If you’ve spent any time at a sewing machine, especially in the evening, you know how important good lighting is.  If you’re over about 35, you might see it as even more crucial.  I’m not picking on you – it’s a scientific fact that our eyes need more light to be able to see as we get older.  Personally, I think the grey hair is enough, but whatever.

This is my faithful sewing buddy.  She’s over 10 years old and has never once had to visit the shop.  My only complaint is the lack of good light.  I tried putting a flexible desk lamp behind, pointed toward the sewing area, but it only helped a little and got in my way.  I also looked at sewing machine add-on lights online, but they are very expensive.  I finally explained the problem to Mr. Fix-It-Or-Die-Trying, otherwise known as my husband.

He came back from Home Depot with a couple of stick-on tap lights.  I chose the brighter of the two, with the other one going into the dorm box for the inside of our daughter’s armoire.  I didn’t get the brand or model number before he put it in place, but there are many options out there.  Just make sure you’re happy with the brightness and ease of turning it off and on.

We played around with a couple of mounting options.  We tried putting it at the top shining down, but the light came down far right of the needle and created a glare.  There’s a little issue with having it on the right because I block it with my hand sometimes and I’ve accidentally turned if off by bumping a button a couple of times.  Overall, though, it’s far better than before.

This is what I was dealing with when I would try to sew before.

And this is my new, improved lighting.  The picture doesn’t do justice to the difference it makes.

This light only cost about $7.  It’s LED, so doesn’t get hot while I’m using it.  It sticks on and is removable, so no damage to my machine and it can be replaced if necessary.  Not a bad solution to my lighting issue.  Now to figure out what we’re going to do about… *ahem*…magnification.