“My first priority is always my sewing space. When I look for someplace to live, where’s my sewing space going?” “Use your space the way you want to use your space” A good sewing space should have something that reflects things that are essential about you and where you are in life right now. In today’s episode, we are joined by Diary of a Sewing Fanatic’s Carolyn Norman. Carolyn recently had to pack up and move her special sewing space of ten years. The change offered her an opportunity to reflect on her possessions, her priorities, and her ability to create in her new space. Join us as we discuss storage, summer dresses, and accepting help when we need it. Carolyn also offers advice for those just starting out and looking to make a sewing space of their own.
Learn more about Carolyn Norman, Diary of a Sewing Fanatic!
The Sewing Cave (before the move)
Lisa Woolfork 0:17
Hello stitchers. Welcome to Stitch Please. The official podcast of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. I'm your host, Lisa Woolfork. I'm a fourth generation sewing enthusiast, with more than 20 years of sewing experience. I am looking forward to today's conversation. So sit back, relax, and get ready to get your stitch together.
Hello, everyone, and welcome. Listen, I know I say this every week that our episodes are special. All of our episodes are special. But this episode is part of our Sewing Spaces Series that I've been holding for a little while now. And it felt to me like I could not have a sewing room series, if I did not talk to Carolyn Norman, Diary of a Sewing Fanatic. It would not be possible, because listen y'all, talking to Carolyn about her sewing room is like talking to Walt Disney about the design of Disneyland. Okay, because she is such a blueprint. She has done so much in the sewing community. Her career spans such wonderful longevity, such innovation and creativity. And the sewing room is the room where it happens. And so Carolyn, thank you so much for being here today and talking with us about your space. I am so excited.
Carolyn Norman 1:45
No problem. You know I'll talk to you anytime, Lisa.
Lisa Woolfork 1:47
Listen. So y'all. Carolyn has done what I consider impossible. She had a great sewing room. She called it the sewing cave. She had machines set up there, she had her library, she had a fabric collection. She had trinkets and art. She had all of these, you know, notions. Everything that you would need in a sewing studio, she had it already. She had accumulated this from very discerning shopping, as well as her own employment and travels, and all of this. So she's got this gorgeous, amazing, well stocked sewing space that most people would just die for, right. Going into Carolyn's house would be better than going to any fabric store. She has everything that you need, and you already know it's in good taste. Then she's like, now I am moving. That is what I would love to talk about. I would love to talk about how you designed a new ideal space. How did you approach your sewing space? I remember following your process, as you were folding fabric, purging fabric, thinking about fabric, looking at these things, and assessing what you have and getting prepared, and then making the move. So can you talk a bit at first about what was some of your first thoughts when you looked around at your gorgeous well-stocked sewing cave that you had been sewing in for– how long had you been in that space? [Carolyn: almost 10 years]. 10 years worth of sewing life and love and creativity in this space. She's got her TV and the movies and all this stuff. She has it set up the way she likes it, okay? She has grown into this space, and it fits her like a really wonderful comfy bathrobe and slippers. And now you got to take all that off and go do something else. What was some of the first thoughts that occurred to you when you looked around your space and said, I have to move this?
Carolyn Norman 3:47
Well I did just that, I sighed. And then it was like ah hell no, I can't believe I have to pack all this fabric up. But yeah, it was mostly that I had to pack the fabric up. I didn't realize how well I had stored everything. Everytime I found a need, I'd go out and buy some more plastic to store stuff in, and then I would shove it up underneath the tables. So it appeared neater because I wasn't stumbling over stuff, but there was a lot of stuff in that space. I mean, when we went to take it out, it filled half the moving truck.
Lisa Woolfork 4:23
The sewing room itself, the sewing cave?
Carolyn Norman 4:25
The sewing room itself filled half the moving truck, and we had taken two truckloads of the fabric over from one spot to the other spot, before the moving truck came to move me out of that spot. And it took up half the back of this moving van.
Lisa Woolfork 4:45
Now tell me how long did it take you to go from your comfortable, well loved sewing room to it being empty?
Carolyn Norman 4:54
Three to four weeks.
Lisa Woolfork 4:55
And how many people were working during this three to four week period?
Carolyn Norman 4:58
Okay, I need to stop here and say that part of the reason I made the decision to move was because I had some serious health challenges last year. And I wasn't sure if I was going to need chemo and all the follow-up. So I had to move so that my kids would have a space to be able to take care of me if something happened. Let's start with that premise. But that's why I moved. I didn't just get up and decide, oh ok I'm going.
Lisa Woolfork 5:26
You had compelling reasons.
Carolyn Norman 5:28
I had a really compelling reason for why I'm moved. That was the first thing. And then the second thing was, during this whole time, I couldn't lift anything more than five pounds. I couldn't bend over too much. I couldn't pack too much. If I did too much, it sent me to bed for a day. So I think that's part of the reason it took three to four weeks. And I haven't really talked about how sick I was from June to December last year. But I was pretty sick. I had two major surgeries, and I was pretty sick. So my daughters pitched in, and my granddaughters pitched in. They packed everything. But those little girls got to be a trip with my fabric, because they started pulling out stuff, talking about Nana, so when you get better, you can make this for me right, Nana? [Laughter].
Lisa Woolfork 6:14
Like, we are very happy that you are well. Glory, hallelujah. Here is my order.
Carolyn Norman 6:19
No, this is while I was sick. [Laughter]. But I think they didn't understand how sick Nana really was. They were packing fabric and then setting aside stuff for themselves. Those little buggers was such a trip.
Lisa Woolfork 6:30
They had faith. They're like, she's not doing so great now, but soon she's gonna be alright and back at that sewing machine. So I might as well before, let me get in front of my other cousins.
Carolyn Norman 6:40
I only have five grandchildren, three boys and two girls, and only spoke for the girls. But yeah, they really pitched in and they packed the majority of the sewing room. I did a lot of supervising. My daughter sews, so she knew how to put things together. It wasn't like the blind leading the blind. Like she knew that the sewing machine should be packed separately, and travel separately. And my friends came from Pennsylvania and helped move my fabric for me. And then my friend's husband set up all my machines and tables for me. So it really was a lot of people pitching in to help me move. I can't say that I did it by myself. And so probably the reason it took three to four weeks was because I could not physically pack anything. So let's start with that premise.
Lisa Woolfork 7:27
Well, I think that's a great explanation, and I appreciate your sharing with us. And what I'm hearing is that this was a community effort. And I would be willing to say that even if you were at full strength, at 110%, I do not believe you would have been able to single-handedly pack up that entire space of 10 years worth of accumulation in three weeks alone.
Carolyn Norman 7:51
I think it would have taken less time because I would have been able to do it all the time. I had to schedule the packing around other people's schedules, and the moving around other people's schedules. I was like a military general getting [laughter] schedules, and making sure that I wasn't taking up too much of anyone's time. And yeah, even when we moved here, I could not lift things over my head. I could not carry the heavy bags up. So my daughters and the kids would have to come by and bring all that fabric upstairs. One night, I almost ended up in the ER because I just couldn't take it anymore, and I kept trying to put fabric on a shelf. I was just tired of living with the bags. So I downplayed how sick I was last year, and I moved in the middle of being sick. So add that to moving 10 years worth of stuff.
Lisa Woolfork 8:44
And in the middle of a pandemic.
Carolyn Norman 8:46
Right, like I couldn't have a packing party. Like I would have normally just invited everybody to come and take whatever you wanted, and pack and help me pack up. And we probably could have done it in two weekends. No, because we were in the middle of a pandemic.
Lisa Woolfork 9:00
And so I think that this just, at least it shows to me, that it's true that many hands make light work. And you were able to secure that. Maybe not in the same timeframe that you would have wanted if it was totally up to you, but it's not always up to us. Sometimes there's a pandemic that doesn't care about our plans, you know. [Laughter]. That to me feels like another lesson as well that I need to practice about, like slowing down and letting people help me. You know, I really struggle with that because I like things done a certain way. And I don't want anybody to do it because then I have to go back and just do it the way I wanted it the first time. And I really am learning to try to let go of some, which it's hard. I'm not good at it.
Carolyn Norman 9:47
I wasn't good at it either, Lisa. Prior to that, when I moved to that spot, I moved a sewing space there. Not as big or as organized as that one became, but I did it all myself. I packed every piece of fabric, I moved every bin. The only thing was they moved the bins in the house. They moved them onto the moving truck, and then they moved them into the house. But every piece of fabric, every other thing, everything I packed the first time myself. I just could not physically pack this time.
Lisa Woolfork 10:16
Yes, I am trying to learn that now, and to incorporate that need for support as just a human need.
Carolyn Norman 10:26
I don't think it's bad to ask for help.
Lisa Woolfork 10:28
It's not at all, it's a basic human need. We need that.
Carolyn Norman 10:32
And I had friends that wanted to help, but pandemic. I was living with my 82-year-old mother, and we didn't want people coming into the house to possibly give her something, so –
Lisa Woolfork 10:44
The packing party or the trunk show, or whatever you might have done in a time when everybody was healthy and the world wasn't in the middle of a personal pandemonium, you would have been able to do. And so now you have everything packed up, you are now in your new place. And when I was re-reading the blog post, I was like, wait a minute, I thought she had a sewing loft. You were really excited about it, and I was excited. Carolyn, I was excited like I was getting a sewing loft. I was like, oh we can go up to the top and look down and see the rest of the apartment, and look out the window and see. But then you decided to pivot from that and said, you know, I'm gonna keep everything downstairs cuz it was a little bit easier?
Carolyn Norman 11:23
No, I didn't decide– [Lisa: well tell me what happened.] Okay, so I moved in September. Air conditioning; I have Central Air. It was cool upstairs, everything worked. Even through December, it got a little hot, on one or two days, but I thought nothing of it. And then after Christmas, when we got really, really cold here, and you turn the heat on and turn it up, it was like being the turkey for Christmas dinner up there. I put fans in. I had all of these fans, but then I couldn't hear because the fans were going so loud. And then the TV was up so loud. And then I just couldn't think and then I didn't want to go up there anymore. And then it was time for the second surgery. So I had to stop. No, this was after the second surgery. So I couldn't walk upstairs anyway. It was just a hot mess. It really became a hot mess, and it was just so hot. And then the person who lived in this apartment before me had a couple of packages come here by accident. And she came by and she was talking to me. She was like, do you have someone living in the loft? And I was like, no, that's my sewing room. She goes, good, because we had to move to a two bedroom, because my daughter slept up there and couldn't sleep up there from January through April. That's how hot it got up there, Lisa. And that's with closing the vents. That was with running fans. There was no way to– I don't know, I couldn't get the heat to come down. And I think it didn't help that the HVAC system is up there. [Lisa: Oh, for goodness sake]. Yeah, the HVAC closet is up there. And it just radiated heat. [Lisa: Yes]. My beautiful sewing loft that I'd taken all that time to measure, buy the right tables for, and get everything placed the way I wanted, didn't work. So I moved that [sewing machine], Janome gave me to be the brand ambassador. I moved that downstairs, and I moved my serger downstairs. I moved my cutting table downstairs. And I said I would only do this for a couple of months to see how it worked out. And then I got down here and I kind of loved being able to walk out of my bedroom and walk around the corner, sit down and sew. And then I kind of love that I had the window right there. Not 10 feet away. And there was a window and it was light, I mean, as you can see, right here. [Lisa: And there you are]. It was lots of light I hadn't had for 10 years, then I decided that I would have a resource center upstairs to store all the stuff. I would just sew down here. And at first I felt like really bad. I was like asking my friends, is this like really bougie? And one of my friends said if she could kick her husband out, she'd sew in her living room. [Laughter].
Lisa Woolfork 14:06
So see, you're on the right path.
Carolyn Norman 14:08
Yeah, I was on the right path. And one of my friends was like, what do you need a dining room for? Who are you dining with, we're in the middle of a pandemic. And afterwards, when we get out of it, she goes you're not gonna want to have people there. You're going to want to go out because we've been home for so long. And she was like use your space the way you want to use your space. So I've redone the room down here. I've added more furniture, I moved stuff around. And I'm making this work as the sewing room, and I only sew and cut here. My pressing tools are here because my ironing board is downstairs, I iron in the hallway. You know the thread, the pressing tools, new fabric that I buy, I have on a shelf. And new projects are on a shelf. And then everything else, all that other stuff I own is upstairs. And it really makes it light and airy. Nothing's cluttered. I don't feel like my mind is all jumbled up. Because as much as I loved the cave, at the end, it had way too much stuff in it. I could barely move around in it. My daughter's boyfriend came downstairs and was like, had a fit of OCD like, oh my God, how do you sit in this space. It's like just too crowded, too junky. I had been sitting in it for so long, I didn't realize. And so this is better. And I can do what I want, so I did what I wanted.
Lisa Woolfork 15:30
I'm loving to hear you describe the sewing cave, which you loved and which you grew into, and which fits you very comfortably. But also hearing the way you talk about this space, and that both of them have something that's appealing. Both of these spaces have something that reflect things that are essential about you, and where you are in life right now. And that creativity will always be an important part of that. When you talk about the current lightness of your current sewing space, what do you attribute that to? Is it because you have a big window with a lot of natural light coming in? Is it because you removed things that are more resource based out of the space so that it's more streamlined? What accounts for how you describe this new space as bringing you a sense of comfort that maybe you didn't have in the previous one?
Carolyn Norman 16:21
I would say it's a combination of both. One is the light. I am a person that likes a lot of light. I have a really hard time, January, February, and March when it's like dark all the damn time. I have a really difficult time. And it didn't help in the middle of a pandemic when you couldn't go anywhere. That really made it bad. So I like a lot of light, so we should start with the light. The light has definitely helped. I love that I can open the window and light just floods in. And the second thing is the lightness of space. The fact that everything isn't cluttered in, everything isn't laying on top of each other. It's not all shoved up underneath. Up underneath my tables now is nothing, just my legs. [Laughter]. Which is lovely.
Lisa Woolfork 17:04
Like what is this? It's just my feet down here!
Carolyn Norman 17:07
And some cords, that's it. [Laughter]. Whereas before, there was loads of plastic storage under every table to make use of every piece of space I had in the sewing cave. And then upstairs, as soon as those last seven bins are removed, it is light and airy. It's resource based. Like if I want to go upstairs and pull a pattern, and pull some fabric, and pull some trim and play around with it, I have a table, I have a chair to sit at. I can separate out the two things. Like one, I can be really creative up there, and then I can actually create down here.
Lisa Woolfork 17:47
It's kind of like the difference between a lab and a library. The downstairs is like the lab because you're sewing and you're doing the work of construction. And then the library is where you're doing the research and the planning, and the dream kinda.
Carolyn Norman 18:01
But my books aren't up there.
Lisa Woolfork 18:03
Okay, so where do you keep your books?
Carolyn Norman 18:05
In the hallway. [Laughter]. It's the coolest thing. I bought some more shelving, like the shelving that's upstairs that's holding the fabric. My hallways are really big, and it's not like it's obstructing anything. It's not like it makes it too hard to get through. Two or three little kids can run through still with the bookcases. And I moved all my books downstairs. So I have bookcases in my hallway that hold pattern magazines, that hold all my sewing stuff. And it even holds my fictional books.
Lisa Woolfork 18:36
Oh, right. And so your larger library collection has all of that available, and you can access it pretty easily. I still love the idea like you being able to go up there, sit in a chair, pull a pattern, and browse. You can browse through the stuff you have.
Carolyn Norman 18:51
Yes, you can make decisions. When I was in the sewing cave, I had to move everything around to make decisions. Or I'd have to think it all out in my head before I got to the sewing cave, and then look for stuff. But even then, pulling stuff to look for stuff was a huge thing. I had to move stuff around, I had to – that's all gone now. There's gonna be a table and then all the fabric is all lined and folded and put away nicely. And then the patterns you saw – I posted in my [IG] stories that I bought filing cabinets and they're all filed neatly so I can go into the filing cabinets. It's amazing.
Lisa Woolfork 19:30
Black Women Stitch and the Stitch Please podcast are happy to announce that we have another way to connect with our community. In addition to the IG Live's that we do every Thursday at 3:00 p.m., we also now have a club on Clubhouse. That's right friends, they done messed up and given me the chance to have a club. [Applause]. Follow Black Women Stitch on Instagram, and now on Clubhouse. Thursdays at 3:00 p.m. on Instagram, and 3:45 p.m. on Clubhouse, EST. And we'll help you get your stitch together.
I am so excited about this sense of happiness in your voice about this. [Laughter]. And I'm not sure if I'm just hearing like relief because you are out of one space, and that whole moving part is all done. Or do you believe these two new spaces have opened up creativity for you, maybe in a different way than you were used to for the last 10 years?
Carolyn Norman 20:32
No, it's relief. I feel like I was more creative before I moved. But I'm sure some of the lessening of creativity has to do to the pandemic. We were shut down too long, we really were. And the world is just starting to open back up, and even now, I'm a little concerned with this new Delta variant. So I'm just trying to do the best I can. Also, when you move, you figure out how much clothing you have.
Lisa Woolfork 20:58
Now has the move – I know that folks say that a move will help you rearrange your priorities. It'll help you say, oh, I don't really need this, or I moved this three more times, and I never used it. Or has it just been the reflection you just made about how many clothes you have. Has anything about your sewing philosophy or acquisition philosophy changed since you've moved?
Carolyn Norman 21:23
Yes. I don't buy nearly as much fabric as I used to. Before I was keeping count on the blog. If you read the blog, I would do the yearly, I would do the monthly, I would do the quarterly. No, we don't have to do that no more. You know why? Because Carolyn don't buy a lot of fabric, because Carolyn had to unpack, refold and put some place every piece of fabric she had. And even before I moved it, I sent some boxes of fabric away to people. It wasn't like I moved every piece of fabric I had. But girl, when I found those five boxes in the garage that had coating fabrics in them, I wanted to cry. I was like, what am I gonna do with this? Let me tell you, I am going to Fabric Mart in August, and I'm dreading it, because I just can't bring a lot of crap here. But what ends up happening is I go with a bunch of my friends, they all go crazy buying fabric. If I don't buy some of it with them, then I have all this major regret later. So I don't know what I'm gonna do. But I have space to store it, I do have space to store it.
Lisa Woolfork 22:27
Something that I started doing, and I think I did this on my last trip – my first and last. I've only been once and I had a great time. I brought – you know me, I love swatch cards. So I created those swatch cards and I bring the swatch cards with me when I'm acquiring fabric. And if I can't think of something I'm gonna make with that piece, I don't get it.
Carolyn Norman 22:46
I don't need your swatch cards, that's my rule, too. [Laughter]. If I can't think of something I can make with it, if it's just a pretty piece, it stays. But it's amazing how many things you can think of to make with stuff. It's just amazing. All of a sudden those wheels start turning. You could do this, and you could do that. And you get it home, and it stays for three or four or five years.
Lisa Woolfork 23:05
That's why I had to have my cards, cuz it was like, oh, I was gonna make Ben a shirt out of this. Or, I was gonna make one of my youngest babies a shirt out of this, and now he's 22-years-old.
Carolyn Norman 23:13
Okay, when I've seen your swatch card ring, it ain't small. I know it's not small. So you have a lot of fabric. [Laughter].
Lisa Woolfork 23:21
I have more than one ring, Carolyn. There's like 30 rings. I got a ton of drawers and each drawer is numbered. Soon, I'm gonna cut down my swatch cards because someone gave me an actual card catalog, like a tabletop one. And I'm going to trim my cards to the size of the card catalog, so I can put them in there and flip through them like old-school back in the day library. Because I'm also a nerd.
Carolyn Norman 23:46
The most interesting thing about your sewing room to me is how everything is labeled and numbered. If I did that, it would drive me crazy. Seeing all those names and things. No, I couldn't do that.
Lisa Woolfork 23:57
I have to have it. I'm just the opposite. I need to know where it is, and how much I have. I don't want to guess, I don't want to get my mind– it's kind of like when you get your mouth all fixed for the last piece of chocolate cake, and you go in there and a kid is eating it. That's what it's like – [Carolyn: haven't had that problem in years]. If you can remember, it sucks. So I go and I grab a pattern and I'm like, oh, I can make this, this is so exciting. And I get the piece down and I lay it out, and it's just like, ah!
Carolyn Norman 24:23
In my resource center, I can grab a pin, I can stack my fabrics, I can go through, and then since it's just the resource center, I can put it back on the shelf when I'm done, because it does not mess with my cutting or sewing ability.
Lisa Woolfork 24:37
That is really great. Yes, it is really great to divide those two things out separately so that nothing interrupts the flow. I think that's great. I think that's very smart. Yeah, I think that's super smart, and I'm so glad it's working out. So let me ask you, you called your most recent sewing space, you call it the sewing cave. Do you have a name? Before you had the sewing loft, and then the loft was, you know, no longer– now that's the resource center. What are you calling the space you have right now? Do you have a name for that?
Carolyn Norman 25:12
The sewing room. I have a sewing room and I have a resource center.
Lisa Woolfork 25:21
Oh my God. Such a badass. See why I had to talk to you, see?
Carolyn Norman 25:24
People might think we're just obsessed, Lisa. They might not think that it's badass.
Lisa Woolfork 25:29
I don't think anybody listening to this podcast thinks this is an obsession. I think everyone who listens to this podcast thinks this is a great idea, and they want to do something similar because it's an amazing idea.
Carolyn Norman 25:38
Okay, but I have to tell you, I have been on some sewing boards with some women that like design their own houses. And they designed fabric rooms. Temperature controlled fabric rooms, where the shelves pull down a certain way. And you – girl please, I want that kind of money.
Lisa Woolfork 26:00
Wow, that's what I'm saying. I was like, well, I work at a university and not for a drug cartel. So I don't have enough money [laughter] to get those shelves that work like that. Because they’re not paying me money to have built-in shelves that pull down, or I can like put my eye up to the door and it scans it and opens it up for me.
Carolyn Norman 26:19
Fabric rooms. I have watched like three or four people build these houses. And one woman built a suite, and it has this fabric room and she had a collection way bigger than mine. And the room was temperature controlled. And then she had a huge sewing room, and off her sewing room she had a balcony.
Lisa Woolfork 26:39
Oh, for goodness sake. Wow.
Carolyn Norman 26:42
Imagine? And then your own bathroom in the suite. And I've always wanted one of those where you have the bathroom, and then you have the little kitchenette. I wouldn't have to go downstairs for Mountain Dew.
Lisa Woolfork 26:54
One of my kids came down here, and they were like, oh mom you know I'm not using my little refrigerator – because both of my boys graduated this year. One from college, one from high school. So the college one brought his little fridge home. And he was like mom, you could put your little fridge in the sewing room. I'm like no, I can't put it in there. Because if I put a little fridge in there, then I'll get a microwave. And then if I get the microwave, then I'll get a coffee maker to go on top. And then I will never see any of you all again. I will absolutely live here. So we shall not be building– we shall not be putting any refrigerators.
Carolyn Norman 27:28
Yeah, but I've always thought that'd be cool to have your own suite with your bathroom and your kitchenette. And then, you know you only go downstairs to sleep or –
Lisa Woolfork 27:38
Yeah, it's like you're setting yourself and your house becomes like a retreat.
Carolyn Norman 27:42
Right? Like that would be like the ultimate for me.
Lisa Woolfork 27:44
I think that you also have something right now that is pretty fantastic. [Carolyn: yeah, it's good, it really is good]. Notwithstanding the people who have the Beyoncé money and the drug cartel money and Bill Gates money and whatever. We know, for regular-degular people who have regular-degular incomes, I think you're doing amazing. [Carolyn: Thank you]. And it's so exciting. It's so exciting to watch. And I love that most recent blog post, talking about the space and about your transitions. And you know, getting everything together, and having to build all this furniture? You're so good at so many things, but not furniture building?
Carolyn Norman 28:22
I don't build furniture. So I'm always looking for someone to build. So my initial build, like I said was Galen and her husband came and he built everything for me. My TV stands, my tables, he built everything. And then the bookcase that came in today, my daughter built. They built the filing cabinets. My kids came one Sunday and built the filing cabinets for me. I build nothing. It is the one thing I miss about my ex-husband. [Lisa: And look, you still got it taken care of]. There was like four or five things I miss, but that hit the top of the list.
Lisa Woolfork 28:56
If you could give someone who is just starting out, a new person who is starting out at the very beginning of their sewing time, building a sewing space. Who's still sewing like at the kitchen table when there's not meals being served. What [advice] would you give as they are starting to imagine a space for themselves? Because you've had several over the course of your career, do you have any ideas or any tips you might ask someone when they're just getting started to wanting their own space or building their own space?
Carolyn Norman 29:25
Okay, so when I sewed, I had a sewing machine in my bedroom as a teenager or a college student. I did have a sewing machine. And I had to cut out on the dining room table, like everybody else. I didn't sew on the dining room table because I'm old enough to have one of those sewing machines that came with a table that dropped in and so you had the long table to sew on. So that stayed in my bedroom. But I would say, invest in a good pair of shelves and nice storage baskets. And then make sure that you store all of your things in this shelf so that it's attractive, it's easy to get to, it's not hard. I know you have limited space, and you'll only be able to buy so much, but at least it will be accessible. It'll be easy, and you won't feel like it's cluttering everything up. Storage is huge to me, I'm really a fan of storage and making sure you have enough of it so stuff doesn't overwhelm you. And that plastic stuff – you can buy the plastic stuff at the Dollar Store. So it's not like it has to be expensive. You can get a $35 shelf from Target, or the bigger steel shelves from like Home Depot for like $50. And then buy Dollar Store storage buckets and stuff to store your stuff in. And then the other thing I would tell you is invest in good thread. Invest in a good pair of scissors, and then make sure that you're using the best quality interfacing and fabric you can purchase.
Lisa Woolfork 30:58
I agree. Those are wonderful, wonderful tips. Can you share with us what you have coming up next? Do you have anything that you're excited on that you're working on? Anything you're sewing these days? Your 41st shirt, maybe?
Carolyn Norman 31:10
I'm not making any more shirts anytime soon.
Lisa Woolfork 31:12
Okay, we have it on tape folks.
Carolyn Norman 31:14
I ain't even worried about it because [laughter] Fourth of July weekend is coming up, and I have my stuff set aside to cut. I'm gonna cut that weekend. So I'm not – there ain't a shirt in the bunch. It's all dresses, because it's hot.
Lisa Woolfork 31:29
It's unseasonably hot. I was talking to someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest. 115 degrees.
Carolyn Norman 31:39
I can't even imagine, because they ain't got no air conditioners.
Lisa Woolfork 31:43
In the Pacific Northwest, I'm like are the salmon boiling in the sea? Like what is happening? It's a mess. So summer dresses, yes.
Carolyn Norman 31:52
Summer dresses. So it's summer dress time, and it'll be summer dress time until October. You know, I wear a dress through to October. The thing I'm looking forward to starting most, and it's just formulating in my mind right now, as I'm going to a wedding Labor Day weekend. And I want a fantabulous gown, and I have the makings of it in my mind. And so I will probably be working on that for most of August. And so I want – you know like how I made the fairytale dresses for the girls. I don't want a fairytale dress. I want a grown-up, you know mature sexy woman dress, but–
Lisa Woolfork 32:32
Look at me, I am excited like you're making it for me. Like I am really excited to see you in this dress. I really am like, I hope she blogs about every step.
Carolyn Norman 32:43
Yeah you know I'm gonna blog about every step, because I like being able to have it to go back to look at. I tell people all the time that you're sharing my diary. And I blog the steps so when I make a shirt and I forget where I was, I can go back and look at it on my blog. So yeah, it's a way I keep track of everything. And then I just throw some pretty pictures in there because y'all know imma take them on the dress forum, which is what I did today. And 90 degree heat. And let me tell you something, my glasses were sliding off my face, I was sweating so much [laughter]. So yeah, I was supposed to take three things. We only did two. I couldn't manage more than two. Ya'll might see that last thing on the dress forum. I just, I can't. That's my fantasy project.
Lisa Woolfork 33:32
I'm excited. I cannot wait to see you bring your fantasy to reality. I am so delighted and happy for you that you have landed in a sewing space– you have like sewing spaces. You got the resource center, you got the sewing room, you've got the hall of amazing books and library. Like, you're a franchise. [Laughter].
Carolyn Norman 33:55
My first priority is always my sewing space. When I look for some place to live, it's, where is my sewing space going? It was even the question when I got married. Where's my sewing space going? And if there wasn't an adequate space for my sewing space, next.
Lisa Woolfork 34:13
And now you have something that's way more than adequate. I am so happy that you are happy. And congratulations. This has been wonderful, Carolyn, thank you so much again. I'm so grateful to you.
Carolyn Norman 34:25
No problem. Like I said I'd do anything for you Lisa.
Lisa Woolfork 34:39
You've been listening to the Stitch Please podcast, the official podcast of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. We appreciate you supporting us by listening to the podcast. If you'd like to reach out to us with questions, you can contact us at blackwomenstitch@gmail.com. If you'd like to support us financially, you can do that by supporting us on Patreon. P a t r e o n. And you can find Black Women Stitch there in the Patreon directory. And for as little as $2 a month, you can help support the project with things like editing, transcripts, and other things to strengthen the podcast. And finally, if financial support is not something you can do right now, you can really help the podcast by rating it and reviewing it anywhere you listen to podcasts that allows you to review them. So I know that not all podcast directories or services allow for reviews. But for those who do, for those that have like a star rating, or just ask for a few comments, if you could share those comments and say nice things about us at the Stitch Please podcast, that is incredibly helpful. Thank you so much, come back next week, and we'll help you get your stitch together.