This weekend I started converting what was our dressing room (and by rights should be our spare bedroom) into a sewing room. I can't even begin to tell you how exciting that is for me! I used to rent a studio space but that didn't really work out all that well, although I loved it, it was expensive and I didn't use it as much as I should have because (quite honestly) I like being at home, in my jammies and my slippers
I currently use the dining room and kitchen to sew in, which is great to be able to spread out and take over the whole area but once I pick my kids up from school it becomes family space again and so from 3pm onwards my stuff is stacked in a huge mess either on the floor or pushed towards the far end of the dining table. It's not great when you're halfway through working on something, and it's especially not great when you're halfway through cutting stuff out - I always seem to end up losing bits and pieces or forget how far I've got with my cutting.
My new space isn't huge - it's about 10 ft square so I have to be very careful in how I plan where things go. I have my sewing machine, of course, a big shot pro (which is a big machine!) as well as my big shot and all my dies. The big shot pro will probably live on the floor under my cutting table and be lifted onto it when I use it (even as I'm typing that my arms are aching at the thought. But won't I have amazing upper arms with all that lifting?!)
I'll have a lot of shelves built into this unit pictured below (you can see I've started with those) but I'd love your suggestions on storage for my dies because right now they live in a sideboard which will stay downstairs in the dining room (and will again have dining room things in it - fancy that! A dining room sideboard with actual dining ware in!)
How do you store yours? How should I store mine? How should I store everything to be quite honest - so it's neat but easily accessible. I don't have room for more furniture, I do have wall space for shelving but I'd quite like to have my precious room to be (potentially) tidy. It will probably not be all that tidy at all, but if I have the systems in place I'm more likely to be tidy - right? I really value your opinions, I have to admit I'm a bit stuck and I'm not sure what to do with them. I also have a tendency to rush out and buy a load of impractical storage that ends up being completely useless!!!
This weekend I started converting what was our dressing room (and by rights should be our spare bedroom) into a sewing room. I can't even begin to tell you how exciting that is for me! I used to rent a studio space but that didn't really work out all that well, although I loved it, it was expensive and I didn't use it as much as I should have because (quite honestly) I like being at home, in my jammies and my slippers
I currently use the dining room and kitchen to sew in, which is great to be able to spread out and take over the whole area but once I pick my kids up from school it becomes family space again and so from 3pm onwards my stuff is stacked in a huge mess either on the floor or pushed towards the far end of the dining table. It's not great when you're halfway through working on something, and it's especially not great when you're halfway through cutting stuff out - I always seem to end up losing bits and pieces or forget how far I've got with my cutting.
My new space isn't huge - it's about 10 ft square so I have to be very careful in how I plan where things go. I have my sewing machine, of course, a big shot pro (which is a big machine!) as well as my big shot and all my dies. The big shot pro will probably live on the floor under my cutting table and be lifted onto it when I use it (even as I'm typing that my arms are aching at the thought. But won't I have amazing upper arms with all that lifting?!)
At the moment it's pretty much a blank canvas. Eventually I'd like to get some nice flooring but to save money I've whitewashed the floorboards and I've seen a big rug that will fit perfectly and add a bright splash of colour. I'm also thinking that the big wall straight ahead will be the perfect place for a design wall (so I don't need to worry too much about my paint job...I'll admit painting and decorating is not one of my strong points!)
I'll have a lot of shelves built into this unit pictured below (you can see I've started with those) but I'd love your suggestions on storage for my dies because right now they live in a sideboard which will stay downstairs in the dining room (and will again have dining room things in it - fancy that! A dining room sideboard with actual dining ware in!)
How do you store yours? How should I store mine? How should I store everything to be quite honest - so it's neat but easily accessible. I don't have room for more furniture, I do have wall space for shelving but I'd quite like to have my precious room to be (potentially) tidy. It will probably not be all that tidy at all, but if I have the systems in place I'm more likely to be tidy - right? I really value your opinions, I have to admit I'm a bit stuck and I'm not sure what to do with them. I also have a tendency to rush out and buy a load of impractical storage that ends up being completely useless!!!
I have mine in a cupboard, all the little ones stacked up, the big shot goes in on it's side, the long dies and the pads go on top of my stash cupboard lying flat. I usually buy fancy boxes and crap to put them in but get too lazy to actually put them away, Now I can just throw the die i've used on the top of the pile lol
ReplyDeleteMorning Katy. Firstly I would suggest you forget the rug. My workroom, which used to be a third bedroom, was carpeted, and was a nightmare as threads just got trodden in the carpet. I now have lino on the floor, and a broom tucked in the corner, so I can sweep it most days when I finish and hoover it as and when I need to. Secondly my favourite thing is clear plastic storage boxes (particularly the Really Useful boxes)I love them. They come in various sizes, they stack easily, you can see what's inside and they really help me to keep things tidy and organised. I have some as little as 4cm right up to 50cm, and you can get them bigger to. They are a bit of an investment but it's been well worth it for me. Happy organising.
ReplyDeleteLiz x
Those look deep shelves Katy - you need something to store stuff in! Boxes, baskets etc! I use old shoe boxes - some I even get around to covering in paper but wouldn't they be great covered in fabric! And vintage baskets for projects which I have a thing about!
ReplyDeleteGo to Ikea..... The Expidite cube storage system is great.. Different sizes and you can fill some cubes with boxes or drawers & the cubes will be great for stacking your dies in.... You can use them as the base for a cutting table etc.. as well!
ReplyDeleteyou should store all of your fabric at my house ;-)
ReplyDeleteI did a sewing corner for myself recently in my playroom. I don't have much space and I bought a great table from Ikea that has storage in the legs (the Linnmon/Ullrik table). I have a different cutter which is smaller than yours I think, but I store it in the legs of the table with the dies and its very handy. I also buy clear baskets from Tesco - they come in sets of 3 and are quite small - and they're great for keeping fabric organsied for projects I'm currently working on so I don't lose anything. I keep everything for the one project in a separate basket and then they sit into each other in the shelves in the desk leg. Good luck, sounds like fun :-)
ReplyDeleteLove the whitewash job on the floor!
ReplyDeleteI have the Ikea 'ALEX' drawers under my sewing desk and keep all my dies and haberdashery in them. They are very deep, so hold a lot of stuff.
I'm with Liz about the rug, as I use the floor of my sewing room for basting quilts, so simple wood is great. My sewing room stays really tidy, as a result of a built in cupboard. If you can't have a cupboard, could you put a curtain over one of the bigger shelf spaces so things can be stacked behind it? Enjoy your lovely space!
ReplyDeleteI also have a smaller sewing room (about 10' x 7') and I can fit everything in there except my ironing board (well, that fits in nicely when it's down but if I want to put it up and be able to get out of the room without crawling then I have to put it on the landing!) and a design wall (I use the front room floor). I'd recommend boxes! You could put some boxes on top of the built-in unit - stuff that you don't need very often but that you want to hand (your wadding, perhaps? I keep mine in the loft.). Make sure you get boxes that stack on top of each other and make nice labels for them so you know what goes where. I tidy up my sewing room when I've finished using it for the day which helps to stop it becoming a series of piles of fabric dotted around the room. I keep my cutting board wedged down the side of my bookcase - there's just enough room to squeeze it between the wall and the bookcase. The gap is the depth of the skirting board and is perfect for keeping the board out of the way and flat. I have a chest of drawers which is perfect for storing my stash (it's relatively small!) and notions like rotary cutter, bobbin box, freezer paper, etc. Everything in my sewing has a place - there's a post on my blog about it if you're at all interested! Good luck and have fun!
ReplyDeleteMy patchwork dies are stored in an old wooden Coke crate, next to my overflowing bucket of scraps (that needs to be sorted, on top of my counter. I'll post a pic to Instagram, if you are curious. (craftycj)
ReplyDeleteWhile the rug might be beautiful--keeping it clean will become a chore. I use see through storage bins--much easier to locate things instead of spending time on a search
ReplyDeleteI would suggest more shelves, and to use boxes, if you have to start stacking boxes on top of each other, you soon get fed up of lifting them up and putting things back away. If you add more shelves, buy some boxes that your fabrics will fit into abd that are the right kind of size for how you want to classify your fabric, and then make the height of the shelves right so you're not wasting lots of space on top of the boxes where you don't really want to store stuff. I also bought an old metal filing cabinet and spray painted it a bright blue, it's really great for storing some of the odd shaped things like my big shot and dies, and the super large bits of fabric i'm storing for quilt backs :o).
ReplyDeleteB&Q are great for stacking boxes etc, and mine live in a box under my table, along with the machine. Well, to be fair, the ones I use most are rather roaming free right now, but they *should* be in that box ;o)
ReplyDeleteDesign wall, tins for buttons and lots and lots of labels on your storage boxes so you can find things!!!!
ReplyDeleteI really agree with everyone who is saying hold the rug, I have floorboards in my sewing room and even when the rest of the room is messy a quick sweep with one of those squiff brooms instantly tidies up the floor and it looks so much better. I actually do my sewing in the dining room most of the time and vacuuming up the threads off the floor is hard work. I use clear plastic containers to store some of the my sewing, such as projects, however I like to leave my stash piled up on open shelving. I find that I am much more likely to use it that way. I forget what I have when I can't see it. I also make up more interesting stacks of fabric for quilts because I notice that a certain fabric line looks good with another, for instance I've just put together a quilt using Juggling Summer and Birds and The Bees. I have some of my stash stored in fabric lines and some in colours. If you buy clear plastic storage, be careful not to buy anything too big (unless you have a specific use for it, for instance I use a large container for batting) as smaller containers are so much easier to find things in! And easier to handle in and out of shelving. I have my eyes on some lovely cube storage from IKEA, I think they will look great with my stash organised on them!
ReplyDeleteI have wall-to-wall carpet in my sewing studio and I hate it! I know that sounds strong, but I really do hate it! I've got three of those chair mats designed for under office chairs just to try to keep the carpet clean and lessen the thread accumulation, but it looks just awful.
ReplyDeleteBut here's an alternative .......... FloorQuilts! Vicki Welsh, amazing fabric dyer and all around great crafter did a post recently of her latest project here:
http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/2013/05/page/3/
You'll find her at "Field Trips in Fiber" and the posting is May 22, 2013. She says she has been using one two years ago and it has stood up very well.
I haven't done one -- yet. First trial will be a small door mat, then it's on to covering the entire floor of my sewing studio.
Yep...more shelving in that section on the left of the last photo AND can you find a rolling cart with a lower shelf or drawers that would fit your cutter but still roll into that section on the left? Then you could keep your Big Shot on the cart and keep the dies in the drawer underneath and pull it out when you need to use it and push it back in the cubby space when you don't need it. If the cart just has a shelf then I'm sure you could find clear bins to label with what's inside to put on the cart.
ReplyDeleteOnce you have a rolling cart that fits in there you could put more shelving above it.
You could put a rolling cart in both of those sections that don't have the lower shelving!:)
How about painting a rug on the floor?:)
I use the Ikea Grundtal rail with hanging buckets for things I want to hand quickly (rulers, pens/pencils, chopsticks for poking corners out!) and also picked up a little magnetic rack which I use to put sewing machine feet on when I'm swapping them over - it doesn't work with all of them, but most are ok - as I always end up losing them under the heap of stuff that's on my desk. It's also good for keeping a handy needle/thread on for finishing little projects off. So exciting - can't wait to see how your room looks :)
ReplyDeleteI think you should sew yourself up some stash baskets using heavy duty interfacings. That way, your room will be full of fabrics you love and you can custom size them to the spaces you have. Then, you'll be sure to use them cuz you love them! Make a couple with handles so you can easily pull them out and have them on the floor when you use your dies.
ReplyDeleteIKEA, say no more!
ReplyDeleteFabric
ReplyDeleteI store my 1/2 yard and 1yd cuts using the compic book board system, having a half size board for the smaller 1/2-1 yard cuts. But I used flute board from the hardware store and cut it myself cause it was way cheaper. Storing them like this means that I can see what I have and pull out and replace things without making a huge mess of the all the fabric. The <1/2yd cuts are stored in the medium size of these containers from IKEA (http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/40192634/) having been folded to FQ size. The larger and smaller sizes are perfect for Layer Cakes or charm squares specifically.
For other bits and pieces I use these boxes (http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/40224324/) in various sizes. I stack them no more than two high - again because I can get them in out and out without dislodging everything. I store projects in two different size tubs and stack them in the cupboard.
I label everything so I know where to find it - and I always try to put things away when I have finished using it.
I store EPP shapes in a index card storage box, with dividers between different sizes and shapes.
In a nutshell - I make it as easy as I can to see what I have without pulling everything out and make it easy to remove one or two things by themselves. And easy to organize and put things away. And I agree about giving the rug a miss.
Happy organizing!
Well,perhaps more shelves above but maybe leave a small open space for a little lap top desk with chair to the left of the shelves already there ..I like to have a cutting sewing table in the middle of the room so I can freely walk around the table cause I hate to run out of cutting room with ruler. I see a design wall space there too opposite the shelves or when you come in???Just ideas..
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI've been following you and saw that you're painting the floor in your crafty space. I just reclaimed a spare bedroom in my home to be my creative space and I also painted the floor. I love what you're doing with your space. You can see what I did in this post - http://www.kimversations.com/2013/04/a-space-of-my-own/
Like you, I also used Ikea for storage. Love them and love your blog. And trust me you will be so much more productive in your new space.
Kim
I'll be following along with this project...we are moving into a new home next fall, and I will have my own sewing space in the spare bedroom about exactly the same size as yours. I am happily planning away how I can make best use of the space. I plan to take the closet doors off and paint/wallpaper the inside. Put either a sewing table or my computer workstation in there, and hang a funky lamp over the table. Shelves & baskets on the end walls. :) The rest of the room will hold my cutting/working table, sewing or computer station (whichever doesn't end up in the closet spacer), shelving and a comfy chair (that I will start shopping for to find just the right one).
ReplyDelete