Starting a new thread here..... we've talked about my homemade ironing center and offered Butterfly some tips for her new area and I thought this deserved it's own thread.
There are two excellent books (that I personally know about and own copies of) on this subject. One has been around for a while "Setting Up Your Sewing Space- from small areas to complete workshops" by Myrna Giesbrecht and a newer one "Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space- Sewing Room Makeovers for any space and any budget" by Lois L. Hallock. Both address ergonomics and various size spaces, work triangles and arrangements, suggestions for furnishings and storage, lighting and all kinds of other essentials plus "would love to have" ideas to consider. I'd highly recommend both or either book.... even if you are still in the "just dreaming of my very own space" stages.
The one thing I have that I love.... is my pegboard wall. It's not super big
-- only about 24 by
48 inches. But boy does it hold a lot of tools, scissors, a few rulers at the bottom.... and everything is visible at a glance! With all the bright colored accessories... it's pretty too! (mine is white... not the brown peg board).
So tell me (tell all of us).... what one or two things do you have that you absolutely wouldn't want to live without when it comes to space and organization (not tools or machines... but room function/organization.
I need to redo mine (and clean it first -- anybody want to come help?) DH is willing to help with shelves, cupboards... etc... I just have to know what I want!
I am very interested in this topic!!! My dh and I are in the "ideas to the architect" stage.....waiting for the initial plan from him. Now is the time to be gathering all and any information I can. I have literally designed the house around the need for a sewing room and the need of a dining room large enough to fit my 120" table and china cabinet. As for the sewing room, I am planning on it being either 14 x 16 or 16 x 18. My goal is to have a long-arm when we move there. I already like the idea of many outlets in many locations. I will have lots of windows, maybe a bay window seat, ceiling fan, hardwood floors, French door to the porch, movable cutting table and movable pressing surface. I think I want built-ins but I'm not sure.
Looking forward to seeing all the great ideas from you all.......
I love the 6 ft. table I cut a hole in to lower my machine to sit flat with the table top. It's "rustic" now, but in the next house I'll use bathroom cabinets with the toe kick area cut off. That should be the perfect height since bath cabs are lower than kitchen cabs to begin with. I think a drawer unit to the right and a larger sink type cabinet to the left of the machine- with the machine lowered to the same level as the cabinet top, of course! You can kinda see my sewing table to the left in this pic-
formatting link
My fave sewing room essential is my cutting table. It's a 48 in. long kitchen cabinet- a penninsula cab- which means all sides are finished and I can access the stored items in the cabinet from both sides. I have a custom made top of 3/4 in. thick plywood covered in Formica- the top is 3X5 ft. and I have a cutting mat that size which completely covers the top and small nails on the ends of the cab to hang my rotary rulers and keep them handy. The drawers have my smaller rulers, rotary cutters and spare blades LOVE it!!! It's also on recessed casters, so I can move it around- against the wall when I need floor space and then move it into the middle of the room when I use it for pin basting. Wonderful!
You can see my cutting table to the left in this photo, but my "old" smaller cutting mat is on it-
formatting link
Leslie (who is lust> The one thing I have that I love.... is my pegboard wall. It's not super big
my pegboard - which I figured out after a while. At first I just got some picture- hanging wire, and looped it through holes and hung it so it stood a bit away from the wall. It started to bend, so that didn't work. After I moved, I went to Michaels' and got a metal, do-it-yourself picture frame, and popped the pegboard into it - now it doesn't bend any more. If I was going to do it again, I would get the frame first ( would rather have had a wooden one, but at 24"x36", they were costly), then get the pegboard and get it cut to exact size for the frame. I have my rulers and cutters and scissors and measuring tapes on it, as well as, I bought a few 6" long straight 'hooks' which I use to put the bindings I have premade for quilts I am working on. The long ones are also useful when you have to precut strips and then keep them in order.
I don't have it, YET. And can't find what I want so will probably have to make/have it made. A good sewing table that will hold the machines I want to have ready access to. Now I have a pretty good one, but it has some problems. I love the fact that my machine sits down in it, and there is an insert that fits around the machine with a beveled edge so the top is nice and smooth. But..... sitting at it you are centered on the machine, not the needle. And if you are a slender thing that is fine, you can slide over some and it works. But for those of us with "fuller" figures, it doesn't work as well....... partly because this a "U" shape table. The sewing machine sits in one leg and the serger in the other. The "crosspiece" at the "bottom" of the "U" has 2 drawers and is handy. But it isn't quite wide enough between the two legs of the "U". (which is the other major problem...... ) I have spoken with DH and think that what we may do, which may not look real pretty, but will be serviceable, is cut the table in half, between the drawers. Add in a section long enough to hold the embroidery machine and so on. I can live with the centering position, if I have to. :( I would really like to find something similar, but with longer legs, and wider and with a lift up extension at the back of the sewing machine leg to allow for a wider table when quilting, or working on something large.
I need to redo the entire house and find out exactly what I have and where some things are that I know I have and would like to use...
Yes, but. Books and authorities are good but the real life discoveries of this group of Ladies of the Cloth are so much better. Such as, sometimes it may be expedient to have the SM face a blank wall. Sure. It may be but it is just so much better if you can enjoy the view of the bird feeder or playpen. When rctq was given to me by a beloved nephew, we were building the perfect kitchen. I knew right away that all of you were incredible and my very first post was asking for help in kitchen design. Not quite OT. Most quilters also love to cook or at least, need to eat so there were opinions just in all directions. That was many years ago - but we did indeed build the perfect kitchen. The collective 'I wish I had' and 'I wish my kitchen didn't ' were such a wonderful blessing and guide in our production. And it doesn't end. Recently, the 3M command hooks were suggested for another project. I needed a way to hang 2 really huge skillets on a pantry wall that already housed a pocket door. Nails or molybolts not an option. But, ah yes. The command hooks are a wonderful solution. I do dearly love this group. I love the incredible sharing of your wisdom, lives, failures and Dancing. Thank you every one. If you've suffered through this long post, may I mention that there's hardly any time left before my annual terrible Christmas joke? Polly
31 October is the final deadline and the end of ten months intensive work (and two years' more leisurely endeavour!) on my book >g< . In message , Tina writes
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.