Sewing - I forgot how much I enjoyed it.

My journey towards feeling better is finding ways to deal with the "icky" side effects of the anti-depressant.  Since I have been through this before, I know that these side effects will subside as my body adjusts to receiving the medication.  In the meantime, it is important for me to find things to do that bring me joy and keep the acute anxiety at bay.

As a side note, the side effects of acute anxiety and panic attacks are worse than the anxiety I was feeling when I chose to go on an anti-depressant.  So, why go through this?  Because I was uncomfortable living with the minor anxiety situations that I would blow out of proportion and find unable to move on.  I know that I have to walk through the fire before I feel the sunshine and it will be worth it.  

In the past week I have often thought about how a person would be able to deal with the side effects if they were alone and had no support system.  Thankfully if I need to reach out to someone on the telephone during the day, I can do that.  

In the midst of all of this I have been sewing.  The college girls that were living with us moved out in December and are back to living on campus.  So the room that used to be their room has once again been turned into a den.  This was our oldest son's bedroom when he was living with us.  The large closet in the room has been housing all of our coats and outerwear since we don't have a separate closet in our entryway for this purpose.  When the girls moved in my husband installed a metal bar in the basement to house all of our outerwear.  We have liked this arrangement so I decided to leave the coats in the basement and use this large closet for something that only a seamstress would enjoy.  

This is my sewing dream:  an entire closet dedicated to fabric, patterns and sewing notions.  I have been working on this this week as there is nothing better than re-directing anxiety into something useful.  It is a work in progress as I am not going to go out and buy a bunch of plastic bins until I know I need them.  I already had my fabric stored in plastic drawers and such and I am still using them.  

My sewing machine is set up on a typewriter table that has wheels on it and I can push it against a wall when not in use and then pull it away from the wall when I am ready to sew.  I had my husband and sons move the love seat from the living room into the den (had too much furniture in the living room anyway) and we have an old large entertainment center that we moved from the basement into that room.  I have a t.v. to watch or listen to while sewing, which can be nice company.  On that entertainment center there are several shelves (it stands about 5 1/2 feet high).  I have some fabric bins and am putting them on these shelves to put items into for storage.  I like these as you can't see through them, but there is room on the front to slide in a label to note what is in the bin.  

This room is located on the southwest corner of our house and it gets lots of sunshine in the afternoon which is a big plus.  

This week I have been concentrating on making flannel receiving blankets for my grand baby.  I purchased 1 1/2 length yards of fabric (44/45 inches in width).  This ends up making a nice square.  I have been sewing two pieces together, turning them inside out and top stitching a decorative stitch around the edge.  If you go and purchase a receiving blanket at a store, you will be greatly disappointed in the quality and size.  The size that I am making these will be plenty big to swaddle a baby.  

I have also been making burp clothes out of remnants of flannel that I have found on sale at a fabric store.  These are the bone shaped size burp cloths.

I will post pictures later of the room and the burp cloths and receiving blankets.