i finally had my sewing room set up, great storage and presentation, it felt just like I thought it should. I put a new sewing chair in there last night and the carpet was soaked. Moved everything out, pulled up part of the carpet and noticed that the wetness was from one of the walls. The sewing room is a corner basement room that is primarily below ground. Pulled the wood paneling to expose weeping concrete walls. Needless to say I was weeping too! It doesn't look like there are cracks so we should be able to seal the concrete, but now I get to design my sewing room exactly how I want it. A bit sooner than planned and I have no idea where to start. I know I want linoleum or vinyl floors. The rest is open to so many possibilities! Any recommendations? Storage ideas for fabric? It gets pretty dusty here. I will probably put the paneling back up since it was easier than drywall to remove and it looked nice overall. I must admit. Life is rarely boring!

Keep you eye open for wardrobes the older wooden style. So many people are going for built in these days and just want rid of them. They are deeper than book shelves and you can put shelves in them. Ignore what they look like now imagine how they could look with a clean up stickers removed and a coat of paint.
Hope you get your room dried out soon.

Thank you Cuties. Wonderful ideas and great reminders! I love the storage steps. Peg board would be great for scissors and quck access. I would not have thought of that. Bins wouldn't work. They remind of small spaces living in an RV for the past year! I plan to watch the estate sales around here and see if I can find some glass door caninets or pie closets. That would give the room a unique personality. All just thoughts at the moment. I will be sure to post pictures once we start. The worst is that I have nowhere to sew or embroider now until its fixed!

Try Pinterest there are a lot of good idea on there..

Hope all goes well with overcoming that problem; I agree that dust-free storage is more important that keeping on display - maybe a compromise would be to have some light-weight clear Perspex sheeting cut to size to make some see-through doors for your bookshelves - glass doors can be a bit heavy if the bookshelves are made from particle board or craft-wood.




Good luck!

You have some very good suggestions below, my sewing room is not too organised as yet. I would like to have lots of book cases, clear plastic storage boxes for threads, and cupboards for lots of stacks of material.My ironing cupboard is in ,my sewing cabinets and large desk with draws also along with my computers television and lots and lots of light. Air conditioning, and other lots of bits and pieces in clear plastic storage boxes. I cope with what i have around me, a chair on castors as well Sandra.

I put up a large peg board on one wall to hang items I used routinely and smaller items to keep in sight. I loved walking over to the exact hoop I needed or stabilizer and pulled it down. Boxes slowed me down even though they were labeled clearly. Opening the lid and finding it took too long when inspiration was in full gear. I haven't figured out what to do about fabric and dust as I too like to see what I have to get me inspired. Seeing and feeling the fabric gives me great joy. Also, don't we forget what we have!? I've purchased the same fabric; I guess it really called my name. I'd also like to see your pictures as your sewing room progresses, best wishes as you recover and move forward!

So sorry to hear this. We have had massive super storms here over the past week, fortunately no damage at our place. I would suggest cupboards with doors to stop dust getting on everything. I prefer vinyl flooring as the threads get caught on the carpet, or wooden flooring. I personally like open shelves, but that again will get dust, but it's up to you. I have everything close by - and if not get a chair with castors so you can roll to it. Love Chris

I understand water issues, as I have not yet completely recovered from the last flood. I hope they can seal it from the inside, I thought it had to be dug outside and put a special pipe along the foundation.

Oh dear, what a sad state of affairs! I do hope all dries out quickly so you can get the walls and floor sealed. I recommend that you take pictures before you dismantle your room again to make it easier to put things back. What about getting sliding doors to cover your shelves to protect your fabric or store the fabric in bins placed on shelves. I don't recommend stacking bins, too hard and time consuming to find what you want. Do get as much storage as you can. And pictures please as you go along.

So sorry for the mess.. I can handle most problems it is the mess I hate to clean up. I've stored fabric in different ways, plastic containers, paper boxes and everything in between. I love having fabric out so I can see it but I find it the dust level prohibitive. I also discovered when I had fabric on display, I don't think about any other fabric and I go purchase new fabric instead of using my stash. If I could do a new room, I would make sure I had a big bulletin board so I could pin ideas and the fabrics I'm currently using to it.

Good luck, jane

So sorry for your room disaster! Our wet concrete slab took forever to completely dry enough to seal. We used bleach and fans and waited to see if it was really clean and dry. I have no experience with concrete walls. I do not like the clean up and maintenance of wall-to-wall carpet, so now I have large stone tile and large rugs. I hope you can figure a way to enjoy some sewing during the repairs.

What a great expensive craft we share! I like a chair with adjustable height and arms. Think of storage as 4-5 steps. What you need closest to the machine to grab while sitting is your #1 storage - for me, that's threads, scissors and small tools like turners,rulers, and my computer for pulling designs over to my machine. #2 and #3 storage is what you can reach by reaching up or down - such as design packets, notebooks with design info. #4 can be further away from the machine - for least frequent use - flat fabrics and fat quarters (shoeboxes), patterns (plastic file cabinet). machine instruction booklets, smocking and crafting books and magazines, etc. My hooping and ironing center in the bathroom is actually #5 - ironing board and irons, large scissors, water supply, stabilizers and drawers of trims. I do keep 2 shoe boxes of small pieces of fabrics in area #2, on the floor near machine, 1 for cat and dog appliques, the other, small patterns and stripes and checks for baby appliques (sew these a lot). If you have sewing machine, serger, quilting frames or machines, of course these have to figure into the scheme, too. I only bring my sewing machine out of the closet as needed - 2-3 times a year! (Nobody shoot!)

1 comment

by sbott54 06 Nov 2015

I like your ideas of categorizing according to how often you use and how close they are to your machine.