Show me your sewing area!

[Johanna Lu]

This is an invite for everyone to post pictures of the place where all the action is 

The reason I started this thread is that I am always curious about how peoples sewing area looks like. Don't feel any pressure to present a knockout sewing room, this thread is for everyone who has an area (even if it just a corner of the kitchen table)
My own place is just something that I managed to cram into the corner of the bedroom



I store my fabric stash in the kitchen cupboards and the drafted patterns hang in my closet. The pattern envelopes and magazines are in a book shelf in the living room.
I would love to have dedicated sewing room, but since we live in a small apartment this will have to do.
My sewing machine is Husqvarna (Viking) from the 70's and the coverlock/serger is a Pfaff. The wooden boxes in the shelf is where I store all my notions, I have marked the drawers to make it easier to keep it tidy. The mannequin is from a second hand store, not my measures exactly (can't compete with that waist) but it's very useful anyway.

Enough about mine, now I want to see yours! 

[marciae]

Yesterday I worked cleaning my sewing room.  I "may" take pictures after while.  I have a whole sewing house!!  I started in the basement but it's always a bit cool there so moved the machines and cutting table to the extra bedroom upstairs.  My patterns and stash are still in the basement.  I have a big walk in closet down there that houses the most of my fabric.  I get a lot of excercise carrying patterns and fabric up and down the stairs!!  I'll think of a project I want to start and bring things up - yesterday I made 4 trips taking things back downstairs!!!  Your space looks very nice and neat!!

[Saashka]

Johanna, I like your sewing space. Seems pretty efficient to me. I chuckled when I read that you keep your fabrics in the kitchen cabinets. Interesting idea.

I blogged about my sewing studio when I set it up after the move to Germany. It's the last post on this page. When I finally brought home my late grandmother's old treadle machine, the plastic drawers had to go. You can see the change here.

[Johanna Lu]

Saashka, I really like the layout of your sewing area, it's so open and light. And well organized!  Ideally I would like a similar one, not a separate room, but an area that also could function as a living room. It has to be big though

I chuckled when I read that you keep your fabrics in the kitchen cabinets.

Yep, we are not big on household appliances in this family, and have about 8 plates and 10 glasses, so there is plenty of space for more important stuff 
Regarding using the kitchen for sewing stuff, this is a screen shot from the Norwegian version of Project Runway. This finalist had transformed her kitchen into a sewing room, apparently her husband was still able to cook for the family (she has two children as well).  She was so cool: "well since I don't cook I just walk right past through it" LOL



Marciae. of course you should take photos of your "sewing house", it sounds awesome   

[BetsyV]

Here's mine, for what it's worth 

[Elaray]

I'm blessed to have a dedicated sewing room.   It's small and usually messy, but I like it!

[Sew-4-Fun (Ann)]

Johanna what a great space you have made. I also checked your SWAP garments and your garments look wonderful.
Elary you did a great job on your table - and you made it yourself - very impressive  
I am very fortunate also. Where ever we live my husband always makes me a sewing space. This is my third one  
We bought a five bedroom house and only needed three, so the extra two were converted into my sewing studio
I designed all my furniture- tables and cabinets - and my husbands friend custom made them.
Even though I have such a great space.... I have had barely no time to sew lately    but I still come in here everyday  

[lessalt]

Mine is definitely messy. When it gets too bad it keeps me from sewing so I try to keep it reasonable. I have way too much fabric and I have tried to pare it down, the problem is I still love most of it. I will open the cabinet and admire the various pieces. Here are some photos. Johanna, your space looks very tidy and compact. I loved that you store fabrics in kitchen cabinets. Marciae, DH sometimes accuses me of having a "sewing house" as there are certain things stashed in various rooms. I loved seeing the kitchen transformed into a sewing room. From the angle there is no evidence of a kitchen at all.

[Towanda]

I justg rearranged my room again, here it is: Click here


Okay, I see that I need to go play in the sandbox.


Edited to fix your link.

[sewsy]

WOW Ann!  Your sewing room is absolutely gorgeous! How wonderful to have custom made furniture that you've designed for it! Fab, just fab!!!!!   

[quilteddogs]

I have just re-done my sewing room.  You can see it on my blog below.

[LauraTS]

This is so cool, getting to see everyone's sewing spaces. I love the pic of the Norwegian PR contestant's place - mine ends up looking like that, covered in stuff, more than I want to admit. Here's a pic of mine, in the corner of our garage (a bit old pic, without my new machine, but it's basically the same).

[Johanna Lu]

It's so inspiring to see all your sewing areas, you got some really cool stuff going on there! The only problem is that seeing all your awesome spaces makes me crave a sewing room even more...oh well...
Keep the pictures coming!

[Deborah J]

Johanna, I love your sewing space! I don't know if it's the window, lighting or what but it has inspired me to put together my sewing table that I purchased from Hancock's the day after Thanksgiving. The only reason I haven't put it together is because it has a million screws.

I'm snowed in today, so I just might finish it. (It only takes 1 inch of snow to shut a Southerner down ) My space will also be in my bedroom between two windows.

Thanks for the inspiration everyone!

[JanetLovesSewing]

I envy anyone with any type of dedicated sewing space.  I sew in a corner of the bedroom.  I cut out on the dining table.  I iron in a bathroom.  I had sew on a couch in the living room.  I do a lot of back and forth when I sew.

Happy sewing and quilting,

Janet

[Debbie Cook]

I used to sew in our master bedroom walk-in closet in our previous house:



Now I finally have a dedicated sewing room and I'm in heaven!





Maybe one of these days I'll make myself some curtains or at least a valance for those windows.   

[joan71]

Debbie, two sewing stations?  You lucky girl.

Joan

[Debbie Cook]

No, Joan, just the one. One photo is my previous "sewing room" in a closet in our previous house. With my current sewing room, I feel like I'm sewing in a mansion compared to the closet. 

[DeniseM]

You lucky ducks with your dedicated sewing rooms. I used to have one, in fact for the last 8 years I've had a dedicated sewing room but now it's one wall of our master bedroom. I'll try to post a photo. I only have the machines and current projects there otherwise it would get way too messy.

[lyra]

Debbie, I love that little closet setup.  I'm sure it was cramped, but it reminds me of the magic wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.   

I managed to clean mine up a little bit, so it's sort of presentable.  I have a loft that's over a garage, so there's a nice amount of space but it gets chilly in the winter and really really hot in the summer. It has 4 dormers - one is a bathroom (handy for trying on things I'm sewing or taking a long bath when I get really frustrated  ), one holds the sewing machine, one is my "work desk" that I never use and one is the cutting table.
my little huskystar, the only machine I have:


sewing machine, then my built in shelves, and then the work desk:

armoire that holds my fabric & the bookshelf:


banister == UFO storage. You might think the two stuffed animals belong to my nieces, but they're actually mine. They were both presents from my boyfriend so they live in the sewing room with me. The chest was painted by my grandma for my 1st apartment


sofa and my dog's crate under another work table:


Cutting table and bulletin boards:

[DeniseM]

lyra, you're lucky to have a loft over the garage. Mine is over the living room and has bannisters on two sides so you can see everything in it from the doorway and the living room. Otherwise I'd have my sewing in the loft, but we just can't figure out how to make it work. Maybe when it gets warmer it'll all go into the basement.

[DottieMae]

Betsy,

I am sorry to show my ignorance but I couldn't figure out how to look at your sewing room from your blog.  It's nice to see a fellow quilter on here though and your charity quilts are beautiful.  Luck recipients.

DottieMae 

P.S.  I love dogs too.

[DottieMae]

Betsy,

I kept playing at your blog site and did find your sewing room.  Very nice and well organized.  May I ask what your cutting table is?  I like your sewing table a lot.  When we were living in our motor home, I would back up a second table which was the same level of my small sewing table so I would have more sewing space to hold my quilts.  It worked pretty well too.

Thanks all of you for showing your pics.  I am enjoying it.

DottieMae

[quilteddogs]

Glad you found it Dottie Mae.  Everything gets pushed down further in a blog as you write more in it so the sewing room kind of disappeared.  The cutting table is from Joann's.  It comes in a box and you have to put it together yourself.  They often run sales on these and I think I paid abou $80.00 years ago.  Both sides open out so that you have a pretty significant space.  Plus, it's on wheels.  I only use one of the flaps and it works just fin.

[BeeBee]

Here is my sewing room in our new apartment.  It's tiny, as you can see, but mine, and has a lot of storage in it. It also has the fallout from last night's bout of sewing indecision that resulted in no sewing, but a giant mess.  The wooden cabinet, on the left, under the Ikea curtains, is my Singer 201 and the Pfaff is on the Ikea table.  Two unhung pictures are in the floor, still.
 
And my JCC is laid out on the ironing board.  Perhaps I created this disorder to redeem myself from the moving thread where I was so praised for my organization?   The tube behind the ironing board will become my sleeve press when I find the saw.  Kind of like looking at a "where's waldo" book, or those pictures in Highlites where you had to find 15 wrong things, or something.

[peachykeeeeen]

It's so much fun to see everyone else's space! While I was on a business trip a couple of years ago, my hubby turned an empty bedroom into my sewing room as a surprise. We had just moved into our house and this room was supposed to be the guest room. Then we had a flood last summer and I lost my sewing space to storage for all of the stuff from the downstairs of our house. And THEN we had to prepare the third bedroom for the baby and more stuff got moved into my sewing room!

When we made the decision to have hubby stay home with the baby, he decided he wanted a "man land" so he spent three days cleaning out our upstairs loft to set up his computer and video games and hunting stuff. After he was done I told him I wanted my sewing room back and a few days later it was done!

I have been meaning to take pictures, but it's still a work in progress. I think I'll take some pictures of it this weekend and post them. Although I also understand "sewing house". I still cut everything out on the dining room table and I have 4 big boxes of fabric in the living room. We had a couple of friends over for dinner last night and we ate in the kitchen so I didn't have to move my projects Fortunately, my friends understand me (even if they don't share in my love of sewing).

[Robin]

BeeBee, your sewing room looks so nice, I could just move right in!  Ok, I will spare you that!
I do love how you took Ikea pieces and created a really functional and attractive space.
And it's nice that it is all so modular.  If the apartment isn't meant to be a permanent space, you can always adapt all of it for a new arrangement.

And Peachy, your hubby sounds like a keeper!  My DH is really productive like that, too.  It is nice to be taken care of by an energetic man.
Back in my day there weren't too many men staying home, but my DH would have been good at it.  He was very involved in raising his kids and they are both extremely competent and capable people.
It's good for them.

My space is a work-in-progress at the condo.  I am sewing, but it doesn't feel quite comfortable there yet.  I have a cutting table in the living room and no other furniture!!  My rest of my sewing is in the bedroom.  I would like to fit all of it in the bedroom somehow and I may use Elaray's cutting board idea.
Very clever! 

[marciae]

I was looking at American Furniture Warehouse (might be unique to Colo??) on Sunday - they had some wonderful computer type tables that were stainless legs and a smoked glass top - quite roomy.  I have an old Horn Cabinet (from 1982) and two of my machines won't fit in it.  I'm giving some thought to checking further into these tables and maybe redoing my sewing room again.  I have 2 SM; 1 serger and one coverlock at this house.  Two of these tables would hold those 4 machines.  Need to do some measuring and a bit more "thinking"!

[BeeBee]

Kind of like looking at a "where's waldo" book, or those pictures in Highlites where you had to find 15 wrong things, or something.

I just noticed that if you look at the top photo, you can see me taking the picture in the mirror.  It really IS a game, what else can you find?  (Bonus points to whomever finds that pesky corkscrew)

[Robin]

I ha ve enjoyed seeing your sewing spaces, so I took some photos of mine.  I am sure it will change and evolve.  For now, it is austere - but that is just the way I like it.
Ready for action at a moment's notice.



And here is where I am doing my cutting- it is awful!  The table is roomy and the height is right, but the sharp edge is painful to lean into and the curved edges throw me off.  I am using to lining things up along straight lines of a rectangle.
Oh well - it was a $10 table from Craigslist.

[Elaray]

Robin,

I'm not sure I'd get much sewing done with such a gorgeous view to distract me!

[ClaireC]

I've enjoyed looking at everyone's space.  If I post mine I'd scare you all away.  To say it's a somewhat organized mess is an understatement.  I'm slowly coming to the realization that I need to sew up some of the stash so I have more room for all the other necessary stuff. 

I do have a dedicated sewingroom.  I think the measurements are 11 X 13, but I'm not sure.  The walls are completed lined with shelves that hold..what else...fabric!!!  There are also many totes also housing...fabric!!  And I have piles of ...yup fabric...under my cutting table.  It's time to do something about this disaster.  I wanted to move some of the totes to the garage, but my DH said no way.    He's afraid I'll just store it in the garage and continue to stockpile more fabric in my sewingroom.

I'll post pictures if I can get some semblance of order to the chaos.   

[DeniseM]

I finally got a dedicated sewing space in the loft upstairs. My ironing board is set up in the t.v. room and at the other end of the loft is the room with cutting board and boxes of extra fabric. The guest bedroom, which no one uses except my family on rare occasions, has a closet stuffed with my fabric racks and UFOs. I'll post a photo when I clean it up.

[Ann]

I love looking at your sewing rooms. Mine is one wall of the den and then I have to set up my cutting table in the livingroom and the ironing board in the kitchen. It will probably all get packed as we have the place for sale. I need to put stuff into a storage place so it looks in show condition. That means my sewing machines. But the new place we are looking at will have a sewing space for me. I can hardly wait.

Ann

[NancyK]

Elaray, one persons mess is another persons organized heaven!  To me your space is perfectly neat.  I am on the wrong computer to post pictures of my sewing space and it changed since I took pictures, so maybe I will take more pictures and post them later.  I have a dedicated space but I really envy Ann's custom furniture!  I have a large space that I share with my computer and my work studio.  It is really one big open space, with my sewing space being the wide corridor from the stairs to the large open area of my work studio.  I have my cutting table in there, as well as a bank of filing cabinets that have all my patterns.  I have a large closet that my husband made me after we moved in here.  It was just a half wall overlooking the staircase and this houses most of my fabric.  I say most, because I recently started to put some in the guest room closet.
I have a large ironing table with a gravity feed iron.(recent purchase)  I have 3 machines, Viking sewing and serger and a Janome coverstitch on the wall opposite the ironing table. I noticed that a lot of people have a tv in their space too.  In our last house I sewed in a small, 8x10 room and cut out on the dining room table.  Now I have a great cutting table patterned after Debbie's that DH made me.  Love it.  Anyway, I'll post pictures later