Studio Tour - Where the Magic happens.....

Over the years I have had a variety of sewing spaces, some dedicated, some shared with the rest of the family.  I have been tucked into a corner of the bedroom and cut things out on the bed; I have had a whole room with minimal furniture so I still had to cut out on the bed or dining table; I have shared sewing space in my young son’s bedroom so my older son could have his own room.  Currently I have half of a large room and closet dedicated to sewing and storage.  I have also overflowed into the small bedroom for additional storage and a design wall. This room also doubles as the exercise room and other misc. household storage. 

Before my husband retired from working in 2018, the other half of the large room was his daily workspace.  I had to be quiet because he spent most of his days in teleconference meetings.  We really started developing “the sewing room” or “the front room” (because it’s at the front of the house) in 2007 when I stopped working full time to be a homemaker.  We painted the sage green walls a beautiful light sea glass blue; pulled the gray carpet and installed pecan laminate flooring.  The room is about 15 feet long and one wall is almost ALL closet that’s three feet deep!  We installed adjustable wire shelving almost floor to ceiling.  One end holds all the home office and computer stuff and the other end is all fabric!  The opposite wall is a large 60” x 60” window and matching laminate blue desk tops fit perfectly into either corner at the ends of the window.  The window faces onto the main street into our neighborhood so I can keep a good watch on the goings on, including the school bus stop across the way.

Space in 2007                                                                                   Space in 2014

            Shiny and brand new.                                                     Full  on project and/or cleaning mode.

I usually have the ironing board set up in front of the window.  I also have a large folding cutting table on wheels that I just LOVE! It opens up to 30” x 60” for cutting out garments or pressing and basting quilt tops. I can put half of it down if I need more room to move around it and I can drop it completely down to just 12” x 30” that perfectly fits into the closet in front of the wire shelving.  I love the wheels because I can keep it up against the closed closet doors or roll it out into the middle of the floor so I can walk all the way around it.  We added a track light strip on the wall above the closet for additional lighting.  This light strip has its own switch separate from the main fixture.  I have two wall cabinets over the sewing desk that hold machine accessories, books, project bins and notions (buttons, zippers, trims, etc.), and the remainder of my quilting and sewing thread.  A large bookshelf holds additional machine accessories, sewing and quilting books and patterns, notebooks of design templates and ideas and other various stuff. 

Quilting fabric is arranged by color on the open shelves.  A couple of years ago I added a curtain over it as I noticed light fading on the crease of some of the flat folded fabric.  Direct sun doesn’t reach into the room that far, so I decided the fading must have come from the CFL “daylight” bulbs in the light fixtures.  I try to keep the closet closed, but adding the curtain has added an additional layer of protection.  All of the bulbs are now LED so hopefully fading has been eliminated.  Large bins at the bottom hold non-quilting fabric and shoebox sized bins at the top hold my scrap saver system (more about that in a future post) and sewing patterns.  There is an open area in the lower center portion of the closet for items on hangers and enough space for a dress form.  Embroidery hoops hang from hooks at the back of the closet wall and rolls of stabilizers and interfacing hang on the back of the door. 

Behind the door is my best kept secret – a full length mirror on a piano hinge!  Not only does the mirror swing out for viewing at the center of the room, but it has a 1 1/2” frame around it with lattice board shelves that hold my entire embroidery thread collection!  It closes snug against the wall so the thread is stored dust and light free. 

A couple years ago we had the wild hair idea to cull through all of our “various stuff” and prepare to downsize all the way to Full Time RV living.  So much stuff went out the door, but there is a LOT left!  I had planned to stitch through all of that fabric, but alas….  there just isn’t time, is there?  We have tabled the full-time plan for now, but still working towards eliminating all the STUFF.  My goal is to get all of the sewing back into one room and closet with the exception of the 4’ x 8’ design wall – there simply isn’t any blank wall in the sewing room.  I have added foam bulletin boards to the closet doors so I can display favorite blocks, project lists and other ideas. I posted a how-to here. 

I hope you have enjoyed this quick tour of my sewing space!  Comment below with your favorite part and feel free to ask questions!  Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to “Dreamy”, the star of my sewing room! 

Please check out my Facebook Page – by Laura McFall (https://www.facebook.com/byLauraMcFall) – where you can peruse all of the albums of my creations.  I have also been on Instagram since 2019 - @bylauramcfall.  On either platform you can search #bylauramcfall or #flamingomooncampers to see what we’re up to. 

This blog challenge is also a hop – follow this link to see the other participants and show them some love, too!!