It doesn’t matter whether you are working on 5-minute crafts or large month-long quilting projects, good lighting is essential to lessen eye strain and keep you happily crafting for longer.
In this blog post I want to take you through how to adjust your lighting for crafts and sewing.
Why you need good lighting for your knitting, sewing and other crafts
Poor lighting will make you squint, which can lead to headaches and fatigue when sewing and crafting.
More importantly, poor lighting leads to “leaning” in to see better. No matter what job is at hand, we always want to “bring our work to us” rather than bringing our eyes, neck and shoulders down to our work. Readers, cheaters and bifocals help with this, but good lighting is essential.
What type of lighting is best for your knitting, crafting and sewing?
Natural lighting is always optimal for crafting, sewing or any focused work. If you have big picture windows positioning yourself by these can be a really big help. Of course, there are always those days when the sun slips behind a layer of grey cloud and natural light isn’t feasible.
So what do you do then?
You need to replicate natural or focused light within your working area.
This doesn’t mean just switching on your living room lighting, sadly this won’t be enough! Instead you’ll need a bright light that will ease your eye strain as you work and highlight the area you are working in.
Here’s the lighting set-up I use in my cottage sewing space to help me find craft supplies and read sewing patterns without damaging my eyes.
1. Invest in adjustable LED lighting to avoid working in dark spaces
This super Bright LED "Garage Light" is perfect for overhead fixtures or floor lamps. I think it was around $25, worth every penny. Just screw it in and you're good to sew!
What I particularly like is how the light itself can be adjusted. By moving the head, or the arms you can direct light around the room, or focus on one key area like a sewing machine.
I prefer LED for crafting and sewing to traditional daylight bulbs because it gives off a white light, which is far better for colour matching. However, keep in mind that if you are making a quilt for a darker bedroom, you want the colours to be truest for that room, that lighting.
2. Always have task lighting for focus in other rooms
Task lighting is especially important in non-sewing areas ie family rooms where existing lighting is designed for ambience and not focused tasks. It can also help you establish colours better, which means a far better colour match from thread to quilt.
You can also use lighting rings, provided they are designed for crafts or focused task lighting and not social media ring lights. They sound the same, but are completely different.
3. Take your lighting with you as you craft
For those hard-to-reach areas of your sewing space or craft room, invest in a pendant light also known as a lighting extension cord. You can find them in your local hardware stores and you never know when these will come in useful!
Overhead lighting should give you a general brightness to the room you are using. To help avoid dark areas in a larger room you can invest in a second overhead lighting option, or you can position your sewing table closer to the brighter light. A pendent light can be hung anywhere near a wall outlet.
The second angle is focused lighting. You can achieve this with good task lighting, but you will need to adjust as you work, depending on the tasks you are working on during your craft session.
How to perfectly adjust your lighting for crafts and sewing!
As a certified personal trainer and home ergonomics expert (and an obsessive quilter!), it would be silly for me not to mention best practices when you are adjusting your lighting.
1. It’s all about the “right” angles
When it comes to the perfect craft space lighting you need to consider two angles: overhead and focused lighting.
Overhead lighting should give you a general brightness to the room you are using. To help avoid dark areas in a larger room you can invest in a second overhead lighting option, or you can position your sewing table closer to the brighter light.
The second angle is focused lighting. You can achieve this with good task lighting, but you will need to adjust as you work, depending on the tasks you swap to during your craft session.
2. Save your eyes!
Use the 20-20-20 rule.
Every 20 minutes take a 20-second break and focus your eyes on something at least 20 feet away. My ophthalmologist recommends this and it really helps reduce eye strain, which in turn reduces headaches for me.
If your sewing station is near a window not only does it improve your mood, but it provides plentiful natural light and distant objects, so you can practice light, angles and the 20-20-20 rule.
3. Make sure you are working ergonomically
Remember you shouldn't be leaning in to see your work, not only does this mean your eyes are struggling, but it also adds tension and strain to your back, shoulders and neck. So your lighting needs to give you clarity.
Your head weighs about 12 lbs and for every inch that it is held forward in poor posture, an additional 10 lbs are felt on the cervical spine. Just 1 or 2 inches of bending forward to see your work can double or triple the load on your neck.
When you lean in to work on your embroidery or other hand stitching it's easy to bend your neck. Add to that the time spent on your phone or laptop and you’ve got a recipe for disaster!
Instead of bringing your head down to your work, bring your work up to your eyes. There are products available that you can place your work on that will bring it closer and allow you to rest your arms as well.
You can use magnified lighting or dollar store reading glasses to bring work closer still.
Need a guide for better sewing ergonomics? Something that will help you minimize your pain and maximise your sewing time? Want to learn more about sewing tools that are found in the hardware store? Join me in my next session of The Quilter’s Ergonomic Toolbox!