs but they glue their battens (rods) onto the shade. Really? Glue? Again, I need to wash these shades, so I don't know that glue is the best way for me to put battens on the blinds.

 

As for the battens, some people use wood dowels but they can be pricey and not very straight. Terrell Designs carries battens, but I'm fortunate to have a TAP Plastics near me where I was able to buy 3/16" acrylic rods at only about a dollar per 6 foot rod.

 

Ok, back to slip stitching the lining to the fabric. These blinds are quite tedious, but I think they'll look great when I finally get them finished and installed.