My New Sewing Station

Late last year, when I began sewing, I sat at the kitchen table. My sister had been hoarding an inherited sewing table in my parents garage and luckily enough she offered it to me. So, my small stash of sewing gear moved into the spare room of our apartment. This small stash quickly multiplied and began to spread. The sewing table was fantastic but that one small cupboard just wouldn't contain all my fabric or bits and bobs. Particularly as I constantly threw everything on to the floor trying to find whatever it was I was trying to find. I didn't have any space to keep my patterns either, so they ended up in a another pile on the floor. Also, as there was no space on the table to iron or cut out my fabric or patterns I constantly draped my projects in and out of the the lounge and kitchen leaving a trail of thread behind me. And finally, the table was just too low for my back! As you can imagine Tim avoided the spare room as much as possible, but this room is also where we keep the bookcase, tool box, bikes, clothesline and Tim's Guitars. Here are a few photos of what I was dealing with. Don't judge me...

A mess!

Fabric Mountain

So, here's the part of the story where the hero saves the damsel in 'dis mess'. Tim and I agreed the current state of affairs just wouldn't do! We thought about what my ideal sewing space needs and how that can be incorporated into our ideal spare room (e.g. leave enough space to fit the crap that doesn't fit anywhere else in our apartment). Our aims were the following: 1) storage for fabric, patterns, tools, notions etcs; 2) a table long enough to cut, iron, sew and still have room for a future overlocker; 3) height!I slouch and get sore lower back and shoulders so a table top with height was crucial; 4) compact, but with room to grow.

Sewing Station!

Even Somewhere To Hang My WIPs!

Fabric Draws & Maxwell The Pincushion Cat

A Place For Everything!

I think we achieved those aims! We bought everything from Ikea. The table top is a Linnmon 2m long with Vika Kaj extender legs (they extend to 90cm). We bought Alexs draws for under the table and 1m high Algot wire mesh draws to keep my fabric. We also purchased some magazine holders to keep my tissue patterns and the mini ironing board so that I can iron my fabric/seams etc while I sew. The only major thing left to purchase is a giant (approx 90cm-60cm) self-healing mat to go under the ironing board for cutting out fabric. While my new sewing station is bigger than what I had previously it actually uses less floor space as all my crap has a place and even some of our regular house crap fits under the new sewing table. Also, there is room to grow! I have a few spare draws in my under desk draws and so much table top space to hopefully share with an overlocker in the future.

So pleased with my new space, and thankful to Tim for being so incredibly supportive of my hobby. Also for helping me set up Ikea furniture - we kick but at self-assembly!