Featured sewing room

What sewer doesn’t love to get a little voyeuristic and check out someone else’s sewing space? Some of us have fancy studios and some of us have kitchen tables or a corner of a spare room. But we all find a way to make it work, right?

I’d like to feature people’s sewing spaces on this blog. I’m interested in not only beautiful, big rooms, but also how people organize. If you have limited space, like I do, you probably have to get creative to make things work. If you’d like to share your sewing room, no matter how fancy, big, small, simple, please contact me through the contact page at the right.

Today, I’m featuring the sewing space of Deborah Platt, DBA Deborah’s Stitchery. Deborah has a big room with five sewing machines and an office, among lots of other things.

Deborah’s Stitchery is a home-based business in Prattville, AL. She makes window treatments, draperies, bed skirts, spreads, pillows, and other home accessories, along with costumes, wedding attire and adult and children’s clothing. She often makes things without a pattern and has to design from a photo or drawing.

“I also do monogramming for individuals and businesses. I do most of my own digitizing. Also in my business is a small store where I sell items that can be monogrammed. These include blankets, totes, backpacks, lunch boxes, golf towels, beach towels, and baby items such as diaper covers, burp cloths, bibs, blankets,” Deborah says.

She wrote up a description of her work area, and I can’t tell it any better, so I’ll let her share:

We live in a house that is 95 years old. This means it has large rooms and tall ceilings. I have had my sewing room in several of these over the years but like the one I’m in now most. That’s because it is the largest room in the house. It is about 15 feet by 25 feet which sounds great but there are three doors and a fireplace in my way. In this room I have a store, embroidery shop, 6’X10’ drapery table which also serves as my cutting table and ironing board, 5 sewing machines, and my office.

(Please click photos for larger views)

Some of the ways I have used space is to put wire racks like you would use in a kitchen pantry on the wall. They hold all kinds of supplies and come in various shapes and sizes. Underneath my drapery table you will find those plastic rolling carts with drawers. They also come in various sizes and the drawers are great to hold sewing supplies. I have each drawer labeled so I can find things quickly. For my serger thread, I have several cone racks attached to the wall. I have my regular sewing thread color coded in several clear plastic shoe boxes. My embroidery thread is on wire shelving next to the embroidery machines. Because the shelving has spaces in it the thread doesn’t stand up too well, so I put some poster board on each shelf before putting the thread on it. Underneath the mantle I have put some hooks to hang embroidery hoops on. Since the fireplace is closed off I can put some small shelves to hold stabilizer. Around the walls I have some small bookcases that hold a variety of items. In one corner I put rolls of fabric and in another I keep boards I use to put window treatments on. Each window in the room (there are four counting the front door) has a different valance to showcase my work. In the office area I have my computer, printer, two small filing cabinets, phone, set of stacking trays, another plastic drawer cabinet, and a small bookcase. Recently someone gave me a dresser base with multiple drawers that is great to hold hoops for the embroidery machines and serve as a hooping station, but I have yet to fit it in the right place. Many of these items were bought at yard sales or when local stores (such as Wal Mart, Office Depot, etc.) had 2 for 1 sales.

Layout of room:

As you walk in the front door you are in the store. It is on the wall to the left and a little on the wall directly in front of you. Continue down that wall and you will find the embroidery shop. In the middle of the floor in the back is the drapery shop. The office is immediately on your right as you come in. In the middle of the room are the other machines: tack machine across the top, blind hemmer and straight stitch machine perpendicular to tack machine but back to back to each other, and regular machine across the other end of those with the serger beside it. There is not a lot of walking around room.