Organizing your sewing room

Question to the group: Is there a forum where we can post a pic of each of our sewing rooms? I would LOVE to see what everyone has in their sewing room. Of course, we know what Kate's sewing room looks like! :)

----------------- I make do with a couple of tall open chrome shelves DH got from Target (5-shelf, approx 72 x 36 x 18), there are cardboard boxes on two of the shelves: one for items ready for sale, and the second of projects in progress.

A large classroom cubbyhole organizer (23 slots) for my trims, hardware, paper and craft supplies. I stack cookie tins for buttons. Don't get me started with presser feet :) Under the sewing table are boxes of upholstery supplies. Under the cutting table are boxes of scraps which I keep thinking I'll have a use for someday (I can't get rid of my fabric either), and a plastic rolling cart for rickrack, bindings.

All this in a room measuring no more than 8' x 12'. The biggest problem for me is space, and not enough vertical storage on the walls to accomodate my books and magazines. I can't complain - there are two windows and it is comfortable and bright in there.

If I had the money, I would purchase storage carts from Elfa. These carts have spacers built in such a way that you can slide out the bottom container without having to move all the others above it. There is a 4-drawer one that you can set side by side and place a flat board on top for cutting or ironing...

Look in the Childrens and Wardrobe pages*drool*

You haven't seen mine, but at the moment I am still in a corner of the bedroom, new sewing/craft room later in the year though :-)

Shelving made where each "bin" is big enough to slide one crate into, or more side by side if you have the space. If the shelving is made out of melamine faced chipboard (particleboard?) it is easy to slide the crates and can be wiped clean.

My hooks and eyes live in tobacco tins as do snaps.

For flat papery items like stabilizer and heatbond stuff how about those paper organisers sold in office supply stores? These also work well for quilt blocks.

Just some ideas.

Lizzy

no. this is a non binary group. The way to do it is to post your photos on a web site where, and then post the URL.

I wonder if Happiest When Sewing would do?

the thing that I don't like about happiest with sewing is that you have to do login, create and identity etc. I dont' know about you but I get tired yet another password, identity etc.

Penny S

I am not sure how to find that?

Penny S mentioned about logins; I also hesitated to invite people to a Yahoo Group. Not only to they require passwords and logins, your spam also increases tenfold after joining :( I think for now, the alt.binaries.pictures.crafts is a good, albeit temporary "fix" for us sewing-heads...

It's OK for you lot, but Yahoo hates me and I've never been able to get in to look!

Mine didn't. I get more spam at the non-Yahoo subscribed address than I do at the Yahoo-subscribed address. I've been posting from the Yahoo subscribed address for about 3 years, used the non-yahoo address for about 7 years (overlapping).

jenn

-- Jenn Ridley snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net

I picked up this book, and it has some good ideas to start with:

I got some ideas from that, then had a friend who is really good at reorganizing come over. She gave me some great ideas, and I really looking forward to getting them all in place.

My most exciting thing so far is a bookcase from Ikea that has deep cubby holes, it's easy to stack small boxes of trims, tools, and if I find the right size boxes or baskets, I'll be able to store fabric as well.

Link here, tinyurl doesn't seem to be working for me this morning.

*10173*10414 I got it without the doors.

Mieko

, and if I find the right

Have you considered tubes ? like for plans and maps, I actualy have a square box intended for the same use , I seem to remember that they came in different sizes.

Jean

Mine is usually deplorable, much to the dismay of DH. He predicts that one day the fabric is going to avalanche and kill me in the sewing room.

I have one of the large wire rolling racks from Sams. It is stacked full of fabric, I also have a cedar chifferobe in which I built a metal shelving system (cheap K-Mart type shelves) fabric also lives in there. The contents of each shelf seems to be a natural group (fleece, suiting, dress fabric, wool, silk, lining fabric, and the OMG-what-was-I-thinking-when-I-bought-that-ugly-crap fabric all have their own shelves)

Patterns are in these nifty stacking organizers from Target. The drawers on them are two pattern envelopes wide. Patterns are divided into those for other people, the don't-I-wish-I-could-still-wear-that-size patterns, bottoms in my current size, tops in my current size, winter dresses and summer dresses.

Elastic lives in a plastic box from Jo-Anns. Zippers have their own plastic box, also from Jo-Anns. Hook and eyes, snaps and other small bits live in a tackle box pilfered from DH. Beads and sequins and other artsy small things live in another tackle box (can't remember the last time DH fished so what need does he have of a tackle box). Cone thread is stored in the thread organizers from Jo-Anns in these long built-in dresser drawers in the sewing room/office. Regular thread is in an organizer I bought at Harbor Freight (or some other manly store I was forced to endure) It has 24 individual little drawers that hold about eight large spools separated by color groups.

Hmm, seems a little anal retentive when I write it out like that. DH must be beginning to win that battle.

Ha! Mine frequently predicts a rapid decent between the rafters of the loft into the bath!

Nope! You do NOT want to see the mess that is my sewing room right now...

I have various stack crates and basket thingies with odd bits and supplies in, and current projects... Fabric and patterns are in staggered and teetering piles in the loft, balanced on bare rafters as there is no floor...

Cake boxes! Big plastic ones... One for cotton and silk threads, two for poly threads, one for zips, one for buttons, 3 or 4 for serger cones, one for lace and trims, one for beads and other crafty bits, one for elastic... Gotta a dozen or so.

Mine sounds like that too, but the reality is that there is an underlying order smothered in chaos!

You can see how I reduced this chaos so some semblance of order a year or so back... Shame it didn't last! I got distracted. Hit the URL below and have fun!

Interesting, how everyone chooses to store their own things.

Just two weeks ago I moved, with a heroic effort, I must say, about 1/3 of my sewing studio's contents from the basement to the second floor. It's cold downstairs, and I found myself more and more reluctant to visit the studio. But now it's nice and cozy, and I actually see the rest of the family occasionally. What a novel concept!

One of the best ideas for this new room was to use an old china cabinet from an elderly relative as fabric storage. No one else wanted it, and since we have a built-in in our dining room, it was just languishing in a storage room (and taking up too much of that room).

When I started brainstorming about my new sewing room, it occurred to me that the china cabinet would be just the thing. I cleaned it up, and it now holds all my wools (or at least all that will fit!), behind glass shelves. I can see what goes with what, and it looks nice, too. Plus, my buttons can live on top of the cabinet, in their color-separated glass jars. It looks pretty good. There's also a lovely little Mission-style desk, which holds my computer setup, so I can use PMB, etc., right where I sew. Hallelujah!

The next thing to do is to paint the interior of the closet, and add more shelves. Then I can bring almost all my other fabric up. That will be so great.

The only bad thing about this room is that it doesn't have adequate overhead lighting. My studio was built specifically to be a sewing school, and I miss all that good light. Still thinking about additional ways to illuminate that room. I'll probably get a torchiere, and bounce the light off the white ceiling, to augment the task lighting.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

HA! I just finished moving all the essentials (two sewing machines, serger, ironing board, etc.) from my _very messy_ sewing room up to my dining room for the duration of the bridal projects. I decided it was easier to move equipment to a new location than to clean up the real sewing room. I have lived in this house for 33+ years, and the accumulated clutter is ..... well it defies description. I am _determined_ to get the sewing room organized _after_ the wedding. :-|

-- Beverly

---to reply, delete no spam and .invalid---

Well, to bring things up to date...

I've been working a few hours every night on the sewing room. I don't have the funds to remodel but getting it organized is enough for now. The room was SO CLUTTERED that I just felt I couldn't sew another stitch till it was straight(er). Last night, however, all my new sewing feet arrived in the mail, and after doing the happy dance, I tried them all out. Other than that, no sewing at all. (I love, love, love the rolled hem foot. Had never used one before and am amazed at this little invention. Took a few tries to get it right, then it worked!! I realize you more experienced sewists are shaking your heads at my inexperience :) Indulge my new discoveries :)

Bought lots of clear plastic containers. And since I can't afford book shelves right now (even the less expensive ones), I bought the Rubbermaid utility shelves....WOW, I love these! They are sturdier than I thought. No, they 'aint purty...but they do the job! And $20 each isn't bad.

Have decided to organize the fabric in plastic bins. Cottons to be grouped by color, future projects combined with their patterns and notions kept together. Knits, fleece, flannel, doll fabrics, kid prints, battings, and interfacings all in their respective bins. Still don't know how to store the stabilizer. I don't like to fold it. The precut stabilizer is no problem and I keep all Solvy on the cardboard tubes.

Will post pictures on a website as soon as I get finished. It feels so good to get this done.

Cindy in WV

"CindyP"

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Way to go! You got the Rubbermaid shelves for $20!! Are those the 4 or

5-shelf deals? I have not seen them for less than $40 at the Home Depot. You're better off with them than the cheaper bookshelves. I have a cheap bookshelf that is standing precariously listing against another bookshelf, due to some really bad predrilled holes in the wrong places. I can't say enough about vertical storage, we have it throughout the house, but I need to get over the fear of drilling holes through the nice wallpaper in the sewing room...

I have you to thank for spurring me on as well. It must be an organizational gene or something. I cannot stand living in clutter and it seems I've been living like that for the past several years. When there's no clutter, one can actually think and breathe a little easier. Today, I taped a couple of square mailing boxes together and set them against the wall. I filed all my sewing books into it and they are finally within reach. I don't have to keep stacking and unstacking them now when I need to refer to something.

Are your stabilizer sheets large? Mine are about 11" wide, but they are on a roll, so I store them in the original box with the end part hanging over the side of the box, so I can just cut the amount I need. I store them either on the bottom shelf with my polyfill and pillow forms, or under the cutting table.

-- Rose's Sewing Page

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Hi Karen.

Is what you call a torchiere what I'd call an uplighter? I have one in the sewing room - a big 250 watter - and it's doing just what you suggested, bouncing light off the white ceiling (the walls and curtains are also white, and the floor is white cork).

On a bookcase, I have my SAD box set up, which is full daylight spectrum. The wall lights, with daylight bulbs, are set left and right and well above the sewing station so they cast no shadow. I've bought daylight fluorescents and am planning to fix these to the beams to replace the uplighter.

Light is really important to me, living in a house with 2ft thick walls and small windows, and also because I suffer from winter depression. All that brightness, which gives truer colours, and a stereo, make the sewing room a really nice place to be these days.

:) Trish

Oh, no! Those rolled hem feet take quite a knack to work well enough to use on customer garments! Carol Laflin Ahles book Fine Machine Sewing gives the best instructions for them. And my sewing room is back to the 'I don't believe there's a bed in here' state!

We bought shuttering ply and shelf supports, and a local joiner & builder who lived up the road (and worked from home like me!) cut it into shelves for us, and that's what all out 100+ feet of shelving in the sewing room is! DH just sanded it and painted it. The total came to less than £200, including paint and supports. UNFORTUNATELY, it houses most of our book collection rather than my sewing stuff! ;P

I have 27 plastic staking crates of fabric and supplies in the loft, and about 12 of patterns... I would have them in the sewing room, but there's this bed... I took over the spare middle sized bedroom as the sewing room, and we still need the bed for guests! I did swap the double bed for a single with guest bed under it, which gives me more room, but it isn't ideal. I'd love to be able to get the bed out and have a cutting table, but there isn't room.

Looking forward to it!