i recently saw someone post a photo on instagram of how she could fit a coffee in the huge harp space of her sewing machine. it made me look at my harp space and see what was there. juki definitely has a lot of room to spare. in fact, i have a regular assortment of helpful bits that pretty much live in the harp space so i can access them quickly and easily.
- a change of thread and matching bobbin
- pins, usually cast off during the sewing of one piece, waiting to be used in another
- my dush brush, for cleaning the interior whenever i change the bobbin
- mini ruler, for checking seam allowances or other small measuring needs
- snips
you can see that when i'm working on piecing and small projects these items easily stay out of the way of the working needle area. quilting, of course, is another story. that's when everything moves to the side for a while.
so what's in your harp space?
or what do you keep right closest at hand? and how?
I keep the same items as you do there! I was warned by my BIL who own a sewing machine shop ( lucky me!) that we should NEVER EVER put a magnetic pin try in the harp space. The magnet may pull at the mechanics of your machine and it may get damaged.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day!
Esther
*gg* it's nearly the same! Sometimes there are bits of the fabrics, which is under my needle, too or a marking pen but never something to eat or drink.
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Rike
My take to class machine I use all the time for piecing & binding and it has 5.5" and I still keep pin cushion, seam ripper and scissors in it, close to hand My big machine for quilting has 11" and I smoosh the quilt all the way in so nothing else! Funny how that works out!
ReplyDeleteThat was me! :D I love the Juki's harp space for that exact reason. It holds so much that you want to keep handy. I don't want to even consider the amount of time I've wasted in the past looking for my scissors to trim thread!
ReplyDeleteThe harp space is one of the main reasons I bought my juki! I can fit a whole cat through there, hahah :) I usually just keep a pair of scissors there or my entire pin cushion if I need it.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if I had a different sewing set up, I'd have pretty much what you have there, but my sewing table is actually a sofa table, stuck in a corner in my dining room. Since its so narrow, I can, from my chair, easily reach the little hanging drawers that hold my seam ripper, bobbins and extra feet (it holds more than that, but those are the items I grab most often)
ReplyDeleteand my little thread scissors and a small ruler are just behind my machine in a vintage (or maybe antique?) green glass goblet.
My brush, and the little screw driver I need to get to my bobbin case stay in the little pull-down storage spot on my machine, since I only use my extension table when I move my machine to the dining table, as there is no room for it in my little sewing space.
I do usually have a few pins in my harp space though. It's sort of a last stop before I knock them on the floor ;-)
Here's my set-up if you want to see it http://beforeandafterdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/02/sewin-lane.html
It looks even worse right now than my before pictures shows (covers face with hands)
I did one of the best things ever in this space.. at least for me. I got 2 small tomato pincushions and glued a piece of velcro (coarse side) on the bottom of each. Then stuck (self sticking)a piece of the softer side of the velcro right where the angle of the harp is. Now.. I just put my pincushion there and can put my pins right in it as I take them out. Very convenient. THe other one.. I keep on the cutting table right behind me...and as I fill the one at the machine with pins, I am emptying the one on the cutting table... and when the one gets full.. I switch them! Sounds kind of silly, but boy has it made things easier and no more searching for the pin cushion anymore!
ReplyDeleteI don't keep anything there. Maybe because I sew at the kitchen table, so I have to put my machine away at the end of every sewing session and stuff never had a chance to start accumulating there. I do keep scissors, a thread catcher and a pin cushion right beside the machine though.
ReplyDelete