Try this link

http://www.younge.com/sewing%20rooms.htm

or this one.

http://sewing.about.com/library/weekly/aa073198.htm

Kathi

kathi-could i have asked for anything MORE?? you rock! so much inspiration and great practical ideas. thanks so much. molly

Glad i could help.Now you know we want to see pictures of what you do,right???
Kathi

Hi there,

I've had to relocate my sewing room a couple of times and have a few 'favorites' from each move I made. I think the best type of surface are those pre-made kitchen counters from the home improvement stores. They can be cut to inset machines or your machine can be plopped on top. They provide nice wide & long areas for working. You can use pre-fab cabinet bases for the ends, or use short filing cabinets like my MIL did - great for storing patterns. Or you can maximize your leg space and use the industrial metal screw-in legs. You can even make a 'portable' cutting surface by putting locking casters on the bottoms of the legs.

I always find myself defaulting to those pre-fab Sauder cabinets and wardrobes, you know the ones that come in the flat boxes at Kmart or Target? I like the adjustable shelves and they are really inexpensive. I put in a whole wall of wardrobes, drawers and cabinets at my last house. They were a lite wood color and it actually looked really sharp. I'll try to attach a picture.

For individual storage units, I get a ton of use out of those photo storage boxes. Pretty enough to stack on top of cabinets and they will fit neatly inside too. Again, inexpensive.

My most recent 'find' was an old 'printer's cabinet' that has to date back a hundred years. It was in the basement of the house we bought last year. It stands about 5 feet tall and 30 inches wide and has individual drawers from top to bottom, each about 2.75 inches tall. In all there are 15 drawers. Perfect for storing thread, sissors, notions, zippers, embroidery hoops, etc. I think the original purpose of the piece was to store large print stock, because when I pulled all the drawers out to clean them, I found some large red "Scarlett Fever" signs and a town newspaper dating back to 1925. Neat stuff!

I saw a show on tv the other day where they covered an entire wall with cork so sketches, notes, pictures, etc could be posted with ease. What a great place to stick spare needles!

Anyway, my point of this entire rant is to think outside the box. Re-purpose items. Who out there doesn't have a nail & screw bin set to store their buttons in? I got mine at Home Depot for a fraction of the cost of JoAnn's.

Good luck & have fun!

also check out a soft covered book called Making Dream Sewing Spaces. ( or something close to that) they discuss the different areas desirable, ergonomics etc. I used it when creating a dedicated room ten years ago and it was very very helpful.

here is my sewing room, cobbled together over many years of buying cheap white cabinets.. the only new expensive things are the horn sewing table and the large cutting table i bought this spring when i moved to a larger studio space

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: more of my sewing room

Wow, movingwest! Great sewing room. Wonderful natural light, too! Neat and tidy...tell me you aren't that neat when you're working?? When I sew, my room is a mess...only gets cleaned up between projects. What a great space! Thanks for sharing.

keepem: Thanks for thre nice words...I stay pretty neat during a project too. it's a small obsession of mine. I even clean up as I cook too. Yikes... should i duck?

and as it's a stand alone studio on top of the garage and accessable via a covered deck to the main house it has windows on all walls. I had to cover two of them to get all my cabinets in the room.

meanwhile i still want to know about the velcro foot. I googled it and found nothing.

great responses, all- thanks! not sure if result will ever be photo worthy...we'll see. but i have enough ideas and info to keep me on the right track. getting back into sewing after many years, have missed it but couldn't fit in in, i guess. psyched! you guys rock. molly

A simple way to make a storage unit attractive is to make a cover for it out of fabric. That's what I did with a metal 5-shelf unit that holds all my paints and fabric. I sewed it with nice hems on the sides, center and bottom and velcroed it at the top corners and center and sides. Made a matching padded cover for the very top, put some decorative stuff up there and when it's closed, looks like a fabric armoire. Covered buttons on each side of the center hems with black cord is how I keep the center closed when it's shut. I just wind the cord back and forth over the two buttons. It keeps the stuff dust-free and looks much nicer than seeing all my stuff on shelves.

I have my own studio. For organizing, what really helps is to get the Iris storage containers from Office Max, Office Depot, etc. They come in 6 drawers to 10 drawers of various depths and heights. They will fit under your desk, tables, they can stack on top of each other, on top of tables, etc. I use them to organize anything and everything. I have a wall of them, not to mention in other places. I have quilting, sewing, mixed media, painting, and many other craft supplies to organize and keep up with, not counting the equipment and miscellaneous studio things. I look on Froogle and look for the best prices for them, or look in local shops to see if they are on sale. I belong to a sewing/artists' group who use them and we keep each other up to date on when they are on sale.