It's officially Autumn now, and as the nights are drawing in (although as I type we seem to be having an un-seasonably warm end to September, which I very much welcome of course) we can expect the daylight hours to disappear quickly come late afternoon. So it's not always an ideal scenario for sewing for long hours into the night - and early hours, which I'm sometimes guilty of. So when Daylight contacted me to ask if I would like to review a few of their lights, I jumped at the chance.
Daylight Company hale from the UK and are the market-leading brand of speciality lighting technology for the hobby industry across Europe. They specialise in 'daylight' lighting, bringing the natural light of the outdoors, indoors, using low heat/low energy bulbs that are ideal for close-up sewing work and perfect to use for long periods.
They were kind enough to send me, not one, but three of their fantastic lights! I first hooked up the Task Lamp XL, as seen above, which sits proudly above my sewing desk. It has a 22" wide shade so it's a good size to spread the light around in a larger space. I honestly couldn't believe the difference it made when I first switched it on. It's fully adjustable vertically, horizontally and laterally to focus the light where you need it most. It absolutely booms light down onto my desk! It's dimmable for using at different times of the day and I find I often turn it down slightly in the evenings when its completely dark outside. During the daytime and especially at dusk, I have it on full. Funny how I probably use it in the opposite direction to general use?
Over the weekend I had a major clean-out of the sewing room, I'm still not finished as it's all piled in the corner of our bedroom at the moment, plus I still need to go through my scrap bins, then I need to organise a little de-stash on Instagram (@messyjessedestash) if you're interested? So after my purge, I had a shimmy round and found space to fit another desk, covering my victorian fireplace I meticulously brought back to life when we moved in, but still practicalities call when you have a *tiny* house and a lot of fabric ;-) I digress. Back to the lamps! I then had the space to fit my other Daylight lamp, which is the super smart looking Ultra Bright Slimline LED Table Lamp. I've clamped it to the bookshelf with it angled above my my cutting desk. It has a long and flexible arm reach to bend where you need but without being floppy. The tube section where the light is, is twistable too! I thought that was quite nifty. If you don't have a shelf or didn't want to clamp it to the table you can purchase the base separately to use as a normal desk lamp.
Back to my sewing desk I have the new Sewing Machine Lamp fitted. Like the other two lamps, it plugs into the mains, so you will have a wire loose at the back, which distracts me so I plan to use some self adhesive sticky dots (or similar) to trail it along the arm of my machine. It sticks onto your sewing machine using a sticky pad, which are very sticky I might add, so if you get one - make sure its in the right place first time! The lamp can then be slotted into place on the mount pad. Its fully removable, and comes with two sticky pads, so you can have another one fixed somewhere else and move the lamp whenever you need by slotting it into place. Easy, peasy. It has a flexible metal arm so you've got enough room to manoeuvre. It uses the same LED Naturalight as the desk lamps, but in a focussed area, which is ideal for use with a sewing machine. Though after testing it out for the last month I've found I can't use it in the evenings as its not dimmable and a touch too bright for me. I think perhaps, it could work better for me if I move it to the back of the machine and have it turned to the front so its not directly shining on my work at such close range? More testing required ;-)
Sewing, whether by machine or hand, can cause a great deal of eye strain so you really want to equip your area with an investment piece like the Daylight lamps. They will not only reduce eye strain over time but will also allow us to sew for longer intervals! Thats a win, win!
I should point out, Daylight Company kindly sent me these lamps for free to review, however all views are my own. All the products featured are available to buy directly from their online store, with international shipping. I hope the reviews helped. Jessie