Small Quilting Space in a Closet

Goal #89 - Setting up a sewing space in my house

Ever since my son was born, finding time for hobbies like quilting has been difficult. Even more difficult is not having space for quilting. Before he was born, it was only a minor annoyance (maybe more than minor to my husband) to have the dining room table covered in fabric and cutting tools and spools of thread while I spent days working on a new quilt. After the baby it was not possible: Pins falling to the floor, little hand grabbing at carefully laid out fabric pieces.

 design from iheartorganizing

I don't have a "spare" room in my house or a "studio" out back like people in quilting books have. I needed to make use of what space I had. Along came Pinterest - the great visual idea board - and brought me tons of inspiration this month to get started. I decided to use my laundry room to create my tiny-quilting-space, but a closet would have worked too.

To see my idea board for my tiny-quilting-space, click here! If you like the idea of setting up something in a closet, search "closet office" on Pinterest for ideas - check out this pretty example to your left.


To start, I found a design for a table that would fold down to be stored away, and my ad on Craigslist for a carpenter to build it yielded a dozen emails in so many hours. Ikea sells a similar table for about $200 but it was too big for my space. I encouraged the craftsman to make whatever amendments he thought would make the table better and I am very happy with the result.

Folding table all tucked away 

Folding table up and ready for inspection by toddler

Then I used an old TV tray to create a fold away ironing board by using an industrial stapler to staple the metallic fabric to the underside of the tray (you can see it in the photos at the end of this post). I've had an unused magnetic herb/spice container set in my kitchen for years, so this was finally put to use as a holding tray for pins, bobbins and buttons. 

Since I will not have room to lay out pieces on the floor or a large table, I followed a great idea for a mobile design wall. I purchased a large piece of stiff sheet insulation ($10) at a DIY home store and had them cut it to size. I then used an industrial stapler to cover it Warm&Natural batting. It creates a "sticky" surface for cotton and is also pinnable. I love it! You can see it behind my sewing machine in the photos at the end of this post.

newly organized closet

I cleaned out the small closet in the laundry room (most of what was in there will be just fine in the garage now) and moved all of my sewing and craft supplies to the closet. This required some downsizing, which was good to do anyway. The most useful thing did was to move my fabric from big disorganized bins on to little "bolts" that I can easily see on the shelf. To make the bolts, I ordered 100 comic book boards from Amazon ($10), folded each piece of fabric lengthwise, secured one end of the folded fabric to the board with tape and then wrapped it around the bolt. The best part is that I can see at a glance how much of each fabric I have by the thickness of the bolt.

so many little bolts

books and unfinished boxes for projects

Room at the bottom for paper crafting supplies and 

embroidery

Lastly, a folding chair finished my new quilting room. When I want to sew, I simply wheel my laundry cart into the hall way and set up the table (the sewing machine is stored in the table's open cabinet). When my son wakes from nap time, I can just shut the door to the laundry room and not worry about stray needles.

After: Quilting room

Before: Laundry Room 

Now I can get on with my craft and quilting goals: #19, #67, #74...