In Jackson, WY I've got a whole room for sewing--and nothing else!. The furniture is modular office furniture from Office Max which took my Dad and me 3 days to put together. The sore fingers and backs were, however, definitely worth it!!!
It's a wonderful room to work in. The 71" cutting surface is great for both cutting garments and for using as a layout/construction surface. As the supplies and machines for each task are grouped in their *own* spaces I'm never going across the room to get a presser foot for my machine or a pair of sciscors.
Even though I have lots of room, I find that it's still necessary to always put things away after using them; I've found that the biggest factor in workroom functionality is how tidy things are kept. If you don't put your tools away when finished and keep pulling out (and using) more tools you'll soon have a terrible mess--***no matter how much space you have***.
My favorite bits :
(1) I like storing my cutting tools at the extreme right end of the cutting surface (the peninsula). Having to move rulers, scissors and cutters every time you go to cut is a time waster, not to mention being frustrating.
(2) The grouping of tasks and associated supplies. Sewing machine attachments near the sewing machine, serger attachments near the serger. Seems simple but it takes some thought. For example, I'm always tempted to put stabilizers by the embroidery machine. However, they always have to be cut before use and thus are better off near the cutting area. It's also nice to have basic reference books right above the appropriate machine rather than mixed in on the bookshelves.
(3) Any type of plastic shoe boxes are great. Whether old or new style Rubbermaid or Sterilite doesn't matter. (BTW, the lids on the new style Rubbermaid can be flipped over to create deep trays that fit nicely on top of the box part--I keep sewing machine notions in the box bottom and then presser feet in the inverted box top.) I've also got wider, shallower containers on top of the hutch for storage of serger threads right above the machine.
(4) Set things up so that the area to the left of any machine is kept open. It's so frustrating to keep knocking things off the table because the fabric excess from the machine doesn't have room to move.
(5) Outlets are good--very good--but are expensive to install in retrospect. Where needed I used a heavy-duty surge suppressor with a decent length cord (*don't* add an extension cord to the suppressor!). That can serve to move the outlet to a more convenient space as well as protect computerized machines. And when you're not going to be home for an extended period everything can be unplugged in one motion. (I do, however, always plug the iron right into the wall--it draws so much power that I don't want to mess with it.)
(6) A place to pin up directions and samples.
(7) A rolling office chair with mat is wonderful.
(9) A radio and/or a TV. What can I say--I like noise while I work:-)
I belive (and have proven to myself) that *any* area can be
a good sewing area--if you put the effort into organizing it properly
and into keeping it organized. Once we had half of our house (including
my brother's room/my sewing room) recarpeted at once. The carpet
came in faulty and we had to live in the upturned house for over
a month while the new carpet was loomed. My sewing room was my
bedroom. I put up a card table for cutting and sewed on my desk.
There were *lots* of boxes around for storage. It was cramped
but it worked. The painters and carpet installers were impressed--you
couldn't walk around in my room by you could sleep and sew in
it!
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