Category Archives: Sewing space

My sewing space

Sewing room

Good morning! I spent the weekend doing a bit of sewing, but also doing a few final jobs in my sewing room, to the point where I think I can call it ‘finished’. I thought I’d share a little room tour, since I always love seeing where other people sew.

Sewing room

This room has been a long time coming… it’s always been a multi-purpose sewing room, study, and occasional guest room, but a few months ago we knocked down a wall that separated it from the corridor leading to the back door. The extra 12 or so sq ft made a world of difference, and while having the back door lead right into a room isn’t ideal it did have the benefit of adding another natural light source to the space.

Sewing room

My keyword for this room was basically STORAGE. To that end, I did a lot of shopping in Ikea and Muji, and had a custom desk and shelving unit made by a local carpenter. It’s so nice to finally have a desk big enough to have both my machines out together – before I would be lifting one of the way to work with the other.

Sewing room

I’m asked fairly often, by the way, what machines I use – a Janome DC 3050, and a very old Toyota overlocker. My sewing machine sits on a silicon baking mat – great to prevent slips and skids and cut down on noise! I made the mat under my overlocker, which is even more cushioned and great for sticking pins in.

Sewing room

The shelves above the desk use up some awkward alcove space and hold my main fabric stash, which these days I’m trying to keep quite small (I’m basically at full capacity now).

Sewing room

All the fabric is wrapped onto mini ‘bolts’ – actually comic book backing boards. I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to keep this up long-term but seeing my fabric so tidy and unwrinkled when I want to use it is a big motivator to keep things ship-shape.

Sewing room

I picked up the vintage spools from Brooklyn, they are perfect for wrapping trims around. Lint rollers an essential for threads and cat fur.

Sewing room

I try to keep the desk surface as clear as possible: I find that stuff has a habit of flying off the sides as you’re moving fabric around and losing your unpicker all the time is really not fun. So I pushed everything onto wall shelving – this unit, the pegboard and my trusty sewer’s friend, the Ikea Raskog trolley.

Sewing room

Thread rack from Amazon and yet more Muji cups and storage.

Sewing room

I save old spools and use them to keep loose bits of bias binding organised.

Sewing room

Over on the other wall is the guest bed (an IKEA Brimnes), which as well as trundling out to a double size also has very handy large drawers underneath. They’re obviously stuffed full already – bulky stuff like quilt wadding and those boring alterations projects I keep putting off, mostly.

Sewing room
Sewing room

This Argos box shelf at the foot of the bed unit holds my sewing books, PDF patterns and fabric overflow – bulky and off-season stuff mostly. Behind that are my cutting mats hanging on a hook (all my cutting happens on the floor in here). Yes, that’s an unfinished quilt with pins still in on the end of the bed…

Sewing room

This is my pride and joy – Muji vertical files to hold frequently used PDF patterns, sorted by garment type. It works so well!

Sewing room

Muji PP drawers under the desk hold printed patterns, and the binder on top is PDF overflow.

Sewing room

The iron and board live behind the door. I make my own covers and change them whenever they get tatty (ie this one soon) – current fabric is from Miss Matatabi.

Sewing room

Phew, that turned out quite long for such a small room. Here are some quick tips I’ve amassed that help me with staying organised in my sewing space.

> Use vertical space effectively: tiered trolleys, wall shelves, hooks and pegboards hold a ton and keep floor space free.

> Give everything a dedicated home, ideally away from your main sewing surface. Keep regularly used stuff closer and organise lesser used stuff accordingly.

> Tidy up between sessions. Yup, even though I’m lucky to have a dedicated space and can leave things out, I do tidy everything away when I’m done sewing for the day – putting tools away, cleaning the carpet of threads, stashing leftover scraps. It’s much easier to find everything easily when I pick up next time and means you avoid that off-putting bomb-site effect when things get out of hand.

> Clear out regularly. Perhaps as a result of doing the Konmari method, I get a bit stressed when I have too much stuff hanging around. I’ve got much better at keeping my stash in check, both at the buying point and getting rid if I feel I’m unlikely to ever use something. That applies equally to fabric yardage, scraps, patterns, tools and notions: use it (or have a plan to use it) or lose it.

Sources for my room:
Bed, trolley, picture ledges – Ikea
Pegboard – Block Design from Monoqi
Shelving and desk – custom made locally
Metal shelves – Tomado via Monoqi
PU drawers, files, canvas boxes – Muji
Ironing board hanger – Argos
Bedding – Primark
Blinds – made by my mum from Nani Iro fabric; roller blind on door from Tuiss

A few peeks

Firstly, thank you so much for all the entries to my giveaway with Cloth House – over 200 so far! It’s open for another week and a half so keep the comments coming – it’s so fun to read them, but I’m sorry only one can win the voucher.

sewing

So I’ve had a bit of a disaster this week. No sooner did I get my sewing room back after its building work than my overlocker completely died :( A bit in the lower mechanism is wobbly that definitely shouldn’t be and it won’t make any stitches. My local repair place says that Toyotas are difficult to get new parts for, so I’m worried it won’t even be salvageable. Between the building works and nearly all my other (admittedly more urgent) electronic devices like phone, camera and computer also needing repairs or upgrades, I am not sure I can afford a new one right away. Such a bummer as I have loads of lovely knits begging to be sewn up!

sewing
sewing

Anyway, on the positive side my room is looking beautiful already, even though it’s far from finished. It’s full of light and feels much bigger even though it’s still comparatively small – my A1 cutting mat basically fits the available floor space! I can’t wait to get it all organised and decorated; I know it’s going to be a joy to sew in.

sewing

That will have to wait a little longer though as I’m off on my travels again – beautiful Barbados this time. While my plan to sew a couple of new swimsuits was foiled by the overlocker croaking it, I did manage to make a few new summery garments to take with me, doing some serious stashbusting in the process as well as honing my French seam skills. Here’s a little peek…. more on them when I return!

sewing

sewing

Reclaiming my sewing room

sewing room

I got my sewing room back a few weeks ago, after it was taken over for an extended period by a houseguest (my sister), and I’ve been slowly doing a little reorganise on it. I’m so happy to have my own space back, even though I’m a bit busy to really enjoy it at the moment (I haven’t sewn anything in like two weeks!). This room overlooks the garden at the back of the house and gets plenty of light throughout the day so it’s great for sewing. This is also our spare room and my home study – a lot of functions for a little room – so getting a bunch of useful storage in was my main concern.

sewing room

I got this new ladder desk from the Futon Company with handy integrated shelves. It’s even got a desktop organiser which will be super perfect for threads, machine feet, and other notions. I’m glad to finally have separate desks for my machine and computer, so I don’t have to continually switch between the two.

sewing room

Next to the desk is an Ikea Raskog trolley, which I picked up after spotting it in Tilly’s sewing space. This holds more essential tools and notions and my current works in progress.

sewing room

I’ve got an Ikea rack for my sewing mags, and a wine crate on its side serves as a makeshift bookcase. One thing I haven’t sorted yet is a good system for printed PDF patterns. Right now they’re stuffed in a large ringbinder but it’s far too full! Any ideas?

sewing room

I made these storage sacks to hold fabric scraps – they’re my Minerva blogger network make for this month. The outer is a sweet dotted canvas and they’re lined with a plain canvas for extra structure. This spotty canvas is really nice and comes in a bunch of pretty colours: I want some more for trousers!

sewing room

There are plenty of tutorials online for making this type of thing, like this one, and they have a million potential uses, from scrap bin to a tote for work-in-progress projects.

sewing room

If I was to make more I’d make them shorter and perhaps interface the fabric first so they stand up better. I fitted two of these large sacks onto 1m of each fabric. As ever, you can grab my kit to make your own here.

sewing room

The elephant in the room right now is the tragedy that is this corner. I installed a rail in this awkward little alcove with canvas hanging pockets to store my fabric stash, which seemed like a great idea – until it crashed off the wall one day under the weight, aaaargh. I’m currently mulling what else to try here.

Sewing room

I’ve got loads more plans for this little room: you can see my Pinterest board for some ideas. What’s your sewing space like?

Quilted sewing machine cover with Heal’s fabric

Heal's sewing machine cover
Heal's sewing machine cover

Here’s a little make using some fabric kindly sent to me by Heal’s. This department store institution and window-shopping favourite of mine has just relaunched their fabric department, with designs by Zandra Rhodes, Cressida Bell and Malika Favre amongst more. The fabrics are all sold by the metre as well as ready-made into soft furnishings and accessories to buy; you can see the product range here.

Heal's sewing machine cover

I didn’t have much of each fabric so decided to patchwork them as I thought the prints looked so pretty together, and create a much needed sewing machine cover to keep the dust/cats out, and temptation away while I’m working at home.

Heal's sewing machine cover
Heal's sewing machine cover

I did this by cutting each piece into strips, using the width of my ruler as a guide…

Heal's sewing machine cover
Heal's sewing machine cover

…then sewing all the short ends together to make a long strip…

Heal's sewing machine cover
Heal's sewing machine cover

… then cutting the strip down into eight even pieces and sewing the long ends together.

Heal's sewing machine cover

I used leftover grey flannel for the sides and back, sandwiched with some fluffy wadding I had lying around, and quilted in simple straight lines down the ‘ditches’ between the rows. It felt so soft and snuggly at this stage I considered just making it a tiny useless lap quilt!

Heal's sewing machine cover

Finally I bound the edge and added some ribbon to tie it around my machine. It was good to have a little project to practice patchwork and quilting on, as I’ve just undertaken another quilt project – for a gift, so secret right now.

Heal's sewing machine cover
Heal's sewing machine cover
Thanks, Heal’s, for a bright and pretty new addition to my sewing room! I look forward to popping into store to check out the new fabric collection in person.