For today's sewing space tour, where we peek behind the closed doors at a crafter's inspiring sewing room, we're in the Derbyshire countryside with Hannah the pastel queen and sewing pattern designer behind Evie La Lùve.
We've been admiring Hannah's beautiful lingerie kits and weren't surprised to see her sewing room is equally gorgeous...
Hello, my name is Hannah and this is my happy place! I have been running my lingerie sewing pattern/made-to-order business Evie la Lùve from this little space for nearly three years. I live in the Derbyshire countryside and have taken over the largest bedroom in our house where I live with my husband and two kitty cats, who are not allowed in my sewing room unless under strict supervision! (The cats that is, not my husband!)
My business is made up of so many different elements and this space has to work for everything. I design, draft and digitise multi sized lingerie sewing patterns for PDF download and reconfigure these patterns so they work as printed versions too. This process alone requires a lot of space to assemble pattern envelopes, cut and fold the pattern pieces and assemble instruction sheets.
I film YouTube tutorials here also for my channel. Anything from a fabric haul to a tutorial for assembling adjustable bra straps or a full step by step tutorial for one of my sewing patterns.
I stock a lot of lingerie sewing supplies here as well as assembling sewing kits for my patterns, which is tricky sometimes with the space that I have! This involves packing a lot of customer orders on a daily basis along with my recently launched made-to-order collections which are all handmade by me in this small space too.
So basically what I’m saying is, my sewing room has a lot going on and can get out of hand very quickly if I don’t keep on top of things. Don’t be fooled by these photos, this is my sewing room at it’s best! I regularly can’t see the floor, not to mention my desk…
As my business has grown, this space has changed and evolved with me to accommodate whatever new venture I've dreamt up. I love the light, airy feel it has so I’ve really tried to maintain that while also making use of every inch of this room, to create some kind of organisation and work flow.
Along one wall I have heavy duty shelving which holds most of my fabric stash, printed patterns and kits sold in my Etsy shop. My under table storage (thank you Ikea) holds the laces I stock in my shop and the fabric I use daily for my made to order collections. This all needs to be accessible in a hurry as I like to work fast!
My sewing space has a lot of DIYs. I like to customise everything, even if that just means I spray paint it. This includes my lilac trolley and my giant peg board! That was an organisation revolution! I incorporated curtain rail holders with dowels that hold a lot of the elastics I sell, this makes them really easy to measure when I’m packing customer orders. It also stores a lot of the equipment I use when pattern drafting so that I can use and tidy as I go along, without breaking my work flow.
I developed my ‘clipboard organisation system’ about a year ago and it changed everything! After spending days searching around my room (mostly on the floor) trying to track down crotch pattern pieces of new designs I was working on, I came up with this system to keep all the pieces together.
Each pattern in development has its own clipboard on the wall. I tend to work on several patterns at once, so this system keeps everything in order while still being easily accessible. It’s also a gentle reminder to get on and finish them when all the clipboards are full, and not to start working on something new until there is a free clipboard! I tend to get carried away…
I think my sewing room really became the 3D mood board for my business. It’s full of all my favourite pastel colours, full of flowers and pretty things that inspire me. I have personal touches everywhere, like my wedding polaroids above my desk and other decorations from our DIY wedding.
Working around my husband's work schedule means I am often still in my sewing room into the early hours of the morning, so I have made this space as cosy and comfortable a possible. I have fairy lights, which serve no purpose other than to make me feel good, flowers everywhere and blankets and cushions so I can get comfy and cosy when I’m still sat at my computer at 1am! Working from home means I am often in my PJs well into the afternoon and have many a time answered the door to a delivery person in my dressing gown, silently hoping they realise that I’m simply too busy to get dressed and I’m not just being lazy!
I really just created a place where I wanted to be. I feel like my sewing room is what the inside of my head would look like. It’s bright and full of pastel colours and flowers, and loads of pretty things. It’s chaotic most of the time and always has 1001 things going on at once, but I couldn't love it more!
Thank you for showing us around your dreamy sewing space, Hannah! We've loved seeing behind the scenes at Evie La Lùve and we're lusting over all the sewing goodies in your shop.
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Until next time!