New Sewing Room Furniture

Thank you, everyone, for the warm welcome back!

Like I mentioned in the previous post, one of the reasons that I hadn't been sewing anything was because the room was such a disaster.  I had eleven, ELEVEN, sewing machines in there because I simply cannot control myself when it comes to old machines.  The room also had to function as a guest room, so on top of all that, there was a queen sized bed in there, fabric in big plastic tubs, a folding table for cutting, it was all just too much to deal with, so...I didn't go in there for a while.

Over the Christmas holiday, my husband started helping me make some changes.  I edited my sewing machines, as painful as that was and he helped by going to visit his brother in Chicago...who just happens to live on the same exit as Ikea. The two of them took my list and got me (almost) exactly what I wanted.  I say almost, because they are boys...of course there was something that was almost, but not quite, what I had asked for.  But I love them anyway.

The first thing that I did was I traded my brother the queen size bed for a twin size mattress set that he had.  I got a daybed frame that was totally flat across the top, and then added a table top.  Well, not  really a table...it is a 3/4 inch thick piece of plywood that I wrapped with dense batting and canvas. So it is both a working surface and an ironing board.  Since it is taller than the old table that I used, it doesn't make my back hurt to cut patterns anymore.

Here is the new bed:

If I have guests, I can take the table top off and stick it in the basement.  The bed is an Ikea Hemnes Daybed, which was very reasonable in price but a complete bastard to put together:

The second thing that we added was an Ikea Expedit shelving unit that would allow me to keep my fabric in a place where I could SEE it, and not stuffed away in plastic tubs:

Here you can see that yes, there are still some tubs with things that need to be organized (or finished) but for the most part my shelves are complete.  The desk attaches directly to the shelves, and gives me space for two machines, my serger and my 301 which I usually keep set up for buttonholes:

As painful as it was, I now have just two other remaining machines, my 401 and 503:

I hate to admit that there are still tubs of fabric tucked into the corner behind the bed, but...they are all things that my niece and nephews use for their "crafting needs" (which in my littlest nephews case just means making the iron steam and cutting fabric into smaller and smaller pieces) when they visit.

All in all, the reorganization of the sewing room was not at all expensive...far under $1000.00, even if you include the gas to Chicago (why, oh why, is there no Ikea in St. Louis?).  But, turning it into a pleasant place to work rather than a room that just raised my blood pressure means that my urge to create something has returned.

Hopefully, I will have more projects to show you soon...especially since I am now obsessed with Lekala patterns and have downloaded 4 more.

Happy Sewing, All!