SARAH VEBLEN CLOTHING ORIGINALS
Where is your business located? In Sparks, Maryland which is about a half-hour drive north of Baltimore. Do you work out of a home studio or do you have a brick and mortar location? I have a home-based business. I live in a townhouse and have dedicated my lower level to my business. As my three girls each left home, I’ve also taken over more of the house. When I hold classes here, I rearrange my living room to accommodate work tables and we use the living level as well as the studio level.
What kind of work do you specialize in? The majority of my time is now spent teaching, whether on-line for Pattern Review, private instruction, here in my home, or in venues across the country where I’m invited to teach.I still do a little custom sewing, which I enjoy a great deal.
It’s mostly daywear – pants, skirts, dresses, blouses, jackets – although I’m happy to do special occasion work when I’m asked. Do you work alone or do you share the space with others? For the most part I work alone. I have an office assistant who works for me 25 to 30 hours per week. She is usually here one day a week and then the rest of the time she works from her home. When the majority of my business was custom clothing, I had at least one person sew for me part time; most of their work was done on their own and occasionally in my studio.
What's the first thing that clients notice about your space? The most frequent comment I hear when people go down the stairs and turn to walk down the hall to my studio is simply “wow!” I think that’s because they immediately see that my studio is a busy place with lots of creative things happening.
Tell me a little about your favorite part of your sewing space. Even though my studio is in my lower level, I have a sliding glass door that goes out onto my lower deck and small back garden. I’m a morning person and I love that I get morning light and that my studio is bright and cheerful. While my sewing space is indeed important to me, so is my desk area, since I now spend a huge amount of time writing, working on class-related things, and running my business. A few years ago, I splurged on a beautiful desk system that was so worth the cost – it has allowed me to get much more organized and it’s an extremely pleasant place to work
How did you develop your layout? The sliding glass door in my studio influenced how I organized. I wanted as much light as possible in the area where I sew and I wanted my ironing station right next to my machines. As a result, I get to enjoy looking outside every time I press at the ironing board. My cutting table needed to be sturdy and inexpensive when I had it built almost 23 years ago. It’s a hollow-core door on top of braced 2 x 4s with storage underneath. It has worked so well, I’ve never even thought about changing it. Having a cutting table I can walk around is extremely important to me. Storage – can you ever have enough? I have lots of cabinets with drawers for smaller items and a wardrobe for fabric in my studio. I’m very fortunate to have a second room for storage on the same level as my studio
What makes your sewing space unique? I have a lot of pictures and drawings for inspiration. And because I often have to “live with” a fabric before I’m ready to cut into it, there’s often fabric draped on a dress form or stacked on the side table. It’s definitely a working studio!
