I want to SEW!

But instead I have to tackle this mess. First, let me say that I know how fortunate I am to have not one but two sewing spaces in this house and that I am certainly spoiled by an abundance of sewing riches. But that being said, I am really struggling with the organization of these spaces. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you will know that life has required many moves over the past few years and in each place, even in a rental in China, one requirement was a space where I could sew. So that has meant setting up and organizing a sewing room/rooms 5 times In the last 4 years. I had been in a previous space for 15 years that I had outgrown so when we purchased our house 3 years ago, thinking it was our final destination, I was thrilled to have a huge 3 room suite that I had organized in a way that worked perfectly for my needs. Once again, life intervened and hence another move,and this time my space is smaller, on 2 different floors and lacking in the great closets I had before. This means a total change in how my space is organized and it is proving to be quite a challenge.

So here is my main floor sewing room after 2 days of unpacking and some organizing. Obviously I have a long way to go! This room needs to accommodate sewing, cutting, ironing, designing and current project storage. To accomplish this I need space for sewing machine(s), cutting table, rulers, design table (where I also prep all my appliqué), a design wall, a free standing light box, a copy machine and storage for lots of thread, notions, paper, patterns and more. And I would like it to be inviting as well as functional. I have spent a lot of time moving tables around trying to come up with the best use of space and hope I have finally figured out something. It is a little different than my previous arrangements so I am hoping it works. Sadly I am not able to fit in a much needed bookcase unless I give up project storage so it looks like some books will need to go upstairs.

So if you are still reading, I have a question. This time I put my cutting table directly behind my sewing chair and set up a small ironing board next to my sewing chair. I have a larger ironing station across the room for ironing large things. I added an IKEA table at the end of my sewing table that is light enough to be moved around as necessary. So, what sewing arrangement works for you? Any suggestions for how I can improve this set up would be appreciated!