Dolltayloring

Sewing-Design Room Tour

I decided that it might be good for you to see where I do my sewing, designing, etc. My sewing room is not a bright sunny room, but a part of an unfinished basement. I have made the most of resources available, without spending lots of money (a little here & there). My husband came home from work, several years ago, with a bunch of 18” x 36” metal shelving. There were a couple of piece of uprights, but most was just shelves. The one set of uprights is at the bottom of the stairs & acts as a wall between the bottom of the stairs area & my sewing nook.

Here is what you see as you come down the stairs. The top wall hanging is of flag was done by my daughter-in-law Heidi. The patchwork one has a cross-stitch picture of our house, done by my daughter Kelly. The lower area is fancy dress fabric for making gowns & such for my dolls.

A note here on my fabric. My shelves are 18” deep, so I took a 1/4”’ dowel about 24” long. I marked 3” in from each end. This gives me a 18” section marked. I lay my fabric out on my cutting table, folding it so that it is 18” wide & the roll it up on the dowel. I wrap cash-register paper around the roll of fabric securing it with tape. I them use the dowel to place the fabric on my shelves according to type of fabric & color. I remove the dowel. The result is that I can easily see at a glance what fabric I have.

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Next to this set of shelves at the bottom of the stairs is my ironing board & under it a dresser that I used to store some sewing notions in. You can see a under-view of my sewing table. It is supported by 2 sets of drawers that I acquired from my daughter Mikki. They are very useful for storing notions & such. Between the sets of drawers is space for storing bins of more notions.

Here is a view of the ironing board & my sewing area. The ironing board is one of those over-the-door ones. It works very well here. I have wire desk organizers fastened to the uprights for the set of shelves with plastic zip-ties

Turning around from looking at the ironing board you will see bins of patterns. I take my patterns & put them in 6 1/2” x 9” manila envelopes. I cut the picture & fabric needs off of the initial envelope & glue them to the manila envelope. I write the brand & number & size/grouping on the envelope. I have the patterns in bins according to type & size (Child 3). Next to & under the pattern bins in more fabric. The shelves here are more 18” x 36” metal shelves but with plywood uprights.

Here is a look further down this set of shelves. The fabric here is flannel, knits, fleece, Christmas & holiday fabrics & plain colored cotton & poly/cotton.

Here is the view with my cutting table in front.

You can see that the shelves with my patterns & fabric are under the heating ducts so they are using that space efficiently.

Here is my cutting table. To the side is a set of 3 plastic drawers that hold the patterns that I use for the dolls clothes & as well as some other dolls clothes patterns. There are also some wire shelves that act as a divider between my sewing area & my computer area.

This is my sewing nook. I have a nice wooden sewing table with 4 deep drawers on each side with my sewing machine in the middle. Beside this is a table for my serger. It is a bit messy, but my creative area tends to be that way.

Here is a closer view of my sewing nook. Behind my sewing machine in a plastic board with clips on it for the different presser-feet for my machine. Also behind my sewing machine is the back side of those shelves at the bottom of the stairs. On this side of those shelves are cards of lace & trims. In the corner is a tool bin with lots of drawers for most of my buttons. Above the button drawers is a rack for my bobbins. Behind the serger are wooden spoon racks for my regular size spools of thread. Above these is a peg board for my cones of thread (a good many of these cones were purchased as DI).

Here is a closer view of my lace stash & such.

Here is my thread array. As you will be able to see by this & my other pictures, I like to organize my stuff chromatically. I do white, cream, yellow, orange, red, deep red, pink, lavender, purple, dark blue, light blue, aqua, green, brown, grey, black.

More fabric. The white fabric to the right is fancy fabric for making doll wedding gowns & such. Below the fabric are large plasitc drawer with thin cardboard cards on which I have wound ribbons, rickrack, & smaller lengths of lace.

More fabric. The white fabric to the right is fancy fabric for making doll wedding gowns & such. Below the fabric are large plasitc drawer with thin cardboard cards on which I have wound ribbon, rickrack & smaller lengths of lace & trims.

On beyond the fabric are wire-metal shelves for craft books.

Here is a look at the doll patterns drawers & wire shelves at the side of my cutting table, from the sewing area side & from the computer area side.

More shelves with craft books & family history

books behind my computer chair.

This is the view from my computer chair. The shelves to the left with craft & family history books & ahead with cross-stitch books, magazines & booklets.

And a indespensible part of my sewing-design room is my computer. The computer, monitor & printer sit on a set of wire-metal shelves. The lower shelves, behind my desk, hold my bins of doll clothes making things.

Like I said before, the whole area is a bit messy – not neat & bright like some pictures of craft-sewing rooms, but this is where I design & sew the doll clothes for my dolls & doll scenes. This is also where I do family history research & other fun computer stuff.