My Sewing Room

When we moved into our current home four year ago (has it really been that long?) I was lucky enough to finally get a sewing room of my own. Sadly, for the the past year it's been more than a little cluttered...a victim of last year's remodel. During the remodel of our kitchen and three bathrooms we needed space to store things so that they wouldn't be in the way, so into the sewing room it went.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of sorting, tossing, and reorganizing, and I must say that I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Here's my sewing table. It's taken a couple of years, but now it's finally made. I bought the table at Big Lots and ordered the acrylic insert for my Designer I from Dream World, Inc. I tried to find the forum on which I got the instructions for making my table, but couldn't locate it. Sorry. Basically, I made a template, cut the hole, and made a box in which the sewing machine sits. I held my breath as I sat my machine in the box and installed the acrylic insert for the first time, hoping that the box was the right depth. I let out a huge sigh of relief when I realized the fit was nothing short of perfect.

FYI...the sewing machine needle is 11" from the edge of the table, which may seem far, but is really quite nice. I wish I would have left a little more room to the right of my machine for all of those things that need to be kept close at hand, but I'm happy to have lots of room to the left so that my quilt tops won't hang off the edge while I sew.
And here's my new cutting table that I put together this week. It's certainly made from a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I found the two cabinets on each end at Wal-Mart. They're 35" tall which is so wonderful when compared to the height of the folding banquet table on which I was cutting. No wonder I always had an aching back! They also have a lot of storage space!

The table top is the same one that I have on my sewing table. I was able to buy the table at clearance price last week at Big Lots, plus I got an additional 20% off my entire purchase. It kind of seems like a waste that I'm only using the table top and throwing away the rest of the parts, but realistically it's cheaper and better than anything I could have made myself. Trust me, I looked! One nice thing I figured out is that I didn't even have to screw the table top to the cabinets. I had a light come on in my brain (yes, big surprise!) and I realized that I could just use that tacky, foamy, self lining stuff that I had sitting in my top kitchen cabinet. I works wonderfully, I might add...and much less work!

Today I bought and assembled the little bookcase that sits between the two cabinets. Of course, once I got it put together I realized it was 1/4" too tall. 1/4" makes a huge difference when you want the table to lay flat. LOL!!! I walked downstairs to the garage to make an assessment of what DH had on hand. Ah ha! I found some shims that worked perfectly!!! The shelf lining is still holding everything in place.

Here are some of my Thimbleberries fabrics that are folded nice and neat. I used the folding technique that Lois L. Hallock recommends in her book "Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space". One problem that I did run into is that I couldn't find a 8.5" x 24" quilt ruler to use as a folding template. Once again, I put my genius mind to work! I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of acrylic glass and a cutting tool (yes, you need the tool...it works so much better than a utility knife) for less than $10.00. You sure can't buy a ruler for that price, not even on sale!!!

For those of you who don't own the above mentioned book, I recommend it. Not everything is practical, but there are a lot of really great suggestions. And just so you know...when Amazon.com recommends that you also buy "Dream Sewing Spaces" by Lynette Black, you can pass on that one. It's not worth your money...you'll get plenty of ideas from the first book.

I think that I'll probably be able to have everything completed by the end of the week. At least I certainly hope so! Stay tuned for more pictures!