My Sewing Studio

Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts is having a sewing studio tour. After you check out my studio, head on over and see all the studios linked in her comments section. I can't wait to go see them all and get some ideas.

Meanwhile, here is MY sewing studio. I just moved into this room a couple of months ago, before that my sewing room was long and skinny and not very functional. I like my new space so much more.

My studio is in an unfinished room in our basement. Since we are renters we can't really do much with it to make it look finished, but we did what we could. Prior to being my sewing room, this was the boys play room/ junk room. We got the carpet remnant on clearance at Lowes for a good price, but I hate blue, so it doesn't thrill me too much. But it is better than bare concrete, especially in the winter months, so I am not complaining!

To make the place seem not quite so stark and dungeonlike with it's bare concrete walls, we bought sheets at Target and stapled them up near the ceiling. The benefit of this is #1 it helps the room stay warmer #2 it's perfect for pinning up projects in progress so you can see what you are making.


This is a view of my sewing room from the doorway. To the left is my cutting table. It's a dining table that belonged to my uncle and he handed it down to us. We don't have a dining room in this house, so I took it over to use as my cutting table.

To the right of the cutting table is a little brown dresser. On top is my ironing mat, and above are my Bunny Hill "A Tisket A Tasket" block of the month blocks, and a couple of redwork projects. Inside the dresser drawers are my fat quarter stash sorted by color. The bottom drawer holds my butcher paper, fusible web, and stablizer rolls.



Next on the right is a little green vintage hamper. Inside are all my cheapy/crappy fabrics that I let the boys use when they want to sew. On top is my iron, starch, and spray bottle. (Keeping it real, if you look in front of the hamper you will see a laundry basket full of misc stuff that hasn't found homes yet, I was trying to hide it, apparently I failed LOL)

Continuing to the right is a red dresser that is cram packed full of vintage sheets. I started collecting them hoping I would be able to find a vintage sheet swap, but haven't stumbled upon one yet. On top is a pink vintage sewing hamper, an antique sewing basket, and some other little things I love.


To the right again, the two blocks are from a patriotic quilt that I am making, and the red and blue shoofly was made by my 10 year old son. The white drawers are full of more vintage sheets (I KNOW!) and my crochet supplies. The blue counter top was purchased on clearance at Lowes several years ago and was used as a play counter for the boys until I moved in here. Now it gives me two guest sewing stations, and somewhere for the boys to sit and do their homework. The sewing machine is the cheapie that I bought for the boys to use. Eventually I plan to hang a skirt from the blue counter to block all the clutter/cords underneath. The drawers under the counter hold my holiday/seasonal fabrics, and my embroidery background fabrics.

Coming around to the front is my sewing cabinet with my (mostly finished) new sewing machine cover. In front of the sewing cabinet is a little vintage wicker storage bench. Inside the bench...ack! More vintage sheets.



Here is a closeup of the cutting table. I picked up the two shelf things at the local thrift for $10 each. I wish they matched, but oh well. They are functional and store my current projects in progress. My spray paint is stored underneath, and also recent quilt magazines and binders full of BOM patterns, my own patterns, and various other patterns and projects. If you look closely you can see my DQS7 Project sitting there on top. Hanging above the sewing table you can see my thrifted light fixture. I paid $3 for it and it was ugly and brass. I spray painted it red and now I adore it!



My sewing machine cabinet, purchased at my local thrift for a whopping $5.00! I took the right had door and top leaf off to conserve space (Since I never close it up anyway). On top are my pattern stand, and little bin for thread clippings, and another shot of my lovely sewing machine cover in progress (I love it so much). Looking beyond, on the blue counter, you can see my thrifted chandelier. Not sure where I am going to hang it yet, but I couldn't leave it behind.



View of the sewing room from the computer desk. Under the leaf of the sewing cabinet there are a couple of boxes that need to be dropped off at the thrift store.



A view of the blue counter top (about 10' long) and the window. The red curtains were thrifted, there are five of them at $1 each. The white curtains are from Lowes and I sewed a strip of red lace across the bottom. You can see to the side of the window where I need one more sheet to finish covering the wall.



In the area that should be the closet, is my computer desk and book cases. There is a TV on top of the computer desk so I can watch HGTV or Discovery Healthy while I sew, but usually I just put it on the Oldies Music channel.



To the right of the computer desk (To the immediate left of the doorway) there is an opening to the closet under the stairs. I bought a cabinet at Shopko and it fits perfectly in that opening. The cabinet is full of more fabric, pattern books, and trims. The ironging board is stored in this opening just to the left of the cabinet.



Here is a lovely view (not) of the inside of the fabric cabinet. I have labeled things to save explaining. The shelves are rather deep so I have my yardage wrapped around acid free matt boards in the back, then little bins stacked in front full of fabric collections that I have gathered for specific projects. I like to keep them all together so I don't accidently use them for something else before I get to that project.


So, there you have it, my lovely sewing studio. I would love to hear your comments! If you have any questions, let me know and I will answer them for you if I can.

Don't forget to head over to Amanda Jean's blog and check out everyone elses studios!