Hello everybody,
I am off work all week and Im going to be working on organizing my sewing "area". I have moved everything to my basement. I would love to hear any ideas you have to keep things organized. I've never had an actual sewing area. I think Im going to use peg board on part of the wall to hang my quilting rulers and anything else I can hang. I have lots of fabric stored in tubs right now and would like to get it all out of them. Im not sure how Im going to do it yet so I would really appreciate any suggestions.
Judy in Ohio

What a great thing to do...can you come and do mine? I wish I had some great tips to help you but my "space", is a mess! Let us know the progress you make.

Here's a link with many photos of others rooms, maybe you can find a few ideas that you can work with.
http://www.younge.com/sewing%20rooms.htm

http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/204.page

http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/15/1371.page

We've discussed organization several times here. Just search for sewing room organization tips. The top address is one of our discussions, the second are pictures of many of our sewing rooms. There was another discussion as to how we choose to organize our fabric. Have fun!

Post a picture when you get yourself all set up. I'm always looking for new ideas and I'm sure others are too!

I'm in the process of moving all my fabrics from the shelves into the rolling sets of plastic drawers. the brand i'm using is Sterlite. I'm getting the 7-drawer sets. i put wheels on one set, then pop its top off. i don't put wheels on the second set. instead, i set it on top of the set with wheels and no lid. it forms a rolling tower that just fits through a standard doorway, height-wise. i can see well enough through the drawers to know exactly what's in each one.

they snap apart so you can arrange the drawers however is most convenient. i'm going to put all the deep drawers on the bottoms, with the shallow drawers higher up. i'd stack each tower to the ceiling, but if i did i couldn't roll them to anywhere in the house i want.

i've been buying a few sets each payday. i'll use the shelves for all the yucky looking stuff that we need to store and keep the drawer towers lined up in front. if i need something off a shelf, all i have to do is roll the drawers out of the way to get it. it's gonna look awesome!!! and i can put all my quilting things away more easily when i want to use my dining room as a ... what a concept ... dining room. :P

There are really two main issues to consider - working space and storage space (specifically bulky storage like fabric and battings). I store all of my fabric and battings in the attic and have a rather large room for my actual work. 3-gallon Rubbermaid totes for zippers, interfacings, buttons, notions, elastic, etc are stacked in the sewing room, and I have a few of those rolling drawer carts for patterns and thread in the sewing room as well as a couple bookshelves. I also keep my computer in here. (actually two computers) and my treadmill. It's handy for hanging clothing on. ;) I have my loom in here, which I hope to learn to operate some day soon, and two file cabinets. I have a kitchen-type table for cutting and sewing. One wall is covered with a foam design board. The room has two large windows and a door leading to a little Juliet balcony. There are double doors that open into the master bedroom, too - I just love it!

What I don't like - carpeting. I wish I had a hard floor. all those pins...

oh, and I have a small three-shelf unit for storing all the quilt tops that have never been quilted!

Well, I have started working on it. Im headed to the garage to measure one of my husbands shelves. lol If it isn't too tall Im "stealing" it. lol I want to get all of my fabric out of the plastic totes. Im hoping I can store it on this shelf but I don't think it will be nearly big enough. Im trying to do this withough spending alot of money. I do think Im going to put peg board up so I can hang all of my rulers and cutters etc. I already have some of the plastic drawers. I try to cut all of my scraps into strips and try to keep them seperated by size. So, wish me luck, Im going back to work on it.
Judy in Ohio

I am thinking I would like to get more of the rolling drawer carts and store pre-cut strips in them. I got a new drawer cart for thread and organized that today, freeing up the old one, which has drawers that are really too deep for efficient thread storage. So I put yarn into the old one. Now I want to go buy more... (thread, yarn, and storage bins - lol)

I have a quilting studio aka basement with a lot of space. Always, always, always call your space a quilting studio!!!!

My husband put a large kitchen table up on those blocks you can use to raise your bed. It really is perfect for my height and carts, shelves, etc fit under it perfectly!

I'm wanting to expand my ironing board to better accommodate quilt sized projects. I've seen the big board. Does anyone have one & can comment on the product?

I am going to throw a bunch of ideas out for you:

My sewing room has the coated wire shelves in a large closet that I have my stash stacked on. I really like this because the fabrics get air, but aren't exposed to light, so they won't mildew or fade. These are the typical closet organizer shelves, and they work well IF your space is not going to be exposed a lot of dust and humidity, because the coated wire racks are a pain to clean off. They are nice because there are areas for hanging clothes so that when I have many yards of fabric (uncut) it can go on a hanger in there too.

Bookshelves or a wall of cubes/cubby holes will work if you have a spot out of the sunlight.

If you are going to use plastic storage boxes or drawers, I suggest you hoard the little silicon gel packs that are in with new shoes and purses, and put them in the closed plastic containers.

Lastly, you could get an armoire and keep your stash in the drawers and shelves those provide. Armoires are good since they keep light off your fabrics, and still allow air to circulate. You can get some ready to assemble from IKEA or other furniture stores in case you can't fit a premade one down into the basement.

I think the peg board is a great idea for hanging the tools, by the way!

Pics of my sewing space...........No it is not alwawy this clean. I had just cleaned it when I ran into your post. This will be the first time I have tried to post pics to this forum........it may not work
Connie

that is not a sewing space. that is Sewing Heaven!!! :P

Everybody has given me alot of ideas. The pictures are great. Right now I basically have one end of a room in the basement. I have the pool table in that room also. It is where my teenage son and his friends hang out when they are here to watch t.v. play games and play pool. Eventually I will have the whole room. The peg board pic is exactly what I want to do but probably not from ceiling to floor. I will probable have to buy more plastic storage drawers eventually. Im actually making alot of progress but, I didn't realize how much stuff I had. I have alot of fabric that I didn't realize I had. Not that thats a bad thing. lol I will post pictures when Im done. I can't wait to finish it. It won't be quite as nice as the pics on here but eventually it will be.
Thank you for everybody's help and keep the suggestions and pics coming.
Judy in Ohio

I bought a length of countertop at Lowes and it fit perfectly on top of some ClosetMaid Wire shelving baskets. I use the space to cut small projects, draft patterns, and think a while.

I still keep my machine in it's sewing cabinet but since it's my spare bedroom, it stays neat and orderly (only when company comes! LOL)

Good luck. It feels great to be organized.

i did something similar with a hollow core door to "make" my desk. i like that countertop idea much better, though, for a sewing surface. i'll bet it's a lot smoother and fabric just glides around on it.

note to self: save your pennies and copy this idea. :P :P :P

More pics of my sewing room

Final Pic of Sewing room and two of my early quilts

ooh... I want a drop-down ironing board. Is there an electrical outlet in there?

what a wonderful workspace. it looks very handy. the quilts are lovely. good job.

Will post detailed pics of this ironing system. It is hard wired for the electricity. It can be sceen at ironaway.com. I love it. You can find less expensive systems at Lowes, Home Depot and the Sears Catalog may have one. I will send pics in the Morning
Connie

Connie, your frog took my breath away - absolutely beautiful! Did you make the pattern yourself?

Moonpi I found this pattern in a magazine. It is paper pieced. My first paper pieced project. It will eventually go to my 17 year old granddaughter as she loves frogs.

I put up a pegboard and it is perfect. But the best thing is a large fold down cutting table that you can get on sale or with a coupon at Joanns for 59 dollars. It is worth it for being able to streech my quilts for pinning. I just cannot get down on the floor, hurts to much. I bought the large black paper clips at the dollar store to hold the quilt to the table. The whole quilt will not fit but I do the center first them move it to each side to finish the whole quilt. It works well and no folds when quilting.