liZ’s Sewing Room

Hello.  Today I get to show you my sewing room.

I’ve already shown you my “small sewing space” (which quite honestly is where I do most of my work).  But this room is my “official” sewing room.

This room is located in the far corner of our basement right next to the kids play room (with the infamous slide, installed by my husband without my knowledge, one night while I was at Elizabeth’s house drafting patterns).

The sewing room actually used to be the room where I taught preschool for several years but now has been transformed into something entirely different.

From the door you can see my serger station:

I LOVE my serger.  It is a baby lock Evolution and I use it ALL THE TIME.  (In the beginning I wasn’t sure I would ever even use a serger…but…I was so very wrong….I LOVE that machine…however, that is a story for another time….suffice it to say that I don’t know what I ever did without it.)

My Evolution sits on top of my Grandma’s sewing table from the 1960’s.  I love this table and I still keep one of the drawers filled with the notions that she left inside of it.

The chair is part of a set I bought at a thrift store and is in terrible need of a paint job.

And the table to the left is also my grandmother’s.  It’s this cool 1970’s rolling table with side boards.  Right now it holds current projects and serves as the structure for my “batt cave”.  See that bin peeking out from underneath the table?  It is full of batting scraps  and behind that are rolls of batting..which is why I call it the “batt cave”…although I’m the only one that thinks that’s funny.

Above my serger station are two pattern piece covered panels that serve as a cork board for me to tack up anything that makes me happy.  Elizabeth and I made them awhile back to serve as decorations for an event and recently I decided to use them as decorations for my room!  🙂

The boards haven’t been up for very long so they aren’t full…yet…but it seems that I’m always adding something to them.  And it won’t be long until I have them full.

Next to the pattern boards is a little something my brother put together for me.  Using a metal strip and a Fintorp Rail (both from IKEA) he pinned up all of my race bibs and medals.

Does it have anything to do with sewing?

Nope.

But it makes me happy when I look up from my work.  (Especially that picture at the top…that is my husband, two brothers, me, and my sister at our very first race together.)

My sewing room is long and skinny so it broken up into two parts…one side holds the sewing desk and “specialty” fabric (aka not quilting cottons) while the other side of the room is for my cutting table, quilting cottons, knits, books, notions, etc.

Let’s start with the side where the sewing happens:

Before I say anything else…I will say that I admit that I have an obscene amount of fabric…Elizabeth makes fun of me for having so much every time she is in this room…and I will only be showing you a quarter of what I have in this room but…man…I love having an entire wall of fabric.  I really do.   It’s like my own little shop I can go do and browse around in, which is something I frequently do….because it’s one crazy shop!  The fabric in my stash is made up of hand me downs, thrift store finds, and quilt shop splurges.

The fabric on this back wall is housed in an IKEA shelving unit (much like the KALLAX shelves) and each cubby is filled with a different kind of fabric…flannel, velvet, suede, fleece, faux fur, corduroy, denim, vinyl, home dec, etc.

On the wall next to the sewing machine is a mirror (also from IKEA) to reflect as much light as possible.  Under neath that is a piece of raingutter attached to the wall from when I taught preschool.  It used to be part of a rain gutter bookshelf that you can see HERE  but now it holds all of my scissors, quilting rulers, and extra cans of spray starch.

And finally there is the heart of the room…my sewing machine.  She is a baby lock Unity and she is AMAZING.  She sews, she embroiders, she sings, she cries when I make a mistake (no I’m not kidding), and she even has a laser.  I don’t think I will ever need another sewing machine ever again and I’ve made her uniquely mine by giving her a bumper sticker.  (It’s from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and it fits her perfectly.)

My Unity and lives on top of my Klimpen Table from IKEA.  (I am all about this desk.  I think it’s pretty and it’s practical with drawers in the front and shelves on the side…it makes a PERFECT sewing table.)  Plus I love my view while I work.

I can see right out the door and into the kids playhouse!

The other side of my sewing room is…well…more fabric and a place to cut all that fabric!

I’m as nerdy about organizing my fabric as I am about organizing my books.  Each kind of fabric is sorted into it’s own area.  On the black shelves solid quilting cottons are sorted by color and then are sitting next to Dollar Store buckets filled with scraps that use the same color scheme.

The short, skinny, blue shelf is home to my fat quaters and pre-cuts and then next to that are two of my Hyllis Shelves (I have 4 of them….the other two are on the opposite wall…holding more fabric).  These shelves are great because they are a simple design and are light weight…and..they only cost $15!!!!  The ones you see here are for my knits and vintage polyesters….as well as my super awesome old school CD player, pattern boxes, and the freaky head my sister gave me from beauty school.

And last but not least there is my Finnvard trestle table (also from IKEA) that I use for my cutting table.  (It makes me feel so official every time I use it!)  It’s waist high and is adjustable and sturdy.  Plus the shelves below give my space heater a nice little shelf to sit on!

So there you have it…my “official” sewing room.  Whenever I have a “serious” project that I need to work on that is where I retreat to.

One day I would love a room with a window…or that doesn’t need a space heater…but for now you won’t hear me complaining…I have a sewing room full of fabric and machines and that makes me one lucky girl.

-liZ