Sewing Room Changes...

Quote for the Day:

"I'm creative. You can't expect me to be neat too."

~author unknown

In September we took a trip to the closest IKEA...which happens to be in Pittsburgh...90 miles away.  I needed some things for my sewing room...

For about 12 years or so I've had one of the standard cutting tables from JoAnns.  Since I'm short, it was always a little taller than it should have been to be ergonomic for me.  I used to be 4'11.5" tall, but in the last couple of years I have shrunk...lucky me!  (The last time I was measured they told me I was just a little over 4'10"...THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT!!!)   I do know that I was having a lot of pain and issues when I would cut out a new quilt, so I decided to get a new, lower table...

This one is actually one of IKEA's kitchen tables and is standard table height.  With both sides extended out like they are in the picture, the table top is 30" x 60".  When the sides are down, it is nice and compact which is great because when we have more than 2 people stay the night I do have to use this room as a temporary guest room. 

The other item I purchased from IKEA was this small metal filing cabinet that I turned into my thread storage cabinet.  

The drawers are shallow so it neatly holds spools of thread and makes them easy to find.  It is on wheels, too, making it easy to move around when needed.

top three drawers...

bottom three drawers...

all drawers nicely labeled...

The thread stays neat, is easily found, and the cabinet tucks away nicely under the end of my ironing board!!!  The way my sewing room is set up, all I have to do is turn around in my sewing chair and the thread cabinet is right there!  Handy!

Though this next item doesn't have anything to do with IKEA, it is a change-up in my sewing room...

The cover to my ironing "board"...(a piece of plyboard that Andy made for me that fits snugly over my traditional ironing board)...anyway...the cover was looking NASTY!!!  Every few years I need to re-cover it, and the time was NOW.  I can't remember the last time I did it, but I know it's been more than 3 years ago.  

I meant to take a "before" picture to show how bad it was, but alas...I forgot.  :(  But take my word for it...it was YUCKY!  

But now it's so PRETTY!!!

(You can see the new thread cabinet tucked underneath the end in the first picture.)

Loretta

Sewing Room Update...

I enlisted Andy's help this past weekend to install some upgrades in my sewing room and I have spent the last 2 days rearranging some things.

The first thing we did was install a new LED light bar ($19.97 from HomeDepot) above this window to illuminate the far end of my sewing table where I use my Singer featherweight, my embroidery machine, and my serger.  You can hang it by the included chains or you can clip it directly to the wall/ceiling using the enclosed clips, which is what we decided to do.  (I was able to eliminate the pole lamp and table lamp that you can see in the foreground of this picture after the new light was installed!)

You can see how dark this end of the table is without it...

...and how much brighter it is with the light on now.  No more shadows!!!

It's official...the astronauts can now see my sewing room from space!  LOL

The other change we made was to add wire shelving above the cutting table to create more storage.  

Before...

It has always bugged me that the wall space above the table was not being utilized, but I wasn't exactly sure how to solve that problem.  I had actually thought of buying upper kitchen cabinets and putting them up there, but wasn't sure about how that would work with the track lights.  A few years ago a friend gave me some ClosetMaid wire shelving and some of the hardware, but I had never put it to use.  I got it out of the basement, cleaned it up, and then went to HomeDepot to get what we needed to add to it to install it.

After...

I had 2 large totes of fabric stored under my sewing tables and I had originally I thought I'd put them in bins up on these shelves.  After contemplating the set-up, though, I decided to move my UFO's to the shelves, thus freeing up 3 shelves in one of my cabinets...and store my fabric on those 3 shelves, instead, keeping the fabric low and within easy reach!  

Those two totes under the cutting table are full of batting pieces in various sizes that I have either joined together to be used, or are still waiting to be joined together to be used.

I specifically put that bottom shelf on the left down low for a reason...
When I am cutting fabric for a quilt, I use the back 1/3 of the table to hold everything that I am using.  The table becomes very cluttered and reduces my usable area until the quilt is finished and all leftovers are cut up and put in the scrap bins.  This way I can use that shelf for temporary storage of what I am currently working on, thus freeing up the ENTIRE table for cutting use!  (I had actually seen a picture online of a person's sewing table and she had a shelf just a few inches above the back of her sewing table to cut down on the clutter that tends to collect there!  Brilliant!)

I buy clean pizza boxes from the local pizzeria and use them for UFO block storage...all labeled with what is inside.  The white plastic containers came from my previous workplace...a piece of equipment came in them and they get thrown away.  They hold UFO's that have smaller blocks.

All of these things were stored on the three middle shelves of this cabinet before...

It now looks like this...

No more large totes under my sewing tables!!!  And ALL of my fabric is easy to find now!  

Loretta