Do you enjoy sewing? Maybe you’re a bag maker, a quilter, or you sew clothes? Whichever it is, I’m sure that, like me, you’ve dreamed of the perfect sewing room. If you’re looking for sewing room ideas, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we have some great examples sent in from our mailing list followers.
For most of us, our dreams won’t come true, but we still try our best to achieve them. Perhaps you’ve moved your living room around so you can fit in your sewing machine, or you use your dining table as a part-time cutting table? Or have you converted the spare room into your dedicated sewing space (guests can sleep on the sofa anyway). In countries where basements are common, many choose to convert the basement into a craft or sewing room with some amazing results. In Britain, we don’t often have basements but it’s common to convert our loft/roof space and this can be a great place to hide away and enjoy your next sewing project. For Adam and I, we can relate to many of these spaces.
I first began sewing with my machine in the corner of the dining room and I used the dining table to cut my fabrics. Our dining room gets used every day and also serves as our spare bedroom with a fold-down murphy bed so it was a little cramped for space. As my tools and materials grew, I was struggling. Having to pull out and put away my machine each time I used it was making my sewing projects more frustrating than enjoyable. In 2020, Adam very kindly moved his office into the corner of the dining room and his old office became my new sewing room. I was so happy with this! We don’t have a lot of space in our house so I never thought I would have my own space to make bags. As you can imagine I quickly filled the space with more fabrics, more tools, and more hardware and zips, which we also sell. At the end of 2021, Adam finished working as an accountant and joined me full-time running Country Cow Designs. This further reduced his need for office space. Soon after, we bought him his own sewing machine, a Sailrite Fabricator, so he could work on his own projects using heavier materials, especially leather. This didn’t fit in my sewing room, so it ended up in the dining room, in the same corner I used to have my machine. This is how we have been working for the past 12 months. But things are changing again!
Ideas for our new sewing space
After a reshuffle of our whole flat, our converted loft will now become our new sewing room! It’s a much bigger space and will allow us to have all our machines and tools in the same place. As you can see though, it’s a blank space at the moment and a loft creates an unusual space compared to a normal room (limited wall space for shelves and lots of opportunity to bang your head). Adam created a little drawing to help him plan out the space. There’s also some cosmetic work for us to finish before we start moving everything in.
So we reached out to our mailing list and asked them to send pictures of their sewing rooms to give us some ideas and inspiration. We had loads of responses and here are some of our favourites. We’ve got small spaces and large, spare rooms, garages and purpose built out houses…a bit of everything to hopefully inspire you no matter what size or room type you’re working with…..fair warning though, some of these sewing rooms may cause jealousy!
A superbly organised space from Maggie
Maggie shows how brilliantly organised you can be when working with a small space.
“This has been a garage, a junk room, a play room, a sick bed room but happiest space of all my sewing room.”
Handy tips and a multi-use room from Tracey of Crafty Little Sew’n’So
Tracey inspires us with her use of space – hanging fabrics in the wardrobe – why have we never considered that?
“I make use of kallax type units for a lot of smaller items and I hang my fabrics up in my wardrobe. I work from home, so have my desk in there too.”
A brilliantly busy sewing room from Hazel
A bedroom turned sewing room from Alison
A living room turned sewing room from Teresa of JWearInc
Teresa inspires us with her multiple cutting surfaces – that sounds amazing!
“I love it all. I enjoy having multiple cutting spaces so when cutting bags I can have fabric on one, stabilizer on another and vinyl/faux leather on the longer one since some of my rolls are 55 inches long. I have everything at my fingertips. I can see out the picture window that lets in the sunshine/natural light. I try to keep custom orders and upcoming bags I want to sew in scrap book cases to stay organized and tidy. Since this room is directly in the front of the house and open view to who ever walks in the door, I do try to keep things picked up each end of day so its not a mess to look at and tidy for the next day.
Before when I had just a corner, everything was in bins in the closet in another room. To sew, I had to drag so much out and then put it all away… I was working a full time job outside the home and the time I had to sew was limited. It seemed by the time I dug it out, I was near out of time to sew. So, having all this space and all my goodies, is unbelievable. It makes me happy!
I guess if I had it to do over, I probably would have lined the walls with bins and table tops and had my cutting table in the center as the furniture was a bit pricey and am sure I could have spent less the other way. However, I love my space, I love to create, I do hope I can grow and sell more of my bags. I have considered markets and such and may do some of that this year. We will see. For now I rely on my family as they are quite the advocates for me, word of mouth with clients I do get, Instagram and my website. Anyway, sorry for the novel! I am always excited about sewing!”
A converted garage from Emma of Studio 7T7
The ultimate dedicated sewing room from Lesa of JustPlainLaine
Lesa inspires us all with her dedicated, purpose built sewing room. Perfect for holding sewing lessons!
Hubby…did all of the work except for the building shell, and I couldn’t be more proud. We designed the space together so that I could have sufficient electrical (even in the floor!) and lighting. If I were giving advice to anyone building their own space, in- the-floor electrical outlets and a separate circuit for the irons would be top of the list. My original plan was to give sewing lessons and have crafting adventures (workshops, retreats, etc) here. It was finished in January 2020. The Grand Opening was scheduled for March. Then, unfortunately, the world changed. I just started holding lessons and workshops here this past fall. I also have a hand-dyed fabric business, so the space had to allow for both crafts. I think it is perfect.
I feel very blessed to have such an amazing space to craft in. I try not to take it for granted. Organization is the key. Almost everything is on wheels so that I can move it around as needed… both for crafting and cleaning. You know how the thread pile-up can be! Most of my fabric is in fabric bins sorted by color on one side and design on the other. My cutting table is a large kitchen island I picked up from Pottery Barn on a clearance sale because it had a scratch on the top. No problem for me, it is covered with a large Martelli cutting mat. The pressing space has a dedicated circuit so that I don’t blow out the electric having two irons plugged in (which was a problem in our house). My dyeing space features a large stainless sink, hot and cold water, and I also have a small washing machine (which we have used for our clothes when our inside one was broken – win win). I also have a small corner set up just for visitors.
Like I said, I feel very blessed. For most of my sewing life I sewed in one small 10 x 10 room and dyed fabric on my back porch (in Florida in 100 degree heat and humidity).
We’re not the first bagmakers to use the loft as a sewing room. The amazing Diane of SpencerOgg has been using her loft space for a while now and she’s set the standard high! But we’re very excited to get stuck in and we’ll keep you up to date with the progress. Once it’s completed, we’ll give you a full tour.
It may not be the sewing room of your dreams, but having a space to enjoy making bags, quilting or sewing cloths is a special place. A space where we can forget the stresses of day-to-day life and allow our creativity to flow. Here’s to our sewing room, the best room in the house!
For more sewing blogs and bag making tips, join our mailing list.
Wow…such fab sewing rooms and so much creativity! I just love seeing other people’s sewing rooms.
Your loft is going to be amazing, can’t wait to see the end result…very exciting for you both.
Really interesting great to see what others have done so thanks for posting it guys ,I’m extremely lucky I have my spare bedroom (box room) as my sewing room I luv being in there to be honest lt looks more like a shop (been buying too much😁) but I appreciate having the space so much.
Thanks for the ideas, I’m currently in the box spare room but as our property is up for sale I’m reluctant to put selves etc on the walls, so I’m working in a mess all the time. It also doubles as my office as I currently work from home. Once the property is sold,I can start looking at a dedicated room for my sewing, so looking forward to the move!
I LOVE my sewing/art room! We built our house a couple of years ago and I got to design how my 10’x15′ studio would be set up. It has huge north facing windows out to our back yard and deck, so lots of light. I have dedicated cabinets and sewing counter on one wall and lots of room on the other walls for ironing station, book shelf, large sitting table and a free standing tall table for cutting and assembling. I cram as much in there as possible so it’s a bit cramped, but I LOVE IT!!
So good to see other people’s rooms! Also glad to see we all seem to ‘collect’ a LOT!
Perfect timing. My second bedroom has just been permanently vacated, my parents moved into their own home (yes, you read it right) recently. I intend to turn that room into my sewing room/office. Once the bed and bedroom furniture are gone I have a blank canvas which right now seems overwhelming.
I love seeing how people utilise the space they have to create their own crafting haven. Like you, I used the dining table but I was fed up with having to tidy all my mess away every day. Then my son went to uni, the littlest one moved into his room and her small room was quickly commandeered. First my partner used it as an office in the early days of WFH and I was holed up in our bedroom. That didn’t work, so we did a swap and now I have my own little space where I can make as much mess as I like 😊