Show Us Your Sewing Room!

[MarieAnne]

I set up my sewing room in the basement. It was the only space still available.

Here is where I do all my ironing.

Here is where I do the sewing. I guess you could call it my sewing dungeon!
Lighting is really bad.

This is where I keep my stuff. My patterns, my fabric and my notions/accessories. It's an air hockey table with a table cloth.

I would really like to move it upstairs, so I can be closer to the baby, but I know that once she starts walking, it will be hard to keep her out of it.
I bought two vintage sewing machines, in great condition, for dirt cheap. Details in the 'purchases' thread....

 

[decodoll]

When we moved to this house one of the rooms was supposed to be sewing/guest room... somehow it ended up guest/hubbies stuff room. My sewing machine is on the dining table again. *sigh* His stuff is gonna get kicked out soon to make it into a nursery anyway! lol I guess I could create a sewing area in the basement, but our basement is not at all finished.

 

[Lauren]

WOW! Congrats!!! And I'm so glad to see you back again

 

[decodoll]

WOW! Congrats!!! And I'm so glad to see you back again

Thanks, Lauren! Got the fabric today too. I love it!

 

[Lorena B]

This is my new sewing room, the kitchen table lol , oh well, is better than the floor i am used to.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

My cozy little sewing nook...

 

[MissAmelina]

TIME TO CLEAR THE CLUTTER AND GET ORGANIZED

Just thought I would give this thread a bump...i am doing a MAJOR overhaul of my sewing room today.
I purchased an armoire at a yardsale for 20 bucks so I have shelves and drawers for my fabric....got some neato bins from target for my patterns (they fit PERFECTLY), and I am headed to Joann's now to take advantage of their 60% off "craft storage" sale. All things plastic!
I also need a corkboard, a thread hanger thingie and a few other items.
AND i am gonna see if I can spend less than 30 dollars (not including the armoire).
I shall post before and afters on the morrow....

I am so very envious of consistently organized people. I just don't know how you do it. But i do know how to make one *hell* of a mess.

 

[AvaTrimble]

I, alas, no longer have a sewing room to call my own, as I'm living in my mother's spare room (which is tiny, and primarily occupied by my unreasonably space-consuming queen-sized bed). I store fabric and patterns in the garage, I store trims in the den closet, I sew in either then den (sitting on the couch!) or at the dining room table, I've stashed some sewing notions in the dining room, and my sewing basket is currently living under my mom's unused desk in the den. There's usually some fabric that needs to be pre-washed in the laundry room, and generally a pile of mending lurking near the ironing board. It's insane!

But it's only going to get worse! In September, I'm moving to the East Coast, as I've been accepted to transfer to Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In quite a shock to my 24-year-old system, I will be living in the dorms, at least for the first year, after which point I'll probably be able to move to a campus apartment. Fortunately, the odds of getting a single are good. But I'll still have VERY little space, and will basically be stuck using their woefully unattractive, modular dorm furniture.

Does anyone have any brilliant ideas for surviving this?! I can't live without being able to sew, and I have a hard enough time managing that here! To make things even more complicated, I'm trying to ship as little stuff as possible for my first semester, and will likely move more out when I come back from winter vacation. Oh clever ladies of the Fedora Lounge, how can I turn my collegiate cell into a charming and productive place of vintagey goodness?

 

[chanteuseCarey]

TEXASGIRL- I cannot see your pictures, it says they are moved or removed... waaah. Can you put them up again?

 

[texasgirl]

Sorry about that. I organzied my photobucket account into categories and it messed up all the links. I need to take some new pictures. I've changed it up a bit since I took these

 

[chanteuseCarey]

OKAY here's mine... such as it is.

I have no "official" room, but I have used many, many ideas from the book "Dream Sewing Spaces" by Lynette Ranney Black. I really recommend it.

Fabric, pattern and trims stash: in huge bins on deep shelves all along one length of the garage, my father built one summer in our garage. I have one side length of the garage, DH has the other side for his stuff and misc paint, etc.

BEFORE: before we remodeled our eat-in kitchen back in 2003, DH had cleated a 8 feet formica counter to one wall of the kitchen area. Used the well worn butcher block dining table that was used for crafts to cut out on.

AFTER- 2003:
counter and cabinets:
With the remodel in 2003 we bought desk cabinets at the local home improvement center (Home Depot out here) that match the overhead showcase cabinets. As suggested in DSS, I had the toe kicks of the desk cabinets cut off, to drop the sewing machine height a few inches when they are sitting on the counter. The now porcelain tile 8 feet long by 2 ft deep sewing counter with desk drawers underneath has a large grommet hole cut for running the cords from the machines to the outlets below. The porcelain tile used on the desk counter is the same used on the rest of the kitchen counters.

details: the little black drawer cainet on the wall,, holds small bits of things close up at hand. The silver "hand" is a clip that I can put notes and pattern sheets up at eye level. Where you'll see a green tape measure on the wall on the right side in the first pic, it is hung actually on a length of white chain with a fancy tassle added at the bottom, that I can hook hangers into for works in progress. My dress mannequin is not shown in this pic, but I use it alot. I've named it "Katie Scarlett", from GWTW.

extra outlets:
my brother is a journeyman electrician, so I had him add extra outlets for me purposed for sewing. Under the counter there are four outlets for machines, small Ott-Light. On the right hand side of the wall as I sit there are two more outlets (for an iron, etc.) on the wall, down next to the edge of the desk cabinet on that side.

lighting:
I have under-cabinet lights on the showcase cabinet that shine down on the sewing counter.

cutting surface: no longer have to bend over wrenching my back to cut on the kitchen table-woohoo! With the remodel, we took out a row of overhead kitchen cabinets that were over the peninsula counter. With those removed, the peninsula counter is a great height for laying out and cutting. There is also a set-in outlet on the end for using an iron or craft tool there. Really big stuff I lay out and cut on the tile laminate kitchen floor. Its sooo much easier for sewing cleanup and finding dropped pins with no carpet on the main floor area!

chairs: previously have used a rolling desk chair to go from machine to serger and back again, didn't really like that and it always looked lousy too. Or I pulled over a kitchen chair. Now I have two dedicated chairs (one at the serger and one at the standard machine- so two people can sit and sew or work on projects at the same time.

When I told my sewing machine dealer (Viking) about this layout, he said "You just tell your husband that you let him put a dining table in your sewing room."

Here's the pics:
the room was white with a wallpaper border until this last year. Showing the sewing counter and showcase cabinets above.

showing desk cabinets and machines, extra outlets underneath.

showing the new light yellow paint scheme, and egg and dart crown moulding (our home is veddy English/Garden style) and the peninsula counter on right, with extra outlet. The cream counter stools have rush seats, these are the same in a regular chair version that are two at the sewing counter. Oh, the cream large armoire cabinet houses the computer and store extra linens for the dining room.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Mine is so CLEAN in that old pic!!!!!!!!!!! lol lol lol

 

[chanteuseCarey]

where the sewing books and videos are- I forgot!

All the sewing books and booklets, etc are kept on specific shelves and and in cabinets below in the left side of the lighted bookcases in the living room (which I call the 'drawing room').There they are very accessible, easily found and pretty close at hand to the nearby sewing area. The very few sewing videos I have (from Martha Pullen) are in the right side drawer of the media cabinet in the same room, right by the bookcase.

Pics of bookcase and media cabinet:

 

[Lady Day]

Ive moved and now have a ligit sewing space, my kitchen nook. Yes, a REAL nook, a fit a table in nook! Squeee!!!

I store my patterns and working tools on the shelves, with the sewing books neatly arranged behind the crazy 70s velveteen cover I made

I wanted to use up the last of my picture frames, so I printed out some of the family photos I had and framed them. I would have used the originals, but the wall gets a decent amount of light and I didnt want them to fade. The square pic in the upper right is my favorite picture of my Mother

My new apt has a great linen closet in the hall, but I dont have that many linens, so Im using all of this for my fabric. These shelves are a good 2 1/2' deep, and I Still need more fabric room

I love my new space. Yay!

LD

 

[texasgirl]

Great new space! So glad you have room to work, imagine all the things you'll make now! Love the NRA sign too, and the big fork and spoon. There was a funny Everyone Loves Raymond episode about those.

 

[Lorena B]

My new apt has a great linen closet in the hall, but I dont have that many linens, so Im using all of this for my fabric. These shelves are a good 2 1/2' deep, and I Still need more fabric room

I love my new space. Yay!

LD[/QUOTE]
Wow, how many fabrics destinated to become wonderful things.

Glad you have a new and bigger space!!

 

[Small Town Girl]

I have thorougly enjoyed looking at all of your different sewing spaces, thanks for sharing! I can hardly wait until I get one of my own!

 

[cassylynn]

Here is my sewing room, it is currently really tidy due to the fact that both singer sewing machines are on the fritz so I'm taking them to get looked at. Good thing my husbands uncle owns a sewing machine repair shop My current project is folded up and in the basket right now, cant' wait to get it finished!

My favorite sewing machine is in the cabinet and the touchtronic memory machine is sitting on top..

I wanted to show my sewing stool in detail. I inherited it from my grandmother. I absolutely love it, it is one of my prized possessions!

 

[Lady Day]

Your coolness points shot through the roof for having a sewing machine cozy! :eusa_clap

LD

 

[cassylynn]

Your coolness points shot through the roof for having a sewing machine cozy! :eusa_clap

LD

Thank you so much Lady Day but it wouldn't be right of me to take full credit of that one The previous owner made the cozy and it came right along with the machine. I love it!

BTW - I really like your linen closet, I'd give anything to have one with shelves so deep!