A Sewing "Room"

Sewing rooms...I envision gorgeous cabinetry, specialized shelving, incredible lighting, ergonomic sewing chair, stacks of color-organized fabric stash.....and the list goes on. I would LOVE to have all of that but the reality is "make do". I am fortunate to have a dedicated sewing room, the smallest bedroom in our house, and I am extremely grateful to have it!

Times past I've set up in a tiny walk-in storage closet, and was happy to have that away from the noise and commotion of two grade school aged kids and a husband who was studying for a second Masters. I had a small wood table stashed in there (that we have used as a breakfast table) with shelves above, and could barely shut the door when inside. But it was my place where I could study (I was finishing my Bachelor's) and sew, stitch, smock and design whenever I could sneak away.

Then there were the many times the dining room table was the sewing spot. But the sewing machine and supplies had to be taken apart and put away when we needed to use the table or entertain. What a bummer! I had fabric and supplies stored around the house so I spent unnecessary time just getting everything together to sit down and sew. And I had to be very careful about dropping pins on the floor because of little bare feet running around...but they learned very quickly to step carefully around the sewing area!

I would love to have fancy cabinets and other items in the sewing room now but the reality today is to use what I have. I still sew on that same old wood table that was in the 'sewing closet' 30 years ago. It bares the marks of the kids pounding away with a meat mallet and Play Dough when they were really young. Lots of wonderful memories! The table is small but it's size makes me clean up after each and every sewing project. The trick is to have what I need close by when I'm either stitching or working at the machine. I can have two machines set up at a time ready to sew with two different colors of thread or machine set-ups! Or one machine and my laptop...so very flexible and functional.

I decided to re-organize some of the sewing room after seeing other people's sewing rooms during my travels around the country teaching. You can also get fabulous ideas from Pinterest: google "sewing rooms" and you will get all sorts of wonderful inspiration. One of the things to do was store sewing notions vertically next to my machine where I can get my hands on what I need right away and still not use up valuable real estate. In comes the white plastic basket, courtesy of where I pick strawberries and other goodies at College Run Farms in Surry, Virginia. 

The basket contains my Machine Needle Case (filled with every machine needle known to man), clear rulers, my SimFlex, needle books and various and sundry items in the back. The basket limits how much I can stuff into it...a good thing.
The table has to be very functional since it's small. I use my Sewing Machine Necessary under the machine all the time to hold big shears in the back pockets along with chopsticks (great point pushers) and smaller items in the front pockets. Notice the small wooden tray next to the machine that holds spools of thread, a fray blocker, a scissor block, etc. This was a wonderful gift from my good friend, Jeannie Baumeister, owner of the Old Fashioned Baby, that's made out of wood rulers. It's perfect next to the machine....very, very handy!

There is a goose neck double clamp on the right side of the table that's great for holding a measuring tape and absolutely perfect to hold pattern instructions while I sew. The "star" pincushion with front pocket holds machine needles that I'm working with and threaded needles ready for handwork. The fat pincushion is wool and holds my glass head pins. I love it!
 
I use four jelly jars (for lack of finding anything better) in the front half of the basket. One jar has marking items in it, one measuring things, another has scissors and the last has awls, screwdriver, point turners, etc., in it.  So handy, so efficient!

Of course my set-up isn't perfect...I still have to go downstairs and use the dining room table (yup, the same one we've had all these years) to cut out a pattern, or draft and draw out a new pattern idea. It's not ideal (I get a lot of exercise going up and down the stairs) but it works. I have a window next to the table, another lamp besides the big Ott lamp and all the space I need to stitch contently in my sewing room. What about your sewing room or nook? What do you do to keep it organized?