Sewing Room

I've had a sewing room for almost 4 years now. It's very exciting because in my old apartment I did all of my sewing in my living room and it was very cramped. But my new apartment is a 2-bedroom so I now have a room dedicated entirely* to sewing and crafting.

Earlier this year I got an awesome desk from my work when we moved offices. It's a nice large corner desk (it was actually my old desk at work). I had to take one side apart to even get it into the room - which I did entirely by hand because I didn't know where my boyfriend kept his power tools.

It's in a pretty useful configuration right now, so I thought I'd share some pictures/hints/etc.

Note: unlike some bloggers I only did minimal cleaning before taking the pictures - crafty is messy and I'm not going to hide that (entirely).

First off here's the desk:

I can fit both my sewing machine and my serger on one desk! I can reach them both without even having to get out of my chair! I can't even begin to tell you how awesome that is.

The hat boxes in the corner of the desk have all kinds of fun crafty things stored in them: lace, flowers, yarn, pens, etc. etc. etc.

The drawers are especially handy. I've got bins that balance perfectly on the top of the bottom drawer with room left to store other things underneath:

 And this keeps my thread contained (it's always trying to escape):

Next up are my patterns:

They are all in those manilla envelopes in those drawers. My friend Tidy Tina did this for me and it's pretty spectacular. The 2 binders at the bottom have the commercial pattern envelopes in them sorted by women, men, kids, costumes, vintage, lingerie, etc. etc. etc.

So when I need a pattern I just look in the binders to see what I have. Then I go to the drawers for the actual patterns - which are organized by brand then pattern number. I used to keep them in boxes and I'd have to go through all the boxes whenever I was looking for a pattern.

And here's my bookshelf full of crap:

Scripts, sewing books, costume history books, a zombie cross-stitch kit, my balsam head in it's case, boxes of photos/receipts/etc., fireworks, magazines, hats, a laminater, photo paper, my gemagic (bedazzler), and even some crayons.

Here's a wider view of the first side of the room:

So, earlier I had an * on my claim that the room is entirely dedicated to sewing and crafting. Well, since my boyfriend moved in last year that's no longer true. He built those shelves to hold some of his stuff. Fortunately I'm pretty short and really can't reach them so it's hardly in my way.

Here's my ironing corner:

 And my favorite piece of art in the room:

 

Then there's my desk with my computer, printer, important papers, yada yada:

 

Above my desk is my inspiration board:

 

I haven't added much to it recently.

And my closet full of fabric, ribbons, and other frou-frous:

The other half of that close is scuba gear, golf clubs, tools, Christmas stuff, and clothes neither of us wear much.

So, it's not very pretty, but it is very practical. Though I still do most of my cutting on the living room floor - it just really helps to have lots of floor space...and a TV. =)