My Sewing Studio
Description
I live in a small house but didn’t want to have too small a sewing area. We finished out our attic space and I took 1/3 of the space to create my sewing studio. Because the ceiling pitch is quite narrow I’ve had to create two areas for working.
I have my Bernina 750 QE situated in one sewing cabinet. The expanse of this cabinet and the resulting work area provides me with more than adequate surface space for garment and quilting construction. I also have plenty of room to work with the Flynn Quilting Frame.
My Bernina 200/730 is used almost exclusively for embroidery. It is situated to my immediate right and a simple swivel of my chair and I can attend to my embroidery projects exclusively or while sewing on the 750QE simultaneously. My embroidery laptop is kept to the right of my machine allowing me to easily and readily download images for creating unique embroidery designs.
My overlock/serger and my cover stitch machines are located a few feet away on their own sewing table. Each my machines has a set of drawers next to them where the tools, accessories and other items needed for their best use are kept. Because it is a small space I find it easier to keep everything in drawers. I love the look of material and thread on view but I don’t have the space for it.
Between my 200/730 and my overlock/serger and cover stitch machines I have situated a large ironing surface. All of my work surfaces are usable while sitting. Again, with the pitch of the ceiling I don’t have a lot of room for standing so I’ve arranged to sit while I press. I keep a cutting pad next to the ironing station so I can use this surface for pinning, and making minor adjustments to patterns or simple cutting of patchwork, etc. I do all of my garment, home decoration and quilting cutting on a large cutting table that I have situated in one corner of our basement. I will not post a photo of this space as I can’t get an angle the shows the space well.
I have a small television with internet access. I watch youtube videos and sewing and quilting shows. I find this very inspirational and educational.
Working in an attic space, that only has two small windows, adequate lighting has been an issue. My husband recently mounted some LED strip lights over my 200/730 work space and my ironing station. I can turn on all the lights if I’m going from machine to machine or I can simply light the station I’m working at and leave the rest of the space dark. I like to be conscientious about energy use so I don’t turn on anything more than is required.
While I would love to have a proper studio with high ceilings and loads of natural light I am quite pleased with my studio. Each of my machines has a permanent placement, all the tools I need are kept neatly and easily at hand, and best of all I love being in this space.
