Spring Clean your Sewing Studio

See the before and after of my sewing studio. This isn’t the first or the last time that I’ve done some cleaning here!

We’ve moved quite a bit during our marriage (stopped counting a long time ago) and so I’ve packed and unpacked all this stuff quite a bit! Not ideal, but it sure does allow you to really get to know what you have and how many replicates as well. shhhhh

This time around, I wasn’t really looking at going crazy. I simply needed to pick up the floor and rearrange a few things that were kind of bugging me at the time.

1- the floor. I have been lazy with keeping things on the floor in a pile. Many piles. It was time to tackle that!

2- the quilting machine. We did an addition on the house this past year (still finishing up the kitchen) and my machine is moving down the hallway a couple of feet. yay! No more wiggle by the machine to get to the sewing / computer area.

3- design wall. This isn’t quite finished as I’m waiting for the fabric to arrive…so booo that today you won’t be seeing that.

4- overall pickup. It was past time to get things moved around, piles taken care of and ‘project bags’ reshelved.

My Sewing Room is a ‘hallway’. It’s around 7 feet wide X 20 feet long with a walk in closet (cold storage) at the end.

The closet is wonderful and works perfectly for holding all my wonderful collections of magazines, books and fabric.

I have one lower desk which my computer sits at and has a lot of drawers for notions and such. The other desk is higher (love it!) which has my sewing machine… I stand to sew and my cutting mat. They are both 8 feet long and because of the closet, I’m able for the most part to keep them cleaned. Except for the most current projects.

You can find a few of my previous sewing rooms here.

With that little background with the space, let’s get started shall we?!

1- the floor Right in front of those drawers were quite a bit of issues. There were bags (you know, bags of good stuff). They were totally in the way and growing. The door to the closet could close and open, so that’s good- but really it was becoming too much. Too bad I don’t have the before picture! But I’m happy with how it turned out. Now I can reach the shelves again, and not have to lean wayyyy over to get what I am needing.

2- Quilting machine. This space was tight, but really I wasn’t complaining because having a long arm machine doesn’t work for a lot of quilters and I love having one. But the machine was pushed up against my desk and you had to do a little shimmy to get by it every time you entered the room. ugh.

With the addition to the home in place, the door that led to the outside was removed. I did loose the light in the small window, but that’s ok. With the door closed up I was able to move the machine down around 3 feet or so! It opened up enough space for a small shelf. This holds my iron, a few books, and still has space.

Above the long arm I have a new quilt hanging- Small World by Jen Kingwell. I finished it last month and it feels my soul with happy and is exactly how it feels right now during Covid 🙂 A little chaos. Illuminated windows with everyone home and busy. (the wood in the window will be replaced with a stain glass window- hope by the end of the year! It’s on the lowest part of the list at this point).

I do have my iron station on my long arm. I have one large board that stretches across two bars and my pressing mats are placed on that. Easy to move it when I have a quilt on the machine. Not a big deal and it gives me full access to the work tops – which is sooo nice to have it’s own spot.

The Design Wall— yeah. not there quite yet. Waiting patiently for my fabric to arrive. I tossed this up when we moved in, you know how that ‘temp’ fix always goes! haha

It’s simple grey felt, which is ok. but not the best. Plus, it has a big square cut out. So there is that. Not the best eye candy in the room. And, you can’t see- but there is a breaker box under there! so, the honey occasionally has to pull it back and get into there. It was especially busy with the addition, but I think I’m at a good point where I won’t have to worry about that too much. I’ll share once I get the right design wall all put together!

There is still a restriction with this design wall. You can only back up like 3 feet. So, it’s not the best, but better than nothing!

In the closet I am able to use Sterilite drawers for my fabric bits. Love them. I keep specific colors in each which makes finding pieces super easy. I also have many drawers filled with spools of thread, ribbon, lace, ric rac, buttons and whatever else! I probably should sort threw those at some point!

I’m not rock star when it comes to folding and storing my fabric. I have simple piles. It’s ok.

For my projects, I use bags. yeah. not the best as they don’t stack well, but it works for me. I have a bad habit of leaving leftover pieces in the bag though when the project or quilt is complete. I am working on that and starting to get those pieces pushed into the drawers or sewn into something new!

I try to keep like things together. So, my interfacing, fusible, specific magazines and collections are put together. So, it’s pretty easy to find things when I need to.

To help you with your own ‘Spring Cleaning’ or anytime cleaning…. here’s a fun 30 day series I put together

30 days of Sewing Room Organizing

Includes topics like folding fabric, how to store scraps, rulers and batting storage.

You’ll find the full list here.

It’s been so much fun to share my space with you! It’s totally not perfect and beautiful, but it works for me. It makes me happy to be there and hope that you have a space that makes you happy too!

For more fun and to see some beautiful sewing rooms– check out:

April 1 – Sam Hunter – http://www.hunterdesignstudio.com
April 2 – Bobbie-Sue Gentili – http://www.geekybobbin.com
April 3 – Jennifer Fulton – http://www.inquiringquilter.com
April 4 – Martha Wolf – http://Www.pinwheelprodns.com
April 5 – Jennifer Strauser – http://www.dizzyquilter.com
April 6 – Steph Carton – http://www.theelimonster.com/blog
April 7 – Simone Fisher – http://www.simonequilts.com
April 8 – Kate Colleran – http://www.seamslikeadream.com
April 9 – Carlina Moore – http://www.alwaysexpectmoore.com
April 10 – Jen Frost – http://www.faithandfabricdesign.com
April 11 – Leanne Parsons – http://www.devotedquilter.com
April 12 – Becca Fenstermaker – http://www.prettypiney.com/blog
April 13 – Sarah Myers – http://www.quilted-diary.com
April 14 – Mitzi Redd – http://www.reddhomestead.com
April 15 – Jeanette Larson – http://www.Jenonthefarm.com
April 16 – Camille Ainsworth – http://www.stitchinthenw.com
April 17 – Becky Jorgensen – https://www.patchworkposse.com
April 18 – Marian Pena – http://www.seamstobesew.com
April 19 – Janella Macbeth – http://www.janelleamacbeth.com/blog/
April 20 – Lisa Ruble – http://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com
April 21 – Debra Davis – http://www.tuning-my-heart.com
April 22 – Rona Herman – http://www.Ronatheribbiter.com
April 23 – Sue Griffiths – http://www.duckcreekmountainquilting.com
April 24 – Sarah Ruiz- http://www.saroy.net/
April 25 – Jessica Caldwell – http://www.desertbloomquilting.com/
April 26 – Ebony Love – http://www.lovebugstudios.com
April 27 – Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.muppin.com

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