Sewing space organization

I feel lucky to have a dedicated space for my sewing and crafting hobby after years of sewing on the kitchen table. It was only last summer that I got tired of not having a suitable sewing table and I dragged old inherited Lundia bookshelves out of our basement and painted them white. I had to go around a bit to find the tables that fit into the shelves and sell our old bookshelves that occupied the space before but then I had this:

Now my machines, Bernina 1, Bernina 2 and the newest addition, my Janome can reside here permanently and all the supplies are at an arms reach.

There is a cheap notice board behind the sewing machine that I painted and covered with pretty fabric that I use to pin scissors, rulers and measurements on. The foldable ironing board can be set up right next to my sewing table for me to iron the fabrics and press the seams. There is also a cupboard where I can store them both if they are in my way.

All the serger threads are collected into the two storage baskets over the serger and the cover stitch machine, so that I do not have to go through the cabinets to find suitable thread when there is enough work in changing the serger threads in the first place.

The lowest shelf over the sewing machine holds all the most important sewing supplies: my pins, needles, tailor’s chalc, bobbins, the most important presser feet and the magic marker among others.

And the box that stores the most of the little bits and pieces is also beautiful to look at (though it doesn’t store any buttons):

The wall to the left hand side contains a built-in closets of which one is dedicated to my fabric and pattern stash. The fabrics are sorted into big plastic boxes. There are also my spare iron, some glue, handcraft and sewing magazines and some other sewing related stuff.

I keep the most of my pattern envelopes separately in a basket over the sewing machine. I have put them into cellophane bags to keep them tidy as I browse through them quite often and because some vintage pattern folders are very fragile.

The traced and print-at-home patterns are stored in plastic pockets in binders. I have a separate binder for the newest projects and I sort the older patterns according to the person they were designed for and the type of garment.

My haberdasheries seem to grow while I’m not looking. I have sorted the threads according to colour in a plastic organizer and done the same with all my ribbons. I have a huge box for my button collection that also hosts my topstitch threads and buckles among others. There are separate boxes for the bias tape, metal buttons and clasps and elastics.

Just today I found an old Pringles tube and transformed it into a nice jar for my pens using some scrapbooking paper and washi tape. I also salvaged two big glass jars from our kitchen for my zippers and lace.

So, congratulations on getting to the end! I hope you got some good tips on how perhaps to organize your sewing space. I’d be delighted to know how your sewing space looks like.