You will get more done in a space where you feel comfortable even if you do have to make a trip or two upstairs for things.

Lots of people have used a wooden TV tray, padded and covered, as a small ironing board to keep next to the machine for pressing seams as you go. Leave the big board upstairs for ironing big pieces. Use the small tray downstairs, fold it up and stick in a closet if you feel you have to pick up for company.

Well ladies, I think I'm going to do it! I really appreciate all your advice. Now the hard part will be getting my brother over here to help me move some furniture ... he'll just love that. :)

I've set up in the hearth room end of my kitchen which is rather small so storage is a problem. I have my batting and a large amount of my fabrics upstairs in a large storage/linen room I designed when we built our house. Where I sew now is ok, but before I was sewing on the dining room table which is on the end of our living room -it was very comfortable there, large table work surface, right by big windows and French doors that are full glass, but what a mess to deal with when I needed the table for company. Just think of working out of 2 spaces as an opportunity for a little exercise you would normally not do.

I have two such place; a craft(sewing) room in the basement, and my orig.sewing room that is the small bedroom. The craft room came about when I needed more room to assemble a quilt. DH made me a 4x8 table and laminated formica on it. The sewing room in the small bedroom is fine for general sewing and putting together the quilt top but I have no cabled tv in there. So one night while watching NCIS and working on a nightgown for my little GD I would attach the sleeve with pins while watching my program, then run to the sewing room and sew it in place during the commercial then run back to the tv room and pin the other sleeve in place during the program….then run back to the sewing room and sew that sleeve in place during a commercial…then run back to the tv room…pin one side….etc…etc…etc… Well I got tired of sewing like that so I asked my DH if he any ‘scrap’ (as in wood) material that he could put together a small table for me so I could use it in the tv room. He did. He made me a 38” x 22” which table ALL from scrap wood….oh…except for a 1x4x4” piece of wood he had to buy because he didn’t have one. But he painted it white and I just luv it! It is small enough not to take up so much room and yet big enough to comfortably sew quilt blocks and make garments. On one end he put me utensil hanger from Ikea. It has what looks like a towel bar that is screwed in place and then you put plastic square containers that sit in metal hangers that hang on the bar. (maybe I can get my DD to take a pic to show you). And that hanger system is pretty much all that is needed to hold the most sewing tools I need to sew with. I do sometimes have to make a trip to the sewing room but my little table is just fine. Oh yeah, in answer to your question: I sew in another place but I have a lot of my stuff for my current project at hand. Good Luck to you getting organized!

Sew Freak, I would LOVE to see a picture of that hanging system. I just went and looked at the Ikea website but I couldn't find anything like what you described (probably because I'm using the wrong search terms...:)). Sounds like you have a great setup that has evolved over time into exactly what you wanted!

Okay Sew Freak, I might have found it... is it this one?

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00263398/

It would still be great to see yours with all the stuff in it. :)

I did this about two years ago. I ended up on the table in my dining room. Two sewing machines and a cutting mat 24" X 36" that took up most of the table. Little by little a lot of my sewing stuff got downstairs. I ended up with a lot of clutter and bins of fabrics, etc. that I am now trying to get all back upstairs. Some is still downstirs but have gotten most of the mess upstairs. I worked at getting the upstairs room reorganized and now feel like I have a real place to sew again. Now when I go to sew or quilt and I am finished, I can just close the door and leave out what I am working on without having to see it spread out in the dining room. I really enjoy having the sewing room back.

I have my machines in one room and my stash, cutting table and ironing board in another. Took over my daughters' bedrooms when they flew the coop. :-)

I say, put your machine wherever you want to spend your time. You can consider trips back and forth as part o your exercise routine.

I don't have enough room in my sewing room to set up my cutting table, so I do that in the living room. I bought a square (well almost) pink tool caddy at Sears and I just put whatever I need in it and take it to the living room with me. When I am done I just put it back in my caddy and return it to my sewing room. It has a metal handle and several pockets on the outside. It measures about 12 1/2 inches X 10 inches and about 10 inches high at the handle. Perfect size and very sturdy. I got it on sale for $12.00. Works great for me. Keeps everything at my fingertips and easy to stick in my sewing room if I need to stash it away.
I hope you find the solution to your dilemma.