My Sewing Room

I cleaned up my sewing room a few weeks ago, and I haven't really been able to come out of it since then.  Now, when I say clean, I mean *clean*.  I don't have any before pictures, but lets just say that it was difficult to walk into the room.  I was inspired by a marathon of "Hoarders" on TV to actually take a crack at getting the sewing room under control, and by the end of the weekend it was almost done.

To do that, one thing I did was get rid of 7 large shopping bags of fabric.  4 were of scraps, and 3 were of yardage.  I've been quilting for 10 years, and I had collected a lot of fabric that I no longer like and probably didn't want to use.  That fabric was making me feel guilty for not using it, and it was also taking up a significant portion of my storage space.  I gave it away on Freecycle to people who were excited to get it.  Win-win.

 

After I cleaned out my space, I re-arranged the tables in the room to make it a better fit.  I love how it turned out!

This is the view from the door.

In front of the window, I have a table with a large cutting mat. It's also where a lot of my tools and trimmings are kept (over to the side).  I really like being able to look out the window while I'm working.

I came up with this holder for a lot of my sewing tools. 

To make it, I bought a $2 plate and a plate hanger at Target, and some strong magnets at JoAnn Fabric.  I hot-glued the magnets to the plate and hung it on the wall.  For the tools that didn't have any metal, I hot glued a small washer onto them so they would also stick on the plate.  It works really well!

Here is another view of the wall with the fabric storage.

I arranged the fabrics in color order, which has been great for some of my quilting projects.  (More on that to come.)  The boxes on top of the bookcase hold scraps-- two for quilting cottons, and one for knit fabrics.

This is the opposite side of the room.

The design board is simply some batting glued onto some foam board.  I taped a piece of yarn on the back to be the holder for it.  I'm glad that I now have a good place to put my guitar case and a large suitcase as well without them getting in the way.

I have a very shallow closet in this room, and it has been put to use as well.

The shelving in there is actually a cd rack, so it's only about 8 inches deep.  It hold my clothing patterns (I should get prettier boxes for this!), some paints and glues, and then my project bags.  I have a lot of clear zippered bags, and they're each holding a different sewing project.  Up on the hanger bar are three clothing items that need to be finished or altered.  My spool storage rack is full!  Maybe I need to get a second one?

So that's my new room.  I love, love, love it, and it's been great for productivity.  More on that soon!

 

Comments

[Antoinette]

I so appreciate I'm not the only one who finds cleaning inspiration from watching "Hoarders"! Haha. Your sewing room looks great!

[cauchy09]

Gosh, Hoarders scares me. I'm planning a full-scale reorganization of my house now.

I like your sewing space and your magnetic tool holder is super cool!

[carolyn]

it looks great, dude! more dresden plates please! :)

[Sara]

Looks great. I love the plate/magnet idea. I should make one. If I have a place within arms reach to put things, I wouldn't be constantly looking for them!

[Paula Boren]

Really looks great! You have put your creativity into it to make it really nice. You'll probably enjoy being in there a lot more.

[Kelly]

Watching a marathon of Hoarders via Netflix did the same thing to me! I turned my walk-in closet into a sewing room (much to my fiancee's chagrin).

Also, love your tool holder! I did something similar, but I had some really strong magnets laying around (I think they might have been computer components at some point) and I attached them to the back of the plate, so you can't see them - it looks like the tools are floating!

[Brenda]

Looks great! A beautiful and functional workspace makes crafting time so much more pleasant.