How should I plan and set up my sewing area?

Question

I'm trying to find a way to set up a sewing room with a limited amount of space. With a toddler, I don't get a lot of time for sewing, and I can't leave things all over the kitchen. I need a workspace where I can work for a few minutes at a time, then break off whenever needed.

I'm not bad at sewing, but don't have a lot of experience. I tend to collect fabric and patterns for projects, but don't often get as far as making things because of the time for getting everything set up, then breaking off to take care of the little one.

The kinds of things I need advice on are:

- What's the ideal size of table?

- Should I use the same table for cutting and sewing, or should I have my sewing maching on a table of its own?

- How do I store my fabric? (I have about five storage boxes full of fabric, and I can never find what I want, and have to rummage through all of them)

- What should I do with all the little pieces of fabric left over? Any ideas? (I just keep everything, right now!)

Any advice you can give me on the 'ideal' workspace would be great!

Answer 1

Ideal size of cutting table... 30-90" wide, at least 6 ft long, top about waist or bottom of the ribcage high.  Dining room or kitchen tables work, but you'll get backaches from cutting.  You may be young enough that is a temporary issue, but when you get old and crotchety like me, you start demanding higher tables. <g>  Lifetime makes an

adjustable height 6 ft long table that Costco carries for about $50.

Might work for a sewing table, too.... though adjusting back and forth would get a bit old for me.

Sewing table:  the needle plate on the machine should be about at the same level as your elbows while you're sitting in your sewing chair, with arms at your side.   Higher machine heights will give you shoulder and neck pain.  Top should be at least 20" square, 30" square is nice, more is even nicer.  You want the extra space to be to the left side of the machine, and you want to seat yourself in front of the needleplate, not centered on the machine.   Lifetime also makes an adjustable height "personal table" that's about TV tray size and gets low enough for most people to sew on.  Wouldn't be my first choice, but it does for temporary set ups.  In your situation, I'd consider one of the computer hutch sorts of setups, if you can find one with a pullout keyboard tray strong and stable enough... then you can just push the keyboard and machine in and close and lock the doors to keep little hands out.  You could use a tv tray for a lefthand extension for fabric.

If you or DH is mildly handy with tools, a heavy duty drawer extension slide set and a plywood top for it could be fitted into any closet or armoire to give you that pull out sewing space.  

One possibility for fabric storage is to fold it into storage tub height (let's say your tubs are 15" tall) -- so you'd fold your fabic till it was 14-15" wide, then roll the fabric up into a sausage.  Tie the fabric with a piece of cotton twill tape and stand it up in the tub.  Continue to fill the tub with sausages standing on end.   Or you could hang the fabric on skirt hangers.  Or (my choice) is to organize the fabric by who it's for.... each person I sew for has their own laundry basket(s) of fabric, so I'm only digging through a couple of things.

Keeping scraps-- if they're big enough that I can reasonably expect to cut something that I'll actually sew later, I'll keep them -- in your case, you might save the scraps from one of your shirts for a kids' shirt.  Otherwise, I toss the cotton scraps in the wastebasket for the local quilters, fancy fabrics in the wastebasket for the local elementary school art program, and tiny stuff straight into the trash.

If you're a sentimentalist, save a 6x6" scrap of quilt-weight kids clothes for that quilt you're going to make in 20 years or so.  <g>

Might want to follow the links from here:

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

http://www.buylifetime.com/Products/BLT/...

You also need to look for an old Nancy Zieman book called "10-20-30 minutes to Sew" -- it's about sewing in short bits of time rather than trying to clear 8 or 10 hours to sew.

And don't forget to plan for "me time" -- scarce when you've got family at this age, but very important.

Answer 2

you need a large table for cutting fabric on, and if you are not a "experienced" sewer, dont bother having 2 different tables. Just put your machine under the table when you need to cut (but make sure that you keep your machine covered). For fabric storage, try hanging it in a closet or on a clothing rack, that way you can see what you have without making a mess.

for small bits and pieces (buttons, machine feet, etc) i have a toolbox type thing with a bunch of small drawers on it that keeps everything nicely organized

good luck and happy sewing