I’ve been on a mission lately to “right size” my sewing studio and the mother lode of stuff in said studio (as well as several surrounding closets!).

• All student machines are now out of the house. One is at the quilt shop and the others are at school for my weekly sewing club.
• All excess sewing notions are at school. Of course, some will make eventually their way home – as did my duckbill scissors – once I saw a student attempting to cut paper with them.  Didn’t realize those were in the “school” sewing box.
• Three HUGE tubs of assorted fabrics that were gifted to me were re-gifted to a local mixed media artist who was overjoyed by all the fabric.
• One HUGE tub of gently used sewing, craft and household books were put in the Better World Books collection bin.
• Magazines, books and other items are being listed on Etsy on the weekly basis to get them out of the house.
• Bid farewell to a few PhDs (projects half done) in recent weeks. Salvaged what I could out of the projects (orphan blocks & leftover fabrics) – but if I haven’t completed the top in 5 years, it’s time to let it go.

I still a work in progress, but at least all of the known excess fabric is out of the house and I can begin the process of consolidating fabrics according to precuts (charms and strips), kits, backings, minky and general fabric sorted by color/novelty/dogs.

What does come into the studio must either be for a paid customer project or add value in at least one of the following areas:

1) Will it make my process easier?
2) Will it make the process less painful?
3) Is it something that I just absolutely love?

When my 3160QDC spent almost 4 weeks in the repair shop, I borrowed a “school” machine to help with production work.  WRONG!  I wound up buying a JW8100 from Wal-Mart to help get me through the production crunch. Well…I was so impressed with this little machine that I still have it and it is now my travel/teach class machine.  I have a nice machine to take with me, but can leave my more expensive machines in the studio.

A crafty biz group I belong to asked each member to choose a word for 2017.

I chose:

CONFIDENCE

as my word for 2017.

And believe you me, I am breaking out of my comfort zone big time this afternoon.  The high school student whom I helped with her senior sewing project has asked me to mentor her through making part, if not all, of her prom dress. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any serious garment sewing and my interest was piqued during our sew sessions for her senior project.  Turning a client’s wedding dress into pillows for her daughters also helped refresh my memory on garment construction techniques and gave me the confidence booster that I needed to tackle this project.

Pattern review, cutting fabric, darts and concealed zipper installation are on the agenda for this afternoon. As is setting up a machine for her to take home to sew the straight seams of the skirt panels. We’ll meet again during the week for our first fitting.