My Sewing Space

Pink Chalk Fabrics blog is having a Where I Sew Month, and I thought, why not? You can see my unconventional space. Maybe you'll get some ideas, or give me some!

Once upon a time, I had an actual room with a door to sew in, but then we were blessed with a wonderful grandson (who lives with us) and I gave up my sewing room for him to have his own space. Now I sew in what you might call the front parlor. Just inside the front door to our home. It has very large door ways that lead thru to the dining room, and when I am working on a big project, I close off the access to the dining room with the design walls. The lighting is not the greatest, but I make do, and I get a lot done in here.

This giant table on the right is an old architect's desk. Technically it is an engineer's former desk, given to me by my boss when everything went electronic. I had been dreaming of an elevated surface to cut fabrics on without straining my neck, and can you believe he gave me this for free? I looked these up on Ebay and almost fainted. 1/3 of the top is butcher block - which my Janome sits on - and there are 2 huge drawers underneath. I am lucky to have it.

The gray floor mat under the chair? From Sam's Club. Super comfortable to stand on for hours. Easy to move around when you need to. I highly recommend these. We even used them for wall to wall flooring in Tyler's room. Believe me, Nana and Papa have a much easier time playing on the floor with Tyler now that these foam pads are installed!

You can see the design walls and my current project, the Great Granny Along, closing off access to the dining room. There is a great tutorial there  for this super easy and rewarding quilt along. Join in!


These design walls are easy and inexpensive to make. Insulating foam boards from your local home improvement store, spray on adhesive and some very inexpensive diaper flannel. And they weigh only ounces, so you can move them all around easily. 

There are 4 sets of white cubicle cubbies that hold my quilting magazine collection, patterns, fabrics, notebooks, printouts and some WIPs and UFOs as well. I have a homemade bulletin board behind my sewing machine for inspirations and plans and tips.

I'd like to tell you that this is all of my stash, but who are we kidding? This picture was taken over a year ago, so yes, this set of cubbies is overflowing. Packed to the gills. And not this neat. The rest of my stash still takes up one of the 2 closets in Tyler's room, 6 totes and several boxes that are crammed here and there and everywhere. Tyler recently asked me why my fabric lives in his closet? He didn't understand that his room was something else before he was here, but he accepted the explanation anyway.

If you are sewing at your dining room table, which I have done before, make it your special space. Even if it is only for an hour or two. And have fun!

Happy 8-9-10!

A Room To Sew In:

I'm a little jealous! Lots of bloggers are sharing their sewing room remodels and improvements lately. I was looking at this one today by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson! and felt envy. The drapes on a cable. Clean. No cluttered hardware over the windows. Lots of light coming in. And a gigantic design wall made of foam board. Mine is about 1/3 her size. Next one I make will have the batting and no more flannel on it. Check out her nesting tables too! Ingenious.

I've been wanting to expand my design wall lately, but the one I have now is frequently raided by curious little hands, and I don't dare pin anything to it because that would make it dangerous. But I make big quilts. I plan to have one the size of Elizabeth's someday.

How about that set up for cutting and ironing she created? Pretty neat. Nesting tables. I'm not the only one who finds the ironing board a little limiting when it comes to quilts.

I do like the cutting and sewing table I got for FREE from my boss. It is an old architects desk. Elevating the drawing part of it lets me see what I am cutting without craning my neck and fighting glare off lights onto the rulers. The sewing machine sits on a thick piece of butcher block. I really like the two shallow drawers underneath that hold all my rulers, blades, templates, etc. One drawer is the width of the drawing portion. I have spare cutting mats in there too! And that big sliding ruler that runs on cable all the way across? Very helpful. Even if I only use to hold my rulers while I move fabric around. (This is an older photo. See all that room under the table? It is now packed and stacked with totes full of fabrics and batting. Also, this room is now turquoise and white and belongs to Tyler, my grandson. I sew in the front room of our house.)

What do you have in your sewing room that is unusual and really useful? What do you dream of having?