(peaceful piano music) (pencil scraping) - This is the relative
two-scale floor plan of my apartment. I have gone ahead and I have mocked up some little squares of things. So this is obviously Cesario, this is my desk, and it's to scale. And then this is the
potential cutting table that I would like to put into this room. As you can see, it is
65 inches by 65 inches, which is usually a bolt of
fabric is 60 inches wide. So this should be plenty of space for cutting out large items. This thing here is a Murphy bed, so this has to be able to pull out and have enough space
on the floor if need be, which means either any
furniture that I put here will need to be mobile
on wheels or foldable. Or will not interfere
with this area in general, so as you can see I have
put a little dashed line of to-scale where that bed would pull out. Just so that I know, look I
can see that a cutting table will fit just perfectly. So I don't actually have
to have a cutting table that's on wheels or folds, which has been the one thing
that has been preventing me from building a cutting
table in the first place. I thought it would have to be
some crazy engineered thing, but it will actually
fit if I move the sofa. Because I don't know if you know, I have a sofa right here against the wall. So with that, it comes out to about here and the cutting table just wouldn't work. Now it will.
(playful piano music) Well friends, it is the end of an era. Perhaps everything in my footage won't look so terribly green all the time now that I don't have
this giant green piece of furniture with the green roof outside and all the green buildings reflecting in. As you can see, I have a
lot of sweeping to do now but the sofa is now moved into my bedroom, probably where it belongs. So now I have space for
a giant cutting table to go in here! Obviously all of this
stuff will have to move. I have Cesario's pig
stuff that should probably go in a cabinet and not,
you know, sit out like this. Muslin stuff that I should actually find places for.
(paper graphic crinkling) Well, it has been a few days. This is what the situation
looks like thus far. We now officially have
pretty much no furniture. Well, we didn't have
furniture to begin with, but lots of stuff all over the floor. As you can see, I have
most finally gotten around to finally figuring out how
this witchcraft television thing unscrews from the wall. It was, well it was bolted to the wall. I could never figure
out how to get it down. I didn't understand how the thing worked, but at long last I have figured out how to remove this bit of witchcraft. And nothing really of
interest has happened so far. I have just placed a bunch
of orders for stuff online. I have found a lovely bookshelf, which I am super excited
to put right here. It has a library ladder,
which I am so excited about! I have literally always dreamed of having one of those things. I have also placed an order for a rug, which is supposed to come tomorrow. It is sort of black and
cream and swirly Victorian. I know, I wanted to get a red rug and I did find one that looked beautiful and I came very close to getting it, but then I figured that the black and tan would probably look better
with this monstrosity thing that I don't think is going to look vaguely antique
or period anytime ever. I should also show you,
I made a little trip up to HomeGoods a few days ago,
and I found a cabbage patch as Noelle so affectionately calls it. Basically it's just a large basket that will live in this corner over here, and will hold cabbage. It is certainly much
nicer than a plastic bag that usually hangs on a knob somewhere. But it's also nice to be
able to see all of my cabbage in such a nice open situation, because then I know what I have and also I can see how
much cabbage there is and how much cabbage I need to use. This was actually quite an
interesting project to engage in because it was like,
it was like archeology dumping out all of my old
bags of cabbage, and seeing, oh look, here's a bit of the
18th century modern dress, and of course there's Lady Sherlock and there's Red Death and here's
that cape I made in a day, and oh look, it's some
15th century medieval gown. It's really cool to just see this whole, oh my god, look, it's all
the hemming that I cut off of my combinations so grievously at the beginning of the year. Anyway, yeah, it's just a
little trip down memory lane, I suppose, in the cabbage patch. As you can see, my cabbage
patch is already full and the sewing room is not even set up. So I will have to come
up with some clever ways to start using some cabbage
because this is a problem. But anyway, basically
what I'm waiting for now is I am waiting for this rug to arrive because once the rug arrives then I can get started
on the cutting table because that obviously will be very heavy and I won't be moving that
to put a rug down underneath. I think the rug is quite big. I think it should fill most of this room, if not a good portion of it. Anyway, I just don't want
to risk having the rug have to run into the cutting table and have to move that
because that won't be fun. The rug is supposed to come tomorrow, and then the next day,
Thursday, I'm, I think I'm going to make a little trip out to IKEA which, for New Yorkers you
will know, involves a boat. So we shall have a little IKEA adventure, and I think my plan is
I'm going to do the thing that I have seen other people doing of buying some cabinet stands and then balancing some
countertops on top of that. So we shall see how that goes. I'm sure there are specialists there who will be able to help
me with this nonsense. So that will be an adventure to come. (peaceful orchestra music) All right friends, here
is our rug situation. You no longer have to stare
at this ugly hardwood floor as I am working on
projects, which, trust me, I am just as thrilled as you are because I don't have to stare at this in 9,000 hours of editing every week. So I am quite thrilled with this rug. It is very #onbrand,
very granny Victorian. Oh, it needs a little bit of unrolling, which is why I have thankfully no shortage of, heh, books that
will solve this problem. Now that we have the rug in place, and we have the layout
of the room in place, tomorrow my task is going
to be to head off to IKEA so that we can get the cutting
table situation in place. Do you approve? (Cesario purring) (distant piggie squeaks) (Cesario clucking) Good morning! So I am about to head
out to IKEA this morning. There are a couple of
things that I feel like I should address in this video. Basically everything that was not gone to and purchased at a place in New York City was found online literally by me typing in Victorian anything. Victorian is like my key word. So if you are looking
for tips on how to find aesthetic furniture, find a good key word that you feel works with your aesthetic. So I would just put into Google, like, "Victorian rug," and Victorian's great because it's not really a technical term as all of us probably know
if we work in dress history. It tends to bring up a
lot more reproduction, Victorian-inspired, Victorian-themed,
Victorian aesthetic, not so much actual Victorian. I have come to the
realization that building a nice sewing room or, like,
furnishing your dream house in general is very much like building the perfect aesthetic personal historical, or not historical, wardrobe in that it's something
that has to be accumulated and collected and crafted
over a long period of time. You cannot just go out and expect to spend an affordable amount of money on all of the most perfect
and well-crafted things that you can possibly dream of. These are things that are curated and collected throughout your lifetime. As you come across them, as
you come across well-made, beautiful pieces that mean a lot to you that are expensive, you
don't buy them all at once because that's just not possible. I personally find no pride, really, in exclaiming about how cheap
this unethically-produced and poorly-crafted item of thing
that I purchased online is. I have obviously been putting money away to do this sewing room
for a couple of months, so I do have a little bit of a budget. Obviously I don't have
the budget to do, like, proper antiques and,
like proper real sturdy last you five lifetimes furniture, but I am doing the best that I can to invest in things that
I know will last me awhile that I can use for awhile
and that also look nice. So that is my goal, so yes, maybe sometime in the distant future
if I live to an old age, I will have a beautiful
collection of antique stuff that I will have spent, you know, the thousands of dollars
that they are worth over a substantial period of time and not, you know, obviously
I cannot do that right now. So that is my life
philosophy on sewing rooms and historical wardrobes, unexpectedly. And so with that being
said, I am now about to go head off to go find
myself a cutting table! (majestic orchestra music) This is my aesthetic, right here. (playful music) See, one thing that I have
to think about in particular is to find a countertop
that looks nice on camera. This wood is going to be
probably a bit too busy and too distracting to be the
background of my shots, right? Ok, stealth vlogging now
because there are lots of humans around and
I feel self-conscious. But, ok, so what the deal
is, is that apparently I cannot do cabinets
because those have to be, like, bolted into the
floor and involve, like, a contractor and stuff which scares me. However, what the woman
suggests is that I do a dresser. And I can find a dresser
that is about waist height. You want them to be about waist height so that you don't have to bend over stuff. And then put two countertops
on top of the dresser. So I am now in search of a dresser that is the right length
to fit the countertop, the right width to fit the countertop, and the right height for standing height, as well as an appeasing color. So, let's go see what we can find. So I was like, "Oh,
this dresser's perfect. "The black goes with
the furniture, I guess, "and I will put the wood
countertop on top of it." I know, I guess that maybe there's a thing about brown wood going with
black wood and not looking right but you know what, I'm
not sure I really care. Anyway, I looked at the
name of this dresser here. This just so happens to
be the name of the dresser that Cathy used in her own sewing room. She was texting me before I left. She's like, "You know, this is the brand, "this is the style that I have." So, well, I guess I came to this anyway, but then again we are the same person, so. This will be lovely
(drawer slides) because it's got plenty of drawer space. It's a bit under this way
to fit the countertop, which is fine 'cause then I'll have a little bit of overhang. It's also a little bit under here. I'll put two of them side by
side with two countertops. So I think this is what I'm going to do. Cathy of course has it in
white which is over there, but the white won't really
go with my apartment. The black will, I think, though, so I think this what we're going to do. (bright cheerful music) So I am back from IKEA now. Those things will take a week to deliver, so I have a week of this. I also, whilst I was there, you know, whilst they funnel you
through to the check out area through beautiful pretty
lighting and home decor things, I may or may not have picked up four boxes of 10-meter fairy lights because I am #basicmillennialtrash. I also, of course, stole a
lot of IKEA tape measures as one of my lovely teachers mentors is very fond of these things
because they are very useful when working with extant garments because you can fold
them, you can cut them, you can, you know, these are very delicate and they're not like the
heavy dirty plastic ones that just be more cumbersome to use. So I now have a lovely collection of these paper IKEA tape measures which I am very excited about! Also, when I got home,
this was waiting for me. This is the slidey library ladder thing that goes with the bookshelf
which hasn't arrived yet. This is actually a lot earlier than I expected this to arrive. So I'm not sure why this came so quickly, but I now have a slidey library ladder, and I am going to unbox
this and get this box out of this place because
this box is bulky! And then hopefully soon,
we shall have a bookshelf. (peaceful music) Well friends, it is the next day and the bookshelf has arrived! Somehow all of this is going to turn into the slidey ladder bookshelf of my dreams. I am not entirely quite
sure how yet, but it will. Here is the bookshelf so far. As you can see there, there's, there's a little thing happening here. This little bit of shelf
piece decided to split all the way down, which
is entirely my fault. Well, not really my fault
because I did read the website and on the reviews, like pretty
much half the people said, "Oh, it arrived, and the wood was split," but I ordered it anyway because, I mean, you know what, who doesn't
want a slidey ladder bookshelf! This was kind of to be expected. It's not, like structurally integral. I tried putting some glue
into the crack and taping it, but it actually physically does not want to go together at all. I don't think it's going
to bother me hugely as long as it stays up. So now I am about to go
start putting this together. I have some instructions here. I must just now presently take a moment to acknowledge all of you
beginner seamstresses out there who may open a commercial pattern, look at the instructions and go, "Oh my god, what am I looking at," because I feel you right now. (peaceful piano music) Ok, so pro tip for people who are small and crippled and weak like me. Ok, maybe this won't work for everybody, but I think I have found a solution of how to set this
upright with intelligence instead of brute strength. So what I have been doing
is I have been lifting it ever so slightly onto
slightly higher surfaces so that eventually all I will have to do is just push it straight
upright against the wall. So, we shall see how this continues to go. Oh my god, I did it. I moved the giant bookshelf all by my merry, weak, small, crippled self. This is the happiest day of my life. And now shelves, if I don't lay down and cease to be able to move
for a couple of days. (laughs) Alright friends, now books! Well, not now, probably tomorrow because right now I need to go lie down! Just kidding, so when
I brought up the parcel for the bookshelf, I
forgot that I actually had two parcels from Amazon. And I'm actually going to open these right this very merry second. These actually contain a
lot of new equipment stuff. I actually have no clue
what's in these boxes. I placed this order at like
11 o'clock the other night, so I have no clue what I ordered here but I did drag the file into
my 2019 Business Expense email folder which means
that I approved everything that's here as being a business expense and therefore probably
relevant to this video. So, let us go ahead and see what's inside these magical boxes. No, why are we filming from
this direction, hold on. Um yes, we have a proper backdrop now although it hasn't got any books on it, so.
(Scissors of Destiny unsheathing) I got a real proper gravity feed iron. Oh wait, but aren't your
ceilings like 9,000 feet tall? Wherever are you going to hang this? Well, my friends, I have
come up with a solution and this box might be it or it might not. In which case I will hold off to show you the actual final set up. But I am quite illogically
proud of the situation that I have come up with. (scissors slicing)
(paper crinkling) Ah, I got a sleeveboard. I have never actually owned one of these, which has made my life supremely miserable but now my life will cease
being supremely miserable because I now have a sleeveboard. This, friends, if you do not know, is to shove a sleeve into or over top of so that when you press
them, they don't end up with creases down them
because that's really not fun. I was quite determined to up
my pressing game this year, so I think, you know, in the
final quarter of the year we are now finally achieving that goal. This is a softbox light. Now I can actually film
stuff when it's not daylight. I can continue filming
stuff into the wee hours, which will be hugely beneficial for me especially as winter is coming, as they say in certain parts of this universe.
(box thudding) I have sort of
(packaging thudding) taken the initiative to also upgrade my filming set up whilst I am upgrading my sewing set up because you know, if I just
lump all of the expenses, into one pile, maybe it
will seem less daunting. That's not true. We're going legit, folks. (paper graphic crinkling)
Good morning, it is the next day, uhhm... things are still in a situation here. However, I have three new parcels here that we are going to open. So before we do that, I would just like to give a little shout-out to Amazon for sending this entire box (paper crinkling) for one single yardstick. Well done, friends, well done. (bright cheerful music) Ok, so I haven't exactly
finished the bookshelves yet. This is where we are at with this so far. I got a notification that I
had another parcel downstairs for me, so I ran downstairs to get, well, several of those. Here is our iron situation, friends. It is an IV pole. I have, I had to buy a
separate tray attachment for it for personal belongings,
which incidentally, was way more expensive,
like triple the price of the actual IV pole for some reason because you have to buy the
tray and the clamp separately. Anyway, so that is still on its way but when this is complete, this will have a wonderful
suspension apparatus for the water apparatus thing, and will also have a tray
attachment to hold the actual iron and then this can just
roll around the room wherever it needs to be
at the present moment because New York City
apartments, as you can see, space is at a premium. The other thing I discovered is, ok, so in my high school teenage
steampunk-Tim-Burton-Trash phase, I had this top
hat that was a clock. It has since been long
defunct and out of order and without batteries slash
I thought completely corroded on the inside from old battery acid. Clearly I have gotten it working again, and I am so excited about this. I'm not actually going
to wear this as a hat. Now that I have more space
on these bookshelves, I may clear a space and put
it, well, on the shelf above but I just have space here right now. Put it on a shelf so that
I actually have a clock in this part of the room, because presently I do not have a clock in this part of the room so
when I'm sewing over here, I have no clue what time it is. So this will be a wonderful
addition to the sewing room in my own personal opinion. This needs to reflect the correct time, and then, yeah, I'm very
thrilled about this! And yes, in case you were wondering, I did use to wear this in everyday life. I did use to have people come up to me after, say, a test or an exam saying, "Thank you, I was looking at
your hat to tell the time." So in case you had any doubts,
no, I have not in fact ever been a normal society-abiding
conforming citizen because clock hats. (bright majestic music)
(ivy scrunching) (boxes thudding) Good morning from the empty room that will be empty not very
much longer because today is the day of the grand
cutting table delivery. It is Thursday, it is the day that I have long awaited in my life. Hold on, my battery's
flashing, one second. So this is the next to the last step in this whole process. I still have one more
furniture delivery on its way. It was scheduled to come today, but I haven't heard from the company. So I'm not sure if it's
still coming today. But anyway, that will
hopefully arrive soon. That's just a little
desk for the Etsy stuff that will sit in that corner,
as well as some lamps. So like small incidental necessary things. So it's about 10, it's half
past 10 in the morning, and the delivery is scheduled
for between 12 and 4:00 p.m. Herein lies the challenge
in that I am supposed to be a guest speaker on this month's Foundations Revealed live workshop. We're talking about
photography for social media, and so Cathy's asked me to be on the call which is really cool, and I'm gonna talk about
taking nice pictures, and taking nice pictures of
yourself whilst you live alone, which is an art form in
and of itself, I guess. So that starts at four. So this delivery cannot arrive at 3:58, and it of course cannot
arrive at 4:10 or five o'clock because that will not do. I have not planned for such
an event if that is the case. We shall cross that
bridge when we come to it, but for now, I shall sit
here hoping and praying and waiting for it to
come on time slash early, and then I will probably be
sitting on a lot of boxes during the call. In the meanwhile, in the few
days that have lapsed since, this A2 poster frame has
arrived at my doorstep, slash in my post room. This is The Staymaker's Tale poster which if you do not know this
is the little graphic novel that Jenny Tiramani from the
School of Historical Dress wrote last year and I illustrated. So she sent me this literally last year, and it's been sitting in a
rolled-up tube for a year, and I've now just finally
invested in an A2 frame because, you know, those A
sizes don't exist in America so I had to special order it and then I ordered the wrong size. And of course these come from overseas, so it takes awhile to ship. But it is here, it looks
decent, it is functional. And my poster is now framed,
I'm very excited about this! It tells the story of the making of a pair of 18th century stays, if you do not know. And this is going on my wall. It will be a wonderful reminder of, well, of the school and of
Jenny of all my colleagues back in England and of the
wonders of historical dress. So, she's actually just
finally listed these on the School of Historical Dress website, which I shall put a link to down below if you would like a
poster copy for yourself. Friends, we are saved. It is half past three and IKEA are here. They are bringing the stuff
up to me, which is wonderful. And it looks like all
will be nice and sorted before the call in half an
hour, well 15 minutes for me, 'cause get there early and stuff. Good morning, it is Friday
morning, it is the following day. As you can see, last night after the call, I went ahead and unpacked
all of these boxes. It was very dark in here obviously because I have no lights
presently so I did not film that. But everything is now laid out in pieces. There are two dressers
here that will eventually form the legs, I suppose,
to the cutting table. The actual countertops are
in these boxes back here. I did not unpack those because, well, first of all they're mega heavy. Well, yeah that is the reason,
there's no second of all. Anyway, so I shall now be spending the day putting together some of
this furniture business as well as hopefully wrestling
these countertops into place. Most wisely, I have decided to do this right where I'm going to
need the actual thing to be. So this was not wise. I guess let's build some
cutting tables somehow. (peaceful and majestic orchestra music) Ok, so dresser number
one is all put together. I haven't yet decided. My initial plan was to do the stupid thing of having them both go lengthwise because I didn't think
there would be enough room for it to come out and still
have room for the Murphy bed. There will be enough room
to have them come out. The downside to have them facing that way would be that the dresser facing that way, I would not be able to
access the drawers for. Or if I had them face inwards this way, I'd have to move half the
table to access those drawers which isn't ideal, but if I
can have them come out this way I can access the drawers on both sides, which would be really awesome. Well, I have to configure this once I have the second dresser because I still have to have
the countertops going this way because lengthwise they're too long. I think they're like 73 inches, maybe. So that would not work. So I'd have to have the
counters going this way and the dressers going that way. The downside to that,
is that I think in order to have the counters fit,
I have to set the dressers apart enough that this is going to happen. But I'm not going to have very much space between the bookshelf
and the cutting table. So that means, hello,
Cesario, a lot of this is going to kind of be lost space. And I was going to put a desk back there for the Etsy print station, but we'll see. I may move this over a bit
that way to see, I don't know, maybe push it up against that wall. We shall see, it's
going to be off-centered with this central window which
would be really annoying, but we'll see once I
have this cutting table situation together, but for now, (sighs) I have to do this all again. (majestic orchestra music) Ok, so drawers are now in place. We have a slight
situation now in that, ok, so here is the countertop
that is going to go on top of the drawer situation
to make a cutting table. When I initially ordered these, I ordered two 25-inch width countertops that would then sit side by side to fit perfectly against here. Instead, they sent me
two, I believe these are 42-inch wide countertops, which is slightly less than the 50 inches that I need to make
this lateral space here. But it's also way too
much to have two of them side by side, 'cause that
would be like 80 inches and across-wise it's 74 inches, I think. So either way, I only have 65 inches between the wall and
where the bed needs to be. So that won't work. So I think what my plan is to do, well, first I'm going to try
lifting one of these on here just to see what the situation is because I think one of these
could actually work just fine. I will have a bit of
extra room on the dresser, so there will be a bit of overhang. I think I may put the overhang over there, and have it as sort of like a side area to store sewing supplies or
something on, I don't know. But yeah, so we are going to have to see what kind of situation happens here. I'm hoping they'll take
the second one back because not only can I not use it but I literally do not have
space for this anywhere here. Ok, here's the situation so far. Clearly it would be the
most beautiful cutting table if the counter actually fit. But, as you can see, we
are very far off here. We need, like, a foot and half more space. So I'm not entirely sure
what I'm going to do. It also would be really
ideal if this were, like, eight inches shorter so that it didn't take up quite so much space. Yes, I could just move the
dressers a bit farther apart, but as you can see, there
isn't very much space between there and the wall for standing. I don't wanna move it anymore this way because then this space gets blocked. And I did want to have
access to this corner here, not for Cesario, sadly, Cesario's moving. Lots more scheming is still to happen. I may leave this as a work
in progress until I can, maybe I should keep that second counter because then theoretically
if I find somebody who is adept at sharp
tools, I could theoretically have the second one cut
down to fit just in there and then maybe if we're
feeling ambitious, cut this off so that it fits perfectly. This is perfectly
functional for now. (sighs) A little strange, but it will work. In other news, I mean this is
a terrible lighting situation but I don't really have much of a choice. I'm really loving the color of the wood. It's giving off a very warm reddish tint, which is precisely what I wanted it to do because that is what I
think makes my footage look nice and toasty and warm and calming, as opposed to the, as you
can see, the wood that I have on my apartment floor is
bamboo, so it's very green. (peaceful orchestra music) And so now that the cutting
table is all put together, I can go ahead and start getting all of this nonsense into drawers. This has been driving me mad for a week, as you may or not be able to understand. My neighbor came over the other day and she took a look at this and she said, "Wow, it's a mess in here,
but like, a whimsical mess." And honestly if that just doesn't
define my entire existence I don't know what does. Well, friends, the moment of truth. The bed does work in this
situation, so success! My friend Hana is coming to stay with me from London this weekend,
so this should be fun. And thankfully, all of this works because if it didn't work then that would be mighty problematic. Sewing room endeavors
on hold for the weekend whilst this happens, but to
resume in a bit slash when I cut to the next clip because
that's how video works, right? (peaceful orchestra music) Ok, friends, it is a literal week later but we have five new box deliveries. This is the penultimate delivery. This is actually from one place that they've split the order, I guess, and it's coming all in several parts. So I think we have most of
the sewing room together. We shall see what's in these boxes but I have a feeling these big three here are what are supposed to
be four adjustable chairs. So two of them will sit next to, well, one of them will
sit at the cutting table, one of them will live at the
desk that will live back there which I'm still waiting on. And then I have two more because I have this
little counter space here which is being blocked now
by this extra bit of counter. That needs some chairs. These are two lamps,
I'm waiting on two more so I have a lamp that
will go on the desk here. I have a lamp that will
go on the desk here, which is more aesthetic
lamp, excuse the mess. Everything's a mess in here. I also have still to come,
two floor to ceiling, I guess, lamp, two standing lamps
that will go here and here because as you may or may not notice, I actually don't have ceiling lights. So this room has been incredibly dark. So I will very much be looking
forward to having light to actually continue working into the wee hours of the evening. Guess who's getting her
life together, it me! Have I ever mentioned how
much I hate polystyrene? (sighs) Why, why? (peaceful orchestra music) So with a few very
important final touches, the sewing room is as complete
as it's going to get for now. I will of course be continually
making tiny improvements as I use the space and
find out what I like and what can be organized better, but overall I am super thrilled
with how it turned out. And I came in under budget, which makes me even more pleased. As I was standing at the
table, bolting all of my trims, I just felt the overwhelming
urge to make stuff and make stuff really really well. It's a wonder how an inspiring environment can have the power to do that, and I'm really really thrilled to get to share this
pretty new space with you because, after all, we kind of do get to share this space in a way,
and make nice things together! Anyway, I shall be doing a
full official workroom tour, explaining precisely how everything is placed and organized. It shall be aesthetic
and cinematic, I hope. So that is to come anon. Meanwhile, I hope you shall join me in this moment of crafty inspiration and go forth and make some things, ok? (peaceful orchestra music)
