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Wine Woman 12-10-2009 08:04 AM

Your room is going to be beautiful. You really can do a lot with all the space. Make sure you have a good cutting table. I'm sold on my adjustable supports from IKEA. They look like saw horses but are wonderful. They can be adjusted lower for a sewing table when needed and adjusted higher when cutting. Really saves on the back. But then again I don't have as big of an area as you do!
I can see beautiful wooden shelving for sewing supplies and a beautiful closet when you walk into it you see a beautiful display of nicely folded fabric. Lots of lighting throughout, may be you can have the outlets put on the floor so your cords aren't standing out. I could go crazy with this room I'm so excited for you. Please send pictures with the progress.

Cookie64 12-10-2009 08:16 AM

Great place, I'll post some pictures of my sewing room, I'm almost finished with it. I use it as a guest room so I have to put everything away when family comes.

Nancy

Yvonne 12-10-2009 09:04 AM

When I was redoing my sewing room I found a couple of web sites where people had posted many pictures of their sewing rooms. (Google is our friend!) Here's one of the sites.
http://www.younge.com/sewing%20rooms.htm

I started collecting pictures of everything I liked. Then I called in our cabinet builder and showed him what I wanted. It's turned out nearly perfect.

Many of us have posted photos on this web site of our sewing rooms too. I know Jim's Gem's sewing room was one of my favorite and I have fabric cabinets very similar to hers. :lol:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-11041-1.htm

My suggestion then is to just start collecting many, many photos.

This is my sewing room shortly after it was finished.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-17118-1.htm

Sparky 12-10-2009 10:16 AM

Maybe this is too obvious, I would start with a scale drawing of the space and make templates of minimum sizes you need for sewing, cutting, quilting areas etc. If you machine quilt, Kola makes some great tables, see how they would fit. Don't forget to make walls with actual usable height so you know where on the floor you can actually stand up. I love having the window to my left, I can turn easily to see the view and the light is good. After you figure out furniture, storage, draft a lighting plan that puts it where you need it for sewing, cutting and your design wall. There are some great fixtures that use natural light florescent bulbs. You will have a great room.

rilene 12-10-2009 07:13 PM

You are all so helpful! I'm taking lots of notes - it looks like I have a lot of research to do! Thanks for the recommendations for the book and the websites! :)

MadQuilter 12-10-2009 07:18 PM

The sewing room has a work triangle. Cutting-sewing-pressing. It needs to flow. I like having an opportunity to get up every so often.

auntiehenno 12-10-2009 09:34 PM

Let me know when you are finish! HA Love the looks of the room.

k3n 12-11-2009 01:31 AM

I'm planning a new sewing room too, in our attic so I have the same issues with sloping ceilings etc. So I'm following along and getting some good tips from everyone here! :-D

Something that I'd like, as well as the 'flow' that Mad mentions, is some kind of L-shaped arrangement to the left of where I sit at my machine, so that when I'm putting on a border, quilting or binding a large quilt, it can carry the weight of it. Ideally I'd like this to slide in and out from under the desk but then come up so it's on the same level. My DH LOVES these little challenges I set him! :mrgreen:

I'd thought of putting my main desk along the wall under the eaves - mine start at around 3' from the floor, but making it double worktop width, ie 4' so that large quilts will have plenty of room to back up. I figure this is dead space anyway because of the head banging thing! I saw on Leah Day's website that she recommends this space behind your machine when quilting rather than an open backed desk where the quilt goes over onto the floor.

Sorry to be so long-winded - brevity is not my strong suit!

Quilter2B 12-11-2009 09:37 AM

One thing i loved in an old farm house we lived in years ago was the upstairs (we have a very steep pitched roof) and the farmer who had built the house used every bit of space he could for storage, building closets and cubbies into the walls where the roof-line sloped. Since you are at rough framing stage, keep in mind all the space that is going to be hidden by the walls and think of all those shelves of fabric you can put there! And Yes!!! lots and lots of electrical outlets, that way if you decide you want to move your equipment you are not limited to one or two walls or corners.

Sandy1951 12-11-2009 04:26 PM


Originally Posted by k3n
I'm planning a new sewing room too, in our attic so I have the same issues with sloping ceilings etc. So I'm following along and getting some good tips from everyone here! :-D

Something that I'd like, as well as the 'flow' that Mad mentions, is some kind of L-shaped arrangement to the left of where I sit at my machine, so that when I'm putting on a border, quilting or binding a large quilt, it can carry the weight of it. Ideally I'd like this to slide in and out from under the desk but then come up so it's on the same level. My DH LOVES these little challenges I set him! :mrgreen:

I'd thought of putting my main desk along the wall under the eaves - mine start at around 3' from the floor, but making it double worktop width, ie 4' so that large quilts will have plenty of room to back up. I figure this is dead space anyway because of the head banging thing! I saw on Leah Day's website that she recommends this space behind your machine when quilting rather than an open backed desk where the quilt goes over onto the floor.

Sorry to be so long-winded - brevity is not my strong suit!

I don't even know what brevity is when it comes to posting. :mrgreen:

I was going to put my sewing area in the open part of the room, but I like your idea of putting the sewing work area with a double worktop width bumped up to the eaves so large quilts will have plenty of room to back up, but won't go on the floor. My slanted eaves start at about three feet from the floor, too. I was going to put my cedar chest there and possibly some bookshelves, but it might be wiser to do what you're suggesting. There should still be enough wall space for my cedar chest. That would put my southern window to my left. Then I can put my cutting table in the open with plenty of space around it. Hmmm...might work well.

Thanks for the idea! :-D


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