My New Old Sewing Room

So I have big news - my house is under contract! This is a great thing in many ways, but the one bummer is that it means I will have to say goodbye to my lovely sewing room. I'll set up a new one wherever we move - don't worry about that - but this room is completely designed by me with the paint color and everything, so it really is my happy place. I've been planning on showing how I set it up ever since I moved back to my house in January, but I just hadn't taken the time to get pictures. The nice thing with moving back to a place you already had set up is that you technically know where everything goes. I posted a tour years ago, and it really changed a lot from that before I moved (mainly it was much more cluttered, lol). After having my Condo Sewing Room and changing a few things to accommodate that space, I made a few changes when I moved back to my original room - all for the better :) Now that I have to pack it all up again, I took pictures so we can all remember how cute and functional it was *sniff*, lol.

This is the main view of the room just after you walk in the door. The biggest and most obvious change I made from the previous set up was to put my cutting table in the middle of the room. When I first designed this room, I had the table against the wall where the ironing board is now, and it worked ok, but after having it the middle of the room at the condo I really enjoyed being able to walk completely around the table while cutting out a project. There are also new shelving units that previously weren't in this room. So let's spin around and see it all, shall we?

This is actually the view from the doorway. The plastic bag between the dresser and shelf is what I see immediately, lol. That's my scrap bag at the moment. I always have such a hard time storing scraps in a useful way (because I do use them) - any ideas there?

This angle is fairly similar to before. My étagère is in the same place and set up basically identically. I decided to move the dresser under the window instead of to the left of it like before.

This whole wall is a change and I really like it :) The only thing that was in the same place is that rack above the ironing board - which actually inspired this set up. When I moved out, I left that rack (it's an Ikea bar with hanging baskets for storage) because I never used it in my previous room. It was hard to reach since the table was there, so it mostly stayed empty or with superfluous things. Now it holds my pressing tools and it works perfectly for that. The book shelves are a carry over from my condo room and they are set up similarly.

This shelf has most of my sewing and knitting books, the rest being decoration here :) The bottom shelves have my elastics and some bins with other notions in them. I love having my little sheep and llama at easy viewing height along with some of my knitted animals. The tins and bags are all functional (the round tin by the sheep holds wonder clips, for example) and I keep some canned air to blow out my machine on occasion.

This shelf has my PDF patterns in file folders at easy reach. My sewing basket has things like bees wax and hand sewing needles - tiny things I may need to carry around. The lower shelves here hold bins with my zipper stash and bindings, etc.

And a closer look at my ironing station. I LOVE my gravity feed iron. My only niggle is that I wish I had a plug in the middle of the wall so the cord didn't drag the line down and get caught on my ironing board. Hopefully I will be changing my board soon, so maybe that won't be an issue later.

The closet (as always) holds my stash. This time around I housed my stash in Rubbermaid tubs. The idea was to go through all my fabric and only have 12 bins by the time we move again (plus the yarn bins - those are staying). We will see if that actually happens, lol. I just haven't had the gumption to go through all the fabric. I did enjoy having my fabric out on shelves better though - much easier to pull out random pieces and plan things. This way makes them much easier to move, but not so conducive for inspiration.

And a closer look at the étagère. I frequently have a movie playing in the background while working, so this little media section is essential. The boxes hold noisemakers for toys, my ~fancy~ patterns (printed/packaged Indie patterns, basically), and my watercolor supplies. I also always display some of my favorite toys I've made here :) The bottom cabinet has random things like my laminator and an old serger I've always planned on figuring out as well as my old sewing machine. The little shelf you can barely see holds a basket full of knitting needles (that I hardly ever use - maybe I will thin that out a bit) as well as printed out knitting patterns and notebooks with vintage patterns and whatnot.

The dresser holds my yarn winder, blocking pins, dpn sets, tape, ribbon and other trims, fold over elastic, animal eyes, bias tape maker machine, embroidery hoops, buttons, and much more. This thing helps lots of smaller boxes look tidy. The top drawer unit is one that I always plan on making more useful, but at the moment it mostly holds things I don't use except for hooks and eyes, lol. I've made it a goal to keep the top area neat since it always was covered with random piles before. I've kept to that pretty well in this sewing room. It does hold things like my cutting scraps and my pattern pieces while I'm in a project, but I make it a point to clean everything up after I finish each one. Much nicer :)

This area is another change that I love. This drawer unit holds so many small things: elastic, velcro, stay tape, turners, extra scissors, beads, snaps, Sizzix punches, and much much more. The teal tin on top is actually empty right now - I can't decide what to put in it! But it stabilizes the top of the drawers and keeps them from caving (they were old from a garage sale). I keep my dress form next to this area and I love that it's within easy access. Last time in this room it was in a corner and blocked by a chair, so this makes it much more useable.

The above area has turned into my planning display - which I plan on writing about later. It's been super useful and also cute to look at.

This is another new-to-this-room area. This wicker étagère has patterns at the bottom (and in boxes to the side) along with a few boxes of yarn, and bins with needle felting supplies and project bags. The flower hook is one I've had up for years but never figured out what to hang from it. It dawned on me to hang my rotary cutter and pattern weights and this was a fantastic idea. I love having them always easy to grab.

And my sewing desk - that poor little shelf is always filled with stuff, lol. But it's all useful stuff like my machine needles, magnetic pin plates, bobbin boxes, machine feet, and other things I need on hand while sewing. The cup on top holds all my friction pens, seam gauges, point turner, etc.

And my thread corner - the drawer unit is full of yarn. Also my trash can is nestled in there. I LOVE having my scissors at easy reach like this too - I will do that wherever I go for sure.

And back to my table. This magical table extends to double it's size. It's technically too short for me, but stacked on top of these two drawer units it becomes the perfect height for cutting. The drawers hold yarn, scales, and projects. My blocking mats and poster board for photos live between the units. And of course my rulers are on the sides.

So that's my room! It's very much a hodge-podge of things I've had forever or thrifted or customized, and I seriously love every bit of it. I love being in here. I spent a lot of time in the past week in my lovely room working because I knew it would be my last chance *sniff* and when my husband came in on Saturday, I was watching Some Like It Hot while sewing and he said, "This really is your happy place." And he was so right :) It's just the perfect hang out for me. The colors are my favorites, and I'm surrounded by things I made and love as well as all the implements for inspiration. It will really be hard to live up to this room again, but I certainly will try to get the same feel no matter where we go. Because I love being in here.