Sewing Room Organization Tips & Tricks
Sewing room organization is a hot topic lately! Your sewing room can be a space where the creative mess can run wild. But, it can be tricky to create a space that truly works as hard for you as you work on your creative projects. Since moving into my home a little over 2 years ago, I’ve established my own personal favorite methods of organizing my sewing space and want to share some things about my room that I find the most helpful!
Are you curious about how I keep my craft room & home office organized? In this article I’ll share with you my best tips for creating a workable & manageable space along with my recommendations for a non-traditional cutting table, my homemade design wall, and much more!
If you’d rather see my sewing space in a video, check out my YouTube video:
Not only do you get to see how I’ve set up my “sewing room & office space”, but you can also shop my favorite things that make this place such a total dream via the links below! (I’ve used affiliate links where applicable, which means certain purchases through these links can help me earn a small commission.)
Full disclaimer: my sewing room is not always this neat, and I vacuumed right before taking these photos because THREAD AND DOG HAIR are normally alllll over the floor in here. And there’s normally about 5 or 8 WIPs laying about too!
Fabric Cutting Table
First, let me show you my fabric cutting station. The cutting table setup that I use is a little non-traditional. Instead of using an actual table I have two cubbie units placed back-to-back. I love the height of this unit. (It’s about 36″ tall and comes up to about hip-height on my 5’4″ frame). I find the size is just perfect for my 24” x 36” cutting mat. It’s a pretty standard size cutting mat, so if you’re looking for a good cutting option, this is a great one.
Not only does this cutting set-up work really well size-wise, but it also serves as a really great storage space! I keep a lot of WIPs, miscellaneous craft supplies, and project tools in the cubbies and find them very useful. I store a small trash can directly next to my cutting station so it is easy to throw out the tiny bits.
Sewing Station Setup
Arguably the most pivotal part of this whole sewing room organization tour, next up is the Sewing Desk! I got this great desk at a local thrift shop while I was in college and it’s been awesome for sewing! It’s super deep which means plenty of space for working on big projects. It also has nice big drawers for storing all my little notions and sewing machine accessories! Since I have hardwood floors in my sewing space, I use a little grippy mat underneath the foot pedal to keep it from sliding around.
Quilting Magazine and Book Storage
My sewing space has a couple of these amazing hanging magazine racks that are perfect for storing my favorite quilting books, patterns, and magazines! I’ve actually had these for a really long time and remember using them to store books in when I was a kid. They’re from Pottery Barn and I really love them. I couldn’t find these same ones that I use, but here is a close alternative!
Thread Storage
You know you’re a sewist or a quilter when you’ve gotta have all the thread in all the colors and a variety of weights! Most of my threads are cotton for quilting or rayon or polyester for embroidery. These thread racks have come in super handy for organizing all the options so I can see them and easily grab the color I need for any specific project.
How I store my Quilting Rulers
Next up, let me show you how I store my quilting rulers. If you’ve been quilting for a while you probably have more than a few acrylic rulers and these are totally essential. I like using a variety of sizes so I always have a good one for the job at hand. I keep them all in plain site with easy access so I can get to them at a moment’s notice and quickly change between which one I am using. My husband actually made me two of these wooden ruler holders that hold them upright so easily! You can also find similar ones online like this one.
Fabric Organization
One question that comes up often is how to store fabric. My yardage gets folded into 9” wide stacks and sorted by color and/or theme. Pretty much anything that’s a ¼ yard or larger gets put in my bookcase, and anything that is a Fat Quarter or smaller gets put with the scraps, which are also sorted by color.
My smaller scraps of fabrics get stored in clear drawers like these! and my batting is in just slighter larger ones like this one. I’m so glad for this little organization system, otherwise I really would not be able to find anything!
Quilting Design Wall
You’ll see I have an entire wall dedicated to my design wall. My mom & I put this design wall up with a giant roll of 1/4″ thick cork, some really wide flannel, and a staple gun. It is nice to have the space to lay out blocks and be able to leave them there for as long as I need. If you don’t have a design wall, this is one great way to make one!
Quilting Tool Storage
I also keep a few other quilting tools in my Rolling cart. This one was a Christmas gift from my husband and I really love how nifty it is! As you go about finding a home for each of your tools, I hope each one finds a home and you can always find it exactly where it belongs.
Computer Desk
The last stop on the sewing room organization tour is my home office workstation. The computer desk setup is a new addition to my workspace! Before the covid-19 quarantine started, I did not have an office space at home. Now that working from home seems to be the new normal, I decided I needed my own office area. Working from the couch and kitchen table we’re cutting it anymore!
Just a couple weeks ago I got myself a space dedicated to getting computer work done, complete with a separate monitor for the dual-screen setup. It’s a fairly small desk but the perfect size for what I need! Just big enough & with lots of drawers for papers, pens, post-its, etc. We got the desk and chair set from the same thrift shop that I had found my other desk! My husband re-painted both pieces and we re-upholstered the chair cushion too.
I hope you’ve found this sewing room tour helpful. Share your sewing room organization tips & tricks in the comments!
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