Update on garage sewing room decision...
 

Thank you all for your input! I have decided that the cost of making a separate room in the garge (the way I want it) would be way too much. So as of now I am still sewing at the dinner table. All three bedrooms are in use by ourselves and children. We have a galley kitchen and the dinning room is where we eat. lol I think I might have hurt my 12 year olds feelings the other day talking out loud. I mentioned that when she goes to college at least I would have a sewing room. lol She looked horrified and informed me she is never moving out! lol

Even though I am not the oldest, or the first to leave home, my bedroom was the one that was converted into a sewing room. I got over it... !
The time will come when that sewing room will happen, till then keep collecting idea's.

My mother had no problem making her feelings known .. I'm the youngest and the last to leave. She told my husband-to-be that once he takes me he can't bring me back cause she was going to fill my bedroom with cement.

I'm sorry your dream room will not happen. Pls keep sewing/quilting. It will give you something of yourself.

I had a sewing closet at one time and considered myself lucky, as I have heard many stories of the dining room table is the sewing room for some. Keep dreaming. It may happen. I dream of returning to Massachusetts some day. So far it is just a dream.

Is there any way you can find a little space in your bedroom to put a desk and chair? I found that worked for me when we lived with 12 people in a double wide mobile home. I put storage bins under the bed and FQ in the dresser and the socks and undies went in the night stands. We were blessed with a walk in closet so I had several bins of fabric, my sewing machine and ironing board in there along with a bolt of batting.

My "sewing room" is also at the dining room table. We eat on the sofa when the "sewing room" is in use... which is most of the time.

A co-worker of mine who is space challenged made a decision to take the hall closet, and turn it into a computer area for her to work at home. Family was in an uproar, but - they worked out the details - shelves in the garage for the winter boots, coats went into the owner's closet, and what wasn't needed went to the goodwill. Would that work for you?

Talk about space challenge............I live in a 31 ft 5th wheel........ ihave made a queen quilt, double and twins plus many table runners in a vey small sewing area - approx 36 inches. I use space bags to compress my fabric,,(I do have an abundance of fabric, enuf for 4 twin quitls to be completed for xmas and 4 queens after they are finished. I do have to clean up the area when finished, so there is no mess. Where ther is a will there IS a way!!!!

I took a wall down between two of the kids rooms. Now when they come to visit (after a twenty hour drive), the first one in the door and up the stairs gets the one remaining spare room. The other gets a mattress on the floor.

To mis-quote Scarlett..As God is my witness, I will never again complain about a too small room for sewing":D

I have a small sewing room I share with four cats and I use the dining table a lot. Better than I had when I was sewing clothes for my two daughters and myself.

My two boys have moved out and I still use the dining room table for sewing. I like the overhead lighting, the big table, the fact that I can get two sewing machines along each wall. I put a portable sewing macine at the end of the table. I have a small table top ironing board that I use on the table and the large window lighting is wonderful and watching the birds at the feeder is soothing. I could convert a bedroom to a sewing room but I would miss all of the above. When it is time to eat, I just clean off a small area for my DH and me to eat on and when dinner is over, I have the whole area again. Life is good.

I gave away my bedroom set in my spare bedroom and made it my sewing room. It is plum full now. Has been for a few years. My kids have still not forgiven me. They live 8 hours away in the San Juan Island and I live in northeastern Oregon. I put them up in a nice hotel when they come to visit, but it hurts their feelings. My daughter hasn't been here in 2 years. My son was here 3 months ago. He comes once a year. They expect me to keep that room open for them for sporadic visits and to do without a sewing room just for them. I don't understand their logic. I don't work and this is my hobby. It's what I do now. They each have 10 quilts, so they know I spend a lot of time sewing, so why don't they let me be? Why try to make me feel bad that I converted the bedroom to a sewing room for myself? The other bedroom is a computer room and my husband's work room/fishing/hunting room. I don't think I would have tried to make my mom feel guilty if she would have done something like this.

Jeanne, you are so right. I don't think kids think their parents should have a life. They think your life should revolve around them. I made one bedroom into my sewing room. I put cupboards along two walls for storage and this room has 3 closets, so I have storage and room for clothes. Wonderful. I used to sew on the kitchen or dining room table for many years, and I made all my kids clothing when they were small. Of course they don't remember that. I am thankful that they live close by and can go home after a visit, I don't have to provide beds. I do have a guest room for the grands if they want to spend the night.
Sue

This just reminded me: my "bedroom" when I was a kid, had been a sewing room for the precious owner. No closet, but deep built in deep drawers in the wall (attic stairs behind the wall). Mom's machine went in there when I left!

When we lived elsewhere I took over my son's room and then he moved back home and I had to move out. Don't remember what I did. After he moved out again I told him he could never come home to live again. I bought a sewing table and corner cabinet for the TV. He never came home to live again and he lived close enough he could come and go home.

I must say, gmacindy, I do and I don't envy you.

I spent many years with the dining room as my sewing room...so I understand your dilemma....we were rarely able to eat at the table...but folding tables work great....or we would all eat at one end of the table with my sewing stuff at the other end. When we moved, I finally got a sewing room! I was in heaven!

For many years my sewing room was a closet in our bedroom. Since in our previous home my sewing room was the dining room table, I thought it was great to at least have doors to close over my mess at the end of the day. Our bedroom had been added on to before we purchased it and now had a walk-in closet which we used for our clothes and storage, so the original bedroom closet with bi-fold doors, became my sewing closet. I put a small desk in it for my machine and storage in the drawers. A clamp on lamp gave good lighting. There was lots of storage on the overhead shelf. I could hang things on the closet rod, even fabric folded over a hanger. In the space at one end of the desk was room to slide in my ironing board. At the other end of the desk I could store things like quilt batts. On the wall behind the desk I could pin up guide sheets, clippings of ideas, etc. I didn't worry about holes in the wall because, after all it was a closet! While it was not as ideal as having a full-blown sewing room, it was a great alternative. Look around your home for a corner of a room, or a closet that can accommodate a desk. You may be surprised what you can tuck into a small space.
Jcrow, I'm so sorry about your children. My mother has, in her sewing room, a futon on a frame that allows it to turn into a double bed and she makes into a bed when we are there. Would your children like to sleep in a bed like that and be in your home, rather than in a motel? There are 6 kids in my family and when we all come home with our families, we max out my parent's house (3 bdrms, 2 bath, sewing rm, even the screened porch & laundry room!), camper, and another camper that they sometimes borrow. But we'd rather have a big slumber party there and share the bathrooms, floors, etc. than be in motels. Are they upset at you taking their room or at not being able to wake up at Mom's house? Don't know what we are going to do as a number of grandchildren are getting married and having kids. I think we are finally outgrowing the place! (Maybe start using the attic! LOL!)

In our last house, I took over the living room. No one really ever used it and I left a couple of chairs and a TV. Everyone complained but after a few weeks they realized no one used the living room. I sewed for years at the kitchen table and it is hard. In this house I have a sewing room and a storage room but I don't sew as much as I did before because I hate being off away from everyone. (I know weird.)

I spent many years sewing at the table. I even ran a small business , making clothes for others, that way. Now days I have no idea how I did it. Of course I didn't have a quilt stash, or all the tools I have now. I only bought for the clothing or household projects I was working on .. I now have a bedroom for my sewing room in my brothers house but believe me, If this were my house the dining room would be used as one. Or the room over the garage. Actually if I could have my own place the whole house would end up being part of my quilting room . LOL

In time, you will have your sewing room. I remember my mother sewing in the hallway - wide open space - and we'd walk by her and talk. She had no other place to sew. She wasn't in the way of walking. I usually knew where she was at any given time of the day (once home from school). We'd pass her while walking to our bedrooms. Most of all, I'll never forget the light humming sounds of her Singer machine - dad even made her a special cabinet - never did she leave a mess on the floor. Once she started a project, she stuck with it until it was completed. Memories worth keeping.

Remember the show..."The Waltons"? It's on everyday now at 3 eastern (Hallmark). Olivia has her sewing machine on the stair landing....go figure! I use my dining room table until I can figure out how to find room in the garage for a conversion. It's a room now but mostly for storage. I know...downsize but that's easier said than done.

I used to have to sew in the kitchen - many years, then got a bedroom and now its all over the house because everyone is gone. Be careful what you wish for.

To damaquilts: My whole house IS my sewing room. I have a sewing room, which has a roll-away bed for Bruce when he comes. All the other kids live close enough they don't need to stay overnight. I have a room upstairs that really belongs to the upstairs apartment, but my darling step-son-in-law put up a ship's ladder (very steep) and a trap door so Bruce's children can sleep there. They call it Grandma's attic. That room is the only room in the house that isn't used for sewing. It just has all the quilts that are ready to give away, and some batting in that closet.
But every other room is my sewing room. In the winter, I put the sewing machine on the dinning table in the living room. Then I can sew and listen to TV also, when my husband has something on in which I am interested. When I make scrap quilts, I spread all the scraps out on the table (I mean scraps that are down to less than an inch and strips that are not straight and such. That table just stays a mess until that quilt is finished or it will get cleaned up if we're having a party or such.
My tall table is in the kitchen, where I do a lot of cutting. (It's the right height.) My old Singer is in the kitchen on the cabinet (desk) built for it in 1956. I'm looking over it right now, as my computer is behind it, raised up a little. My big ironing board is in the laundry room. My bed is used as a design board.
Sooo, what's in sewing room? STASH ! ! ! LOL Lots of projects ready to go, and lots of kits of things started. My new Bernina goes from the sewing room to the living room at a moments notice.

DH and I shared a bedroom so my kids could too. I moved my two girls in one room and took the other for my sewing room. DH had a workshop behind the house so he understood I needed my own room for quilting. Our next house, I took over the den, the kids didn't like that idea either. The house now, I have a two room studio.

I reluctantly took one bedroom for my "office" -- computer, two bookcases, two filing cabinets (I "do" genealogy, too) and two desks. Since I've begun quilting some of the kids have suggested I turn the 3rd bedroom into a sewing room, but I just can't do it. It's the only other bed in the house and when the grandkids stay overnight I want them to have a room. Actually, I want the room so they WILL feel free to stay overnight. I bought a machine and began making my own clothes at age 19 --a long time ago--and I've never had a dedicated sewing space. My machine (in a cabinet, have never owned a portable) has always been in a corner of my bedroom, and fabric, supplies, tools, notions, etc. are stored in a hall closet. I wish I had another room I could devote solely to sewing but I'm not willing to take my only guest room to do it.

This is an idea for those who are sewing spaced challenged in their house.

I wish I had this piece, its gorgeous.

http://bend.craigslist.org/fuo/3264785192.html

I have two rooms also for my sewing. The Long arm takes up the second room.

Like the others say, you'll figure it out. Keep those "little gray cells thinking" and it will come to you.

When my children were growing up I used to stake out a "sewing space" first was a desk in the bedroom, then a corner in the laundry room, next was a closet off the kitchen, then half of the family room. Finally I was able to have a whole room for sewing when oldest daughter left home and I have had my room ever since. Hang in there it will happen.

Dawn, have you ever seen the book Dream Sewing Spaces? I LOVE that book. It's been out for several years so I'm hoping it is "new" to you. See if you can get a copy from the library and start planning. :-) It has some very cool, clever ideas. What about a basement?
I haven't had a basement in 20 years and still have yet to figure out where people put their basement stuff, lol. :-)

A week after my dd left home, my ds came over & helped me arrange my sewing room. The first time my dd came home, she said "you couldn't wait to get me out of here?" I said "that's right, that's every parents dream to see thier children grown & on thier own".

My kids (3) had moved out before I started quilting. I started on the dining room table, but it was hard to do every thing there. I pinned my quilts on the kitchen floor. Then I moved into my oldest son's room (9' X 15'). It was great! But...I was still using the kitchen floor to pin. So I began to look at LA's...couldn't afford an expensive one. We got a good tax return that year and DH said to "go for it". My Voyager 17 with the 10' frame fit the room, but I didn't have room for everything else. So I cleaned out the walk-in closet which was 5' X 8' and moved everthing else in there....except the ironing board and the big cutting board which went in the other spare bedroom and the office! When my grandkids came to visit, the girls slept in the camper or livingroom and the boys slept under the quilting frame. About a year ago, we purchased a 14' X 24' shed and finished it off. Now everything is out there and I have two guest rooms and a futon in the office.

That sewing cabinet would be great. I have a sewing cave that I don't use, too cold. so my sewing is everywhere. I do have a computer armwore that I think I can modify to be a sewing cabinet but first need to clean the stash from around.

I also use my dinning room. The light is great and i don't feel remote. and I can have visitors also .HB says he building me a craft room. We'll see who uses it most.:p You know we could live in yurts. Then we (I)would really run in circles.

The day that my second son left for college, I was tearing the wallpaper off as he backed out of the driveway. Husband agreed that it would be tacky to put the paint gallons in the hallway before he left! My philosophy was that if you move out, you loose the rights to the room. I have five kids and it took some time to put that into practice.
SandyQuilter

Oh, that room became my sewing room. He returned for the summer, walked into the bedroom with a suitcase in each hand, me right behind reminding him of the rule, and he saw what I'd done, then did a 180 turn and walked out.
End of discussion.
SandyQuilter