My sewing space
NOTE: this post was first published on Sewmanju.wordpress.com in January 2015
Hello Friends,
I don’t know about you, but I find it fascinating looking at other people’s sewing rooms/ spaces/ studios. I think you always get lots of ideas for things to try out, plus…well, who doesn’t like snooping around other people’s houses? 🙂
When I first started sewing I was, like many of you, on the kitchen table. Gradually, I took over a (very) small bedroom. But when we moved into our dream home just over 2 months ago I also got my dream sewing space! Its located in the roof space above our garage, and not only is it spacious, it also has the most amazing light coming in from the Velux windows and is just such a luxury to come and work in.
Warning: everything in the room is from Ikea, so if you don’t like flat packed furniture, move on. Ready for the tour?
My sewing space
It is hard to show the room in one shot, so the first picture at the top of this post was “stitched” together (by my sister, who took most of the shots in this post), whilst the picture above was taken by my husband using the panoramic feature on his mobile. Anyway, thanks to both for the photography (and to Phil for putting all the furniture together).
Starting over on the left hand side of the panoramic photograph, the first thing you see is a set of Malm drawers. This is where I store my patterns. FYI, one of the drawers is empty, two are about 2/3rds full and one is about 50% full. So, that gives you an indication of how many patterns I own. Saying that, these drawers can hold a lot of patterns!
Malm drawers sewing pattern storage
I swear they are not that messy! I just need to find a way to prop the envelopes up so they don’t keep sliding down if the drawers are not full.
Next we have lots of Kallax Shelving Units (on both sides of the room). On the right hand side of the room (panoramic picture), I use the shelves to store my fabric. Kallax is an economical, modular system, but being honest, I chose them because I am pretty restricted height wise in this room (in terms of having storage next to the walls), so Kallax fitted the dimensions of the room. I haven’t got any drawers for the shelves yet. I thought I would wait and see how many/ what I needed.
Kallax shelving to hold fabric
Anyway, the Kallax shelves on this left hand side of the room holds…wadding, my old sewing machine, quilting supplies. Next to the Kallax shelves you can see a Hemnes Glass Door Cabinet. This cabinet holds my sewing books, printed patterns (badly stored!), and bits and bobs like fray check, machine oil, buttons, interfacing, tracing paper etc. Erm…still all needs a little more sorting.
Hemnes Glass cabinet sewing space
This is my sewing table: it’s the Norden Gateleg table. I bought this some years ago…I am not saying it’s what I would buy right now, but it’s fine. This is where the magic happens, hahaha
Norden gateleg sewing table
I just bought the chair, and I love it because it’s height adjustable, lumbar supportive and on castors so I can move between my sewing machine and serger without getting off my bottom. haha. Its the Skalberg/ Sporren.
The mirror (an absolute must in any sewing room if you are lucky enough to have one, IMHO), is the Isfjorden standing mirror. Again, I chose this because I knew the sloping ceilings in this room restricted having anything fitted to the walls.
Isfjorden mirror
Love my new thread rack (purchased on ebay).
Sewing rack
I bought the cutting table just recently too. It’s the Gerton/ Finnvard combination, (two of them pushed together), and I am so pleased with it. I have very bad lower back pain and I specifically chose the Finnvard trestles because they are height adjustable. I have these set up so that, with the Gerton table tops in place, the height is 90 cm…the same height as a standard kitchen unit here in the UK. My back is not quite as painful now I am not leaning over the dining table to cut. We haven’t fixed these in to place yet, so I can move them around if I want/ need too.
Gerton/ Finnvard cutting table
The last thing I wanted to show you was under one end of the cutting table, my husband fixed a Grundtal rail and we hung a couple of Grundtal containers and S-hooks. You can see my Merchant and Mills scissors hanging there (birthday present from mum), and I like to keep things to hand there that I use during cutting, like chalk, tape measure, pins etc.
Grundtal rail and containers
So that’s it. It’s still all quite new, and still not quite as organised as I would like it. I would like to add some colour to the walls eventually and I also need some curtains, oh and I am waiting for a new TV. I will do an update post once everything is finished. But it’s my very own amazing space, and suffice to say, you will have to carry me out of here in a box before I leave this house 🙂
Happy New Year Sewing Everyone!
P.S. if anyone with sharp eyesight was wondering what the heck is going on with my dress form, that creation is the work of my 5 year old daughter Kezia…an aspiring fashion designer 🙂 Until soon…
sewmanju 