My sewing “studio” in my apartment (where I’ve been living for six months now, wow!) consists of one side of my bedroom – an upgrade from my previous sewing space in the city.  I have a lot of great light during the day and I can set up my ironing board behind my sewing chair so I can literally swivel around and press a seam quickly.

A lot of my setup is the same as in the city, except that I have a lot more room to move around and store my fabric stash and tools – an organizational project I need to get to.  I added a handy tool rack above my sewing machine, inspired by the setup at the Colette Pattern headquarters (shhh it’s mounted crookedly!).  Now it’s so easy to grab my snips or seam gauge when I need it.

I do have to share an awesome gift Chris’ mom gave me for Christmas:

OMG ahhhhh Gutermann thread!!!  In a rainbow of colors!!  In an awesome organizer!!!  Thanks so much, Carole, it rocks 🙂

You’re looking at the first garment I’m making for 2013 – the Coppelia Cardi from Papercut Patterns.  I had some soft rayon jersey hanging out in my stash, waiting to be made into a shirt or something (hello, Renfrew), but I think this will be much more useful and fun.  My only concern is that I tried it on after I stitched the sleeve and side seams and it’s kinda big…and I’m making a XS and it’s fitting nothing like Lauren’s Coppelia, which is a XS as well.  So, I’m thinking that this will be a wearable muslin and I’ll make changes for my next version. I should be all finished by Sunday, yay!

Have you made anything so far this year?  I feel like I’m behind the 8-ball seeing what all of my favorite sewing bloggers are churning out!  Once I get inventory out of the way this week…