Chris' Sewing Studio

Hi, and welcome to my sewing room - or as my kids used to call it: "Mom's Sanctuary where she communes with fabric".  

Since none of the rooms in our house are plain squares,  I took advantage of the narrow part of the room by the window to set up workstations along either wall so I could just turn in my chair and use whichever machine I needed at the time.  The cutting table has lots of room underneath for those bulky items like batting, pillow forms, machine cases, etc.

We spend a lot of time at hardware stores for our never ending remodeling projects, so I've gotten a lot of ideas for organizing there.  I used parts cabinets for organizing needles, buttons, snaps, etc. and the peg board for scissors, hoops, and anything else that can hang.  The work surfaces are solid doors laid atop file cabinets or shelf units. They come in various widths and can be a real bargain if you look in the "scratch and dent" section of the store. You can always put the bad side down!

I have a storage cabinet by my sewing machine with drawers and I put a small ironing surface on top for quick pressing, or a small cutting mat for trimming. I also love swing-arm lamps! They clamp onto the door top (in the doorknob hole) and can be moved into just about any position.

Ahhh, the fabric. Behind the ironing board is a wall of fabric. This time, I used those wooden closet folding doors as shelves - narrow and sturdy so they don't bow. On the left you can see the result of my "I love fleece" phase. All the furry friends you see I've collected for the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters Teddy Bear Tea project. The plan is to make a small quilt for each of these critters. In the meantime, they add cheer to my room and keep me company.

One of my favorite storage devices, which was my husband's idea, is the slack rack mounted in that small, flat space behind the door. It is a great place to hang pressed strip sets or other pieces and it takes up virtually no room.

Of course there is also a closet  and other corner in this room dedicated to yarn, must fix, and all the other crafts that I've tried out over the years. I'm trying not to overflow my space, but I'm finding that quilting needs a lot more room to maneuver large expanses of fabric, so maybe I need to reorganize? Thanks for visiting, I'm off to commune with fabric