Day 15: Workspace

            When I went apartment hunting, I had a few requirements. The place had to have a washer and dryer, the sink needed a garbage disposal, and there had to be an airy floor plan with lots of natural light. I also needed to be able to picture myself sewing there. The week before graduation I found a desk at a thrift store that I’m pretty sure was originally used in a hospital, and was also ridiculously heavy. With the help of two of my friends we moved it to the storage unit I had rented for the month, and after graduation we moved it into my new apartment, which met all of my requirements.

            The second I saw the desk I knew it would be great for sewing, with a sturdy work surface and a nice cutting space, as well as ample storage. I don’t have my own sewing room yet, but it occupies the sewing section of my bedroom, and is lit by the sunshine lamp my parents gave me for Christmas.

            I completed my sewing space by framing some postcards I had purchased in Bath, England, at the Fashion Museum there, as well as some fitting reproductions of World War II propaganda from the Imperial War Museum in London and a print picked up from a Colonial Williamsburg sale. I also hung a bulletin board so that I could pin up inspiration, primary sources, to-do lists, and fabric swatches, and my sewing books are lined up neatly between homemade seashell bookends.

Gowns from the Fashion Museum in Bath

My sewing books, sandwiched between seashells from Myrtle Beach collected post-graduation

My favorite print from the CW sale

            My fabric stash is in a tote in my closet, and my mannequin sits opposite my desk, easy to drape projects around.

            It might not be the giant sewing space with a full wall of windows I think of when I picture my ideal home, but for my first apartment I’m incredibly pleased!