gretchen says

I posted about my sewing club a little while ago, and I’m still having fun with my projects. In fact, last week I’d mentioned to Dave that I was keeping my eyes open for something to use a sewing table in the dining room, because the situation was that I had the table extended to it’s full length with all of my stuff on it, and to eat dinner, everything had to be cleaned up, and then I had a pile in the corner of all my STUFF.  I had been pinning examples of what I wanted — something that could hide the machine and be a surface if I needed it for a party or something, but I wanted it to put the machine at surface level, and I wanted drawers on the left so that I could have space on the left. I don’t need much on the right of my machine, but I do on the left, and MOST sewing tables seem to orient the drawers on the right which makes no sense to me. I knew what I wanted, and I knew that even ugly sewing tables cost an arm and a leg, so I was hoping to find something in other ways.

Last week, on Thursday, our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore posted a sewing table on Facebook. It had drawers on the left! And appeared to not be made of laminate/pressboard! And they were asking — not kidding — $34.99. It was the end of my workday, so I grabbed my keys and started to leave to lay claim to it, but I paused — that was a steal. I turned around and called them. “Will you hold that sewing table? I am on my way.” (FTR, they will hold an item for 2 hours!) When I got there, I checked it out — solid wood, even the back! (so many pieces that go against a wall have cardboard backs these days, but this would look great facing out, even.) It was originally made to hide away the machine by swinging it down, and then there was a panel that went into the top to make it a flat surface. Because I take my machine to my sewing club, I decided I didn’t care about it swinging down, if I ever need to use the surface I can pop it out and put in the panel. But other than that, it met my needs! I plan on sanding and painting it when the weather warms.

My sewing kit is a set of 3 little trays that snap together with a cover with a handle, and it’s great – I’ve been spreading it across the dining room table as I work. But with the new table, I have put the layers into the drawers. They are now keeping the drawers organized, and when it’s time to go to my meeting, I can snap them back together! The drawer stack is three drawers, with the bottom being the double deep one, where I’ve stashed a bunch of fabric.

The other thing I did (before the table) was make this awesome ironing/cutting mat, and bought a small travel iron, so that I don’t need to set up the ironing board and big iron.

That is the current state of my sewing space!