Do you have a room; a small space, a large place, a secret hiding place or nook in your home dedicated to your sewing projects?
In my new home I have a small room, which was probably a maid’s room at some time in the early 1900s, that has been donned as the sewing room. It is a very sweet space with moldings on one wall, tin ceilings, a large window and an even larger built-in cabinet. I painted this room the color of “Heirloom Lace”, installed an old Victorian shelf above my desk, placed some amethyst & crystals on the windowsill and began working on my design projects before even painting the trim or the baseboards or molding. I’d like to place some cork board on the wall, paint it white to create a blank canvas to pin up images of inspiration, drawings my friends have made me, photos and art. My boyfriend & I plan to build a large cutting / screen printing table in the adjacent room, but for the time being I feel settled enough to sit and work.
Where do you work? Do you surround yourself with striking visuals or prefer a more minimalist setting? Does it matter where you sew if you’re really into the project anyway?
Hi guys,
We are working on posting a slide show or presentation to feature your sewing spaces. We are troubleshooting exactly how we are going to present this to the community, but in the meantime, anyone who wishes to submit photos of their sewing rooms can do so by following these directions:
Take a picture of your space
Size: 300dpi
Width: No Less than 600pixels wide
Include:
Name
Location
Optional Description, 350 words or less
Email it to: alison@burdastyle.com
*If you don’t follow the guidelines I will not be able to post your sewing room, so please make sure to double check the specifications in order to show us your loved space! Okay? :)
Mar 9, 2010, 11.33 PMby passthepins
Hi there. I am really spoiled. I live with my boyfriend, but poor thing only has use of about 10 percent of the house, because the rest is taken up with my sewing spaces ( I have 2 rooms!!) and all my junk. I also want a corkboard! I have found an old pingpong table top, and have yet to find the cork to stick to it.. but when I do, heck that will be one sizable cork board.. ;)
Mar 10, 2010, 01.00 AMby juebejue
GREAT topic! I am just as obsessed about my sewing room as i am about sewing. it is literally the most fixed up room in our house! while i can sew anywhere and any time (even if the sewing machine is on the ground), i do love a nice sewing room. I love a good clique, so i painted the walls bridal pink, allowed only natural wood /white furniture, and even planted a nectarine tree (pink flowers in the spring) right outside my window for privacy from the neighbors. i am jealous of passthepins’ 2 rooms! i thoguht one room was big enough but now i am eyeing for the family room ;)
1 Reply
Mar 10, 2010, 09.06 AMby passthepins
lol. Do it!! ;)
Mar 10, 2010, 02.37 AMby Reneebies
wow clean sewing room. My sewing corner is always out of control no matter how hard I try to keep it clean
1 Reply
Mar 11, 2010, 02.26 AMby WackyBlonde
I hear ya honey, I am always looking for that fabric or trim that I knew I had. ;^P
Mar 10, 2010, 08.10 AMby fosteretalk
My sewing room has been through evolutions. When we moved into our home It was supposed to be my daughters bedroom, but she didn’t want a downstairs bedroom. It was my sewing room for about a year. Her and her brother decided they needed a study room, so I lost my sewing room to their education. When they went away to college, I reclaimed it. The shelves build for their books now hold my threads and fabrics. The table that they studied at now hold my serger and sewing machines. I have room for an ironing board (very much needed) and a really old “boom” box. This sure beats sewing on the kitchen table.
1 Reply
Mar 18, 2010, 06.36 AMby cottonrose
Sounds like my place, but as the kids have been gone for many years now I’ve been able to buy furniture especially for my treasures. My husband thinks I’ve got a plastic box fettish as I don’t seem able to walk past containers.
Mar 10, 2010, 08.40 AMby KateXXXXXX
Oh, where do I start…
Manymanymany years ago we moved here and I copped a corner of the spare room as a sewing corner. I could sew without having to put everything away each night. Bliss. There was a work surface built in with a set of basket drawers under it for supplies, and shelves and a cupboard above it for books and stuff… And a double bed for friends!
The rest of the library went into the smallest bedroom, along with the single computer and a hinged desk, so that we could pack the pooter away and a put-up bed could go in for extra guests…
Then we got a second computer when I started on an MA… The sewing stuff got put away! My computer went on the sewing desk, along with two monitors, some external hard dives, and a printer.
Then we had the Cherub. Suddenly there wasn’t room! So the ‘study’ was reconverted to baby space, and the desk space and 100 feet of shelving went into the guest bedroom. It was a bit cramped. But at least when we were both on computers, we were in the same room! And during the day the cherub could be parked in the middle of the nice big bed!
I took the sewing machine downstairs when he was crawling and the living room became baby-proof. I had a baby gate between him and me and the sewing and kitchen, so he could play in safety and I could sew, and we could see and hear each other. Great! Except that I didn’t get a lot of sewing done, and we never ate at the table!
Next phase: I turned professional and got a serger. The dining room no longer worked well as sewing space. Then we got a PC rather than the two now elderly Atari computers, shifted that into the living room, and shared for a while… The old computer space upstairs was no longer needed, so I claimed BOTH desks as sewing places! My original sewing space was back in use and I had another desk area for the serger!
The old double bed was taking up too much room: there was no space for fitting customers. It was replaced by a Single bed with a guest bed under it. And I slowly accumulated more and more stuff! Now I have the bed, 3000 books on shelves, several sets of basket drawers, loads of boxes of this and that, small sewing stuff on some of the shelves, and 14 sewing machines in there! (um… The other 15 live tucked in here and there elsewhere in the house!)
Most of the stash is in boxes in the loft, and I have cutting space in our big conservatory. I also have space out there to set up more tables for sewing machines or for sewing a project too large for the space upstairs. I recently had some friends over for a sewing weekend. Three dress dummies and 2 sewing machines, plus cutting space and the big iron and ironing board, and three mad frocking women! It was fun.
I still have some clearing to do from then as I got stuck intpo more sewing when that was done and left stuff out… Himself complains that I don’t have a sewing room, we have a sewing house, and the only room not contaminated by sewing stuff is the bathroom! I pointed out that I did make the shower curtain… ;)
Mar 10, 2010, 08.57 AMby immi.
In the past, I had a great and beautiful sewingroom… . Today not – but I am missing it not at all – everything is fine: At the weekend my flat turns into a fantastic workshop! The sewing machine is placed at the kitchen table and the iron board stands in the middle of my living-room next door. To cut some fabric or to draw patterns, I put a great tabletop over my iron board… that way I can walk around from all sides and because of the height-adjustable iron board it is really comfortable. At that I use my study with the computer and on the corridor you can find my tailor’s dummy. :-) Who really needs a sewing-room?
Mar 10, 2010, 09.40 AMby crazybluecat
oh wow, a sewing room … right now i’m sewing on my working desk, and it’s in our bedroom. on the right side of the desk is my laptop, and on the left side my sewing machine – always ready ;) really want to set up a special room one day, even a small simple one. well… when we move out to a bigger house (wish me luck!) :D happy sewing everyone !
Mar 10, 2010, 10.11 AMby janul
Wish I had a room for myself… not only for sewing, because I paint and make dolls too. I do everything in our living room, which is also our bedroom now. Quite tiring sometimes, because I have to set up and clean everything at the end of the day. I sew at our coffee table and have to carry the sewing machine here and there… I store it in the bookshelf. :)
2 Replies
Mar 10, 2010, 07.27 PMby Batchix
Oh man, i hear you there! our bedroom is thankfully separate, but i sew and cast dolls in our living room. I’m terrible tho, and i don’t clean up my mess.
Mar 10, 2010, 07.44 PMby alisondahl
I know what you mean! The last space I was living in was a huge open loft. The bar in the kitchen was perfect for cutting fabric on and I could spread out all over the huge common area- until everyone came home. Then I’d have to clean up and be limited to a small space…
Mar 10, 2010, 10.20 AMby katensew
I recently moved out of the "spare " room to make space for a folding bed – then I moved to my bedroom where I had a corner – now that the spring sunshine warms the conservatory I have moved my machines and cutting table through to there — although sewing sundries remain in the bedroom. It was really warm in there yesterday and I made 2 tabards in the day – so pleased with this arrangement . Come Autumn I shall move back to the bedroom as I am hoping to have built in furniture erected – with a corner dedicated to sewing !!
1 Reply
Mar 10, 2010, 07.44 PMby alisondahl
OMG that sounds like a dream!
Mar 10, 2010, 11.57 AMby Mitmit
My sewing room is actually my dining room and some of my living room. I’m planning on finding a bigger place in the centre of Odense (DK) this summer. Want to have a room for all my creative projects, where I can close the door, when people visit me ;-) I’m hoping, within the next year or so, to get started on sewing clothes for other people/starting a small business, “with a little help from my friends”. So, all in all, my sewing room is currently most of my little house. ;-)
Mar 10, 2010, 02.09 PMby DreamBubble
My sewing room is my bedroom, part of my dining room, and soon to be part of my basement. I am never happy with the color of my bedroom so now it’s a greyish purple color for the walls (Orchid) and it has hot pink trim with 4 black and white zebra print drapes over the windows that go from ceiling to floor (old house = shorter rooms = high windows).
My sewing machine is right up against the wall next to my bed, and I have two bookcases of fabrics, my idea jar, inspirational manga, fabric paint, acrylic paint, yarn, a treasure chest with other old inspirations (the original handheld Game Boy, my Pokemon cards, the CO2 car I made in middle school…), button jars, embroidery floss jars, my Bolex, my film supply, the movies I’ve made, thumb tack jars, index card tin, fake cigarettes box for theatrical and prank purposes, my patterns, sewing pins, hand-sewing needles, sewing machine needles, and a massive amount of old clothing I won’t/can’t wear anymore which will become something else.
My dining room has all my jewelry-making items as well as my lightbox, all my yo-yo manufacturing supplies (scissors, needle, spool of thread, pre-cut circles I spent five hours cutting, and bag for finished yo-yos), more fabric, more clothing I won’t/can’t wear anymore, some ribbon, fat quarters, bandannas, my digital camera, fabric paint, acrylic paint, paint brushes (I use make-up brushes to paint with), and scrapbook paper. I also keep my business information in a box filled with empty containers, so I have big yellow envelopes with invoices, supplies lists, and an assortment of receipts from past purchases.
The basement will probably house everything once I get down there. It’s not like a typical storage basement. We have two entrances, one through my dad’s office which goes down the stairs and into the family room (3 couches, tv, bathroom with shower) and directly to the left is an old bedroom which will be the room I move into (My older brother is away for school and took everything with him), and past the family room is a long hallway that goes through a door into another hallway which has another bedroom we use for storage on the left and the laundry room at the end, which has a storage hallway to its right and my dad’s macho-man workshop to the right. We also have a refrigerator/freezer and a big freezer down there so I can easily store my film. Our house isn’t actually big, but the basement is gigantic.
I’ll try to move all my bookcases, my sewing machine, my crafting goods, and my light box down there so I can be secluded. My dad is getting me one of our old tables from the storage room so I’ll be able to save up for a cutting board, and section off a spot to spread out my yo-yo production goods.
I’ll see if I can talk him into taking me to get some corkboard to make my first inspiration board ever, another bookcase or one of those cubbyhole cases with tons of openings so I can separate my yarn/needles and jewelry supplies, and get a new clock so I can visit Wonderland—ahem, sorry, tell the time.
The walls are black, the ceiling I believe is white, the floor is grey, so I’ll try and convince him to let me paint the ceiling and trim purple. The trim, at the very least. If not, I’ll try to convince him to get one of his painter friends to paint the room a different color for me. =) Any good ideas for wall art? I was thinking a massive purple tree with grey and white leaves.
When I’m sewing or doing crafts, I typically can do them anywhere with any noise in the background. I’m focused on the project, unless I’m messing it up miserably in which case I keep getting annoyed and bored with the item.
For example, I’m working on a purse right now, my first time designing a purse pattern that actually works, and the sewing machine is being temperamental (she’s quite old, a Singer from 1952) and keeps messing up the thread on the bottom of my stitches. I’ve tried loosening and tightening all the tensions, but nothing is working, and it does that sometimes for no apparent reason. Heavy sigh.
I have a hoarding issue, though, so I always have so many crafts I could do but I can’t ever settle down and just do it. I’d rather stash whatever I can find and just look at it and tell myself it’ll become something some day. Hopefully once I move into the basement, it will.
Of course, if I end up dorming in the fall I won’t be able to take my crafting items with me. Hello coming home on the weekends!
Mar 10, 2010, 02.36 PMby gedwoods
My sewing room is a bit of a saga, too. Before I discovered sewing as a passion, I was doing sculpture (plexiglass, wire, cotton fabric, other materials). This started small and grew to take over my whole house. I live alone in a three storey townhouse – I had person-sized sculptures (and bigger!) trailing across my living room, my store room in the basement, my guest room and even my bedroom! Then I discovered sewing – for over a year the sewing was done on the corner of my dining room table. But I increasingly felt I needed a sewing space – everytime I had guests over for dinner (not often, given the space given over to my sculptures!), I had to move all my sewing stuff. My fabric piles kept growing, and I found I was doing less and less sculpture. So I decided to “downsize” the sculpture and upsize the sewing. I dismantled several sculptures I was less than happy with, and kept only the best ones. These I pushed down to the end of my guest room, and put a love seat in front of them so they are separated from the rest of the space. Then I turned this space into a sewing work room, with my sewing machine and serger, plus shelves for fabric, bobbins, needles, books, etc. I bought some bamboo ladders from one of my local furniture stores and draped fabric across the rungs – these make great “vertical shelves”. I still have fabric piles in my living room, where I do my pattern manipulation, my laying out and cutting. What used to my my sewing corner has become my computing nook. So I am doing well – my spaces reflect my priorities!
4 Replies
Mar 10, 2010, 07.47 PMby alisondahl
I am dying to see pictures of this space, it sounds so cool! If you all submit them we can make a slideshow of BurdaStyle member’s sewing rooms! I will look into that…
Mar 10, 2010, 10.12 PMby handmadehappiness
so sorry alison i marked you as inappropriate i thought it was reply!!!!!!!
i was just about to say that a slideshow sounds amazing!!!!
sorry again x
Mar 20, 2010, 05.37 AMby bre
i love the bamboo ladders to display fabric idea i get a lot of my inspiration just looking at fabric but its hard when everything is in a drawer or box i think i need to look into that!!!!
Mar 20, 2010, 05.52 PMby gedwoods
I’ve put photos up as a “project” under the name “Sewing Room (gedwoods)” :)
Mar 10, 2010, 05.33 PMby vintagerouge
I was tucked away in the spare bedroom but the light is so much better in the living room I now have the cutting table, iron, and machines set up in there. The light really makes a big difference!
Mar 10, 2010, 05.43 PMby wzrdreams
I must confess, the promise of a dedicated sewing space is one of my primary motivations to co-habitate. Right now my sewing competes for space in my bedroom…. it’s very chaotic.
Mar 10, 2010, 06.49 PMby fabricaddict
When we moved into our 3 bedroomed house I immediately claimed the back bedroom as my sewing room. My husband lovingly went and bought lots of wood to make shelving for the cupboard to house my huge stash of fabric and to make counter tops for the machines and all the paraphernalia, he nailed and sawed and after a weekend I had a wonderful sewing machine with lots of work surface – I can honestly say though that I’ve maybe sewn 3 garments in there….very naughty I know, but I much prefer setting up the machine and overlock on the dining room table which links to our lounge and being able to chat to my husband and watch my daughter crawling around whilst sewing (except she is as obsessed with my sewing machine pedal as I am!) – I feel so out of touch in the bedroom!! But I do have big plans to get more organised, tidy it up and start to use it properly again so that we can have a pretty dining room table again :-)
Our second bedroom is now my daughter’s nursery – who knows what we will do when we decide to have another baby one day – I’ll probably really miss the sewing room I never used!!
Mar 10, 2010, 07.01 PMby Bad_Kitty
Wow, I am surprised by how many of us are relegated to our dining rooms or bedrooms. Bah, what do we really need them for anyway? I have taken over the dining room here with crates of fabric, 2 dress forms in different sizes, a wrought iron dress stand (handy for pics), one of my (many) sewing machines and a serger. Not to mention shelves, upon shelves of books, buttons, crystals, etc and that sewing room essential – a hifi. I now have the ironing board and iron in there too. The big wooden table in there comes in handy and is always covered in odd bits of things in various stages of construction. There are 6 chairs round so that I can natter and sew when friends are over. When the confusion gets too much I have been known to use the kitchen table as a stand-by. Oh dear ;)
I have fabric in nearly every room of the house. The study downstairs has my 2 ’puters and fitted storage that is floor to ceiling with fabric and boxes of trim and threads. The garage is also full of crates of fabrics and trims and feathers and….. well the list is endless. I have a lot of quilting fabric in my bedroom and my guest bedroom is full of funky things that I am going to remake/repurpose. Where does it say that you have to be tidy and creative ? LOL
2 Replies
Mar 11, 2010, 12.25 AMby gedwoods
Yes, don’t get me started on dress forms! Maybe we could do another “show and tell” on those, Alison! I have one home-made one out of duct tape, one adjustable professional one with both top and bottom sections (for pants), one lamp in the shape of a rather shapely woman that I also use for draping clothes on, and two “hangars in molded plastic shaped like a woman’s torso”, plus a couple of hat racks for my hat experiments! I’m addicted to websites that showcase mannequins and everytime I go into a fashion boutique, I’m always ogling the mannequins as much as the clothes themselves!
Mar 11, 2010, 02.31 AMby WackyBlonde
So funny that dining rooms are always the go to space for sewing. My first nations friends always joke that when they are cooking dinner they are sewing at the same time.
Mar 10, 2010, 07.45 PMby mo-mo-sew-sew
when i moved into my apartment a year and a half ago, the kitchen was pretty small and had very little counter space to cook/prep on. i set up the ikea stainless steel counter from my old place in the adjacent dining nook for that added counter space which left little room for actual dining. i bought a wall-mounted drop down little dining table for two that could be put up when not used and leave a little more sense of space. truth is, i usually eat at the coffee table in the living room and soon after setting everything up, i got into sewing and bought both a machine and a serger. low and behold, they just barely fit on that drop down table switching one in front of the other depending on what i need to sew. the table has never been put up since! oh and the extra stainless steel counter across from it? it makes a perfect cutting table!! who needs to cook and eat anyway ;-)
Mar 10, 2010, 07.59 PMby Tamara Stoddard
I love my sewing area. We are not lucky enough to have a spare room because we live in an apartment in Brooklyn, but I do have a fireplace in my kitchen that I was not using and so I bought a desk from craig’s list and transformed the little fireplace into my sewing desk. I needed storage so I put up some shelves on the next wall over above the washer and dryer and now that holds all my supplies! And like most of you I just take over the kitchen table when I need to cut or lay anything out. Here are some pics. http://www.brooklyncraft.com/2010/02/my-work-space.html
2 Replies
Mar 10, 2010, 09.21 PMby JaylaRodri
Lovely space! I was thinking about buying storage for my threads. I was going to get some clear storage boxes, but I like your idea better. I need to get some of those.
Mar 15, 2010, 10.56 PMby cgm5498
I have a clear thread box i love it but i hate my fabrics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mar 10, 2010, 08.20 PMby avirosecreations
I think that if you love to sew and you are invested in a project you can sew almost anywhere! I started sewing when I was 10 and we converted a storage closet in the basement into my sewing “room”. I have sinced moved up and now I have taken over about two thirds of my living room. I have a big table split into 2 – a cutting station and a sewing station. Even though I could sew anywhere, I do think I am much more efficient when my space is clean and organized and I do my best to keep it that way (although my boyfriend would probably say otherwise!).
check out the fruits of my labor… www.etsy.com/shop/AviRoseCreations
Mar 10, 2010, 08.57 PMby LaTulipeNoire
When we moved to our new assignment I took one look at the lovely upstairs sitting room surrounded by windows and staked my claim! It’s large and open with lots of lovely Ikea shelves for my fabric collection, a chandelier lovingly hung by my sweet, tolerant husband and a desk with my giant imac to play music, movies, and help me find inspiration or techniques with the click of a mouse. All of this is presided over by a very large portrait of Audrey Hepburn, my inspiration and idol.
I agree wholeheartedly that we should do a special feature on burda of all of the lovely sewing rooms! I love to get ideas from other sewers’ spaces, they reflect so much of one’s personal flair!
Mar 10, 2010, 09.16 PMby JaylaRodri
Mar 10, 2010, 09.40 PMby bjorgg
Because its so expensive being in school I still live at home with my mum and dad , its very hard at age 25. But luckily I can have two rooms by myself and one of them is my lovely sewing room, which I love! :) Its small, under a sloping ceiling, with big windows, so cozy. I try to keep it clean and inspiring, if I see something that inspire me I buy it and put it on the wall or somewhere where I can see it. I inherit a very old Singer sewing machine (hand driven) from my 102 year old grand grand mother which I have as an adornment, just to adore. Its very nice to have a separate room for my sewing stuff, so if the room is very messy I can always just close it for few days and don’t think about it :)
Mar 10, 2010, 10.10 PMby gramanana
Alas I have no sewing room yet. My dining room table serves as my sewing room. My sewing stuff, fabric and yarn stash and patterns and books all live in my walkin closet. My family is kind and probably would tolerate the sewing machine and stuff on the table a few days, but there is nowhere else to eat so I really can’t do that. When my daughter, son-in-law and their baby move to their own place again, I am going to refashion the guest room to pull double-duty as my studio/craft room too.
Mar 10, 2010, 10.31 PMby ReneeBeth
My sewing machine is sitting, sad and lonely, at the top shelf of my closet. I live in an apartment with five other people, and that combined with all of the schoolwork I have to do and the fact that all of our tables are wobbly (haha) makes sewing difficult. This summer, when I have time, it’ll get used again. Right now I’m just happy helping young kids sew at my job, where we have lots of machines (though the kids break them when I’m not looking all the time) and cabinets for donated fabric. It’s a really nice sewing room!
Mar 10, 2010, 10.44 PMby handmadehappiness
i have just recently sorted out my sewingroom, i am very lucky to have a very large……. i bought a set of pine shelves for my fabric’s, and lovely patterned boxes for scraps of fabric’s. I have old dinning table for my over locker and bit’s and bob’s including my cutting mat….. i have a set of drawer’s for all my felt button’s ribbon’s ect my manequinne is in the window with her floppy sunhat!!!! i also have my book shelve in there which is ever growing!!! and last but not least….. my 1930’s writting desk with display cabinet it has all my elephant’s in it this is where i do all my drawing’s and letter’s home i find this part of my room the most insparational. i do all my sewing in my horn cub cabinet down stairs in the dinningroom, this way i can keep one eye on my sewing and the other on my 2 lovely boy’s!!!!! i hope that the slideshow goes ahead would love to show my writting desk to everyone it’s a great source of insparation to me…… x
Mar 11, 2010, 12.01 AMby nuiwida23
I started out in the dining room, but soon my fabric storage situation was out of control! So I cleared out a room in the basement which has enough space to fit the 4’ by 6’ cutting table my dad and I built. It has it’s pro’s and con’s; I can turn my music on and it doesn’t bother anyone, but there’s only one window for natural light. And of course it’s messy, but it’s “organized” chaos! I hope one day to have a super sunny white room that is decorated simply by my fabrics and supplies :)
Mar 11, 2010, 12.26 AMby oliverands
Is that Marilyn Minter I see? Excellent source of inspiration!
1 Reply
Mar 11, 2010, 09.32 PMby alisondahl
yes yes yes!! love love love
Mar 11, 2010, 02.10 AMby monibug
my space is about a third of my dinning room. I paint and sew. We have a very small space and I dream of having a space of my own. I can’t tell you how many times my daughter has taken a nap in my fabric bucket wile i was sewing..lol…
Mar 11, 2010, 02.35 AMby Cantare
i have my large 4-leaf dining room table that is usually covered with everything! when i sew, there is stuff on the sofa, the floor, the whole table, and the plant hangers from my ceiling. i live in a small apartment with my best friend who luckily doesn’t mind my 2-3wk messes that eventually get cleaned up! i really need a non-carpeted area, table space and a couple of hanging places for me to sew. this will do for now—oh and the lab at school, plenty of space.
1 Reply
Mar 11, 2010, 09.31 PMby alisondahl
Yes, carpets can be so difficult, as the threads just cling all over them! I love the dining room theme many of us seem to have!
Mar 11, 2010, 04.05 AMby bluephin
In as much as I would love a sewing room, for now it’s just a sewing space for me. But after reading some members’ posts here I now begin to feel lucky that I don’t have to drag my things around when I want to sew and then pack them up when I’m done. I’ve got a photo of it in My Sewing Corner featured in my blog if you guys want to check it out.