Sewing Room Tour | Minimalist, functional, closed storage

I've had a few viewers ask me to do a room tour. My room is very no-nonsense, with functional and practical storage. I've been sewing for over 15 years so I've got craft supply organization down to a science and I know what works for me. Come watch, get some ideas for your own space and feel inspired to get creative.
Almost everything in this room is from Ikea including: desk and chair, dressers, lighting, roller trays, ironing-station wall storage, trash bins, closet drawers.
The pegboard is standard pegboard sheets mounted on 2x4s that you can get from the hardware store.
I made my wall-mounted pattern shelf: • I built a shelf to hol...
I also made my dressform: • Adjustable vs Custom D...
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[@SuperNance12]

I highly recommend buying a small travel iron for ironing pleats. I was using my Rowena and got a few steam burns. I was in the local thrift store and saw this small travel iron for 75c and the lightbulb went off. Pleats! Of course!! It works really good on smaller areas, too, where a big iron is too clumsy. I’m a 1777 Living History Reenactor and have sewn my entire wardrobe for Spring, Summer, and Fall over the last 2 years. I’d never sewn a day in my life except in 7th grade home-economics where I made a brushed corduroy skirt. I’m 65! I relate to absolutely everything you’ve said in your videos. Trial and error. Getting frustrated, throwing something across the room, yelling “f_ck it!!!!” and walking out of my sewing area (my dining room table 😉). But when I put on all 7 layers of period correct clothing and accessories I stand in front of the mirror and think, “Dang! I made all this!” Then off to a re-enactment venue for the weekend. It’s my passion now.

[@linzy_pinzy]

"We dont talk about that drawer" 😂 I have many of those!

[@autumn7143]

Your sewing room looks great. Getting my kid, 20 year old, to clean up her mess is still hard.

[@stevezytveld6585]

Beautiful space, thanks for sharing it. I love that you left space for the Kiddo. I'm with you on closed storage being the way to go. The visual clutter of open shelving is just too much for a small space. I'm (still) working on my sewing space with the hope of figuring out some fabric drawers of my own. My version of a gravity fed iron is a screw-close vintage silver martini shaker to refill my iron (look at me being fancy). The ironing board lives on my Granny's Martha Washington cabinet (which is full of buttons, jewelry making supplies and embroidery hoops). The sewing machine lives on an Ikea drawer unit mounted on 360 wheels (everything from feet to lace lives in the drawers). I have a foldable, grid-ed cardboard mat for floor troll time. The scraps live in some floor poofs I built explicitly for that purpose. All of this living in our living room of our small one-bedroom so I try to keep it all aesthetic (with mixed results). My favorite hack is the Altoids tin I have set-up. It holds my silver thimble, threader, Singer bias binding cutting guide and a vintage sewing awl. I even lined it with red felt. Inside the lid is a flat magnet that holds onto different sized sewing needles. It's portable, so if I have to go out to an appointment I can grab the tin, some thread and whatever project I'm working on. Altoid tins seem to be a requirement for Canadian sewing, not sure if this is true south of the boarder. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi

[@DixieDIY]

It sounds like you’ve really maximized the space you have! The foldable floor mat is genius, so if keeping things on wheels/portable.

[@stevezytveld6585]

@@DixieDIY The floor mat comes out of the 80's, so keep an eye out? If one of these things managed to survive, chances are there will be other... Still haven't figured out how to manage the mid-project explosion of everything everywhere... but that may just be endemic to sewing?

[@glenn2595]

Forgot to add I'm not as envious on your sewing space, but your cutting and ironing space is to die for. : ) Thanks for the tour and enjoy your room.

[@michellecornum5856]

I have three favorite organizers in my sewing room. When my neighbors (and long time family friends) retired and moved out, they gave me a beautiful 3 drawer credenza that I keep all of my patterns in. Another friend gave me a thread cabinet -- super useful. And finally, I went online to the site named after a river, and found a Jonti Craft scissor rack for school children. It fits perfectly on my thread case and holds every scissor I own.

[@DixieDIY]

Wow a thread cabinet?? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those before. Sounds neat!

[@michellecornum5856]

@@DixieDIY They are a little hard to find, I'll admit.

[@_JoyceArt]

Suggestion you may have already tried, or isn’t functional, but perhaps your cutting mat works from the backside as well. So that you’re not bothered by the existing grooves as much.

[@DixieDIY]

Huh never thought of that! I suppose the grid lines wouldn’t be as visible but that’s ok

[@teresaestevezalvarez664]

Nice sewing space, like you I need visual rest not too many things on display. Lovely style dress you are wearing. I am going to copy it, but also simplifying it.

[@Morticia147]

Unfortunately I don't have a designated sewing space, I work on a huge dining table. My fabric lifes in boxes and on chairs and in drawers and under the bed..... And I do have an Excelsheet where I have listed all of my fabric, the fiber content and the amount of it.

[@KathleenStidham]

Your room is beautifully organized and I really appreciate your explanation of how you made your decisions in this space. When our children were young, I gave them as many toys as their age (rotating them regularly), and once they were four or five I allowed them as many toys as they were willing to put away. Although initially this kind of expectation for young children seems unusual, it helped our kids think carefully about whether getting out another toy was going to be worth the hassle later on. When they were older and we were in a house that allowed them each their own room the rule was simpler - take your toys back to your own room at the end of the day, and always have a clear path from the door to your bed and from your bed to the window.

[@rivergalen4020]

My sewing space is the living room. It works mostly well as my kids are older now. I have 2 small dressers with fabric and supplies. Big yardage are in boxes under my cutting table / sewing desk.

[@pv6450]

My husband made me a couple of cabinets. They each have 2 pull out drawers that I store my quilting cotton and small bits of fabric. I put filing cabinet racks in and fold the fabric over a hanging file folder holder. I had one cabinet set up with rods where I could drape the fabric over. They are staggered so you can see everything. But a big purge is coming. Tooo much stuff!!! Thanks for sharing.

[@glenn2595]

Thanks for the tour. Keep the kid in the room and let her be as messy as she needs. I always wonder when I see a sewing room with thread on pegs, where are the bobbins? I keep the bobbin on the peg first with the thread on top.Even if I want different bobbin color from thread it's easy to find than in some box somewhere, and yes you do need to buy a bobbin per spool at the beginning. It sounded like you said 'murray konda' style, a quick search and you fold like Marie Kondo. (in the event someone wanted to know, has bad hearing like me, and never heard of her until today. )

[@DixieDIY]

I have a little case that I keep bobbins in in the drawer on the right on my desk. I actually don’t have very many bobbins, but I have a ton of thread! Marie Kondo got super famous a few years ago when she had her organizing show on Netflix (based on her book). Thanks for watching!

[@janetnemeth2107]

love this!! your honesty is refreshing

[@katherinemorelle7115]

I have my fabric on cardboard bolts that are then organised and displayed on a Kallax unit. I do love Ikea's cheapness and how it easy it is. though I'm personally not at all a fan of the clean, modern look. I'd be happiest in a space that people aren't actually sire if they accidentally wandered into a time machine and came out in the 19th century. But I do love the fabric display (though note that the window is covered with the blocking curtains, so I don't get any sunlight on my fabrics). I'd love to find a decent dark coloured wood-look contact paper to cover all of my Ikea white.

[@DixieDIY]

I feel like at this point in my life with a toddler, it’s probably safer to have cheap ikea stuff rather than invest in pretty antiques 😆 the cardboard bolts idea sounds pretty AND well organized!

[@Ella-iv1fk]

I just got a peg board (ikea!) it's great, so handy for all the things I want to reach for but not have lying around. My space is very visual clutter, and dark blue walls covered with stuff because I find blank, white walls weirdly oppressive. I do like a tidy put away space though. so satisfying for the time between projects. I like rearranging things fairly often so have put castors on the bottom of everything I can to cut down the back pain.

[@georgyporgy5539]

That is a mighty pattern collection. Great that you inherited so much stuff from your granny, how special. I❤

[@HistoricalBelle]

What a lovely sewing space! Thanks for showing us around.

[@infamoussphere7228]

I would really like one of those big rows of pegs you hang thread on, but I haven't seen one for sale and I have no idea where everyone gets theirs from! Maybe it's a US only thing. I don't have a dedicated sewing room, unfortunately. I store my fabric in clear plastic samla boxes from IKEA, which are all stuck in the top of a wardrobe. It's not the best storage method and I do forget what I have, but at least them being clear means I can see them through the boxes.

[@TealCheetah]

A great sewing space!

[@shiny0tinfoil0girl93]

Love how you organized your patterns! Also that dress is adorable 😍

[@vickiavery7686]

Great space! Need to figure out some similar organization.

[@New_Wave_Nancy]

What a great room! I live in an apartment so my dining room has to double as a sewing room. It's a mess and as you know cutting fabric on a dining table (a circular one no less!) is a real pain, especially being 5'9". I've found that lowering my ironing board so it's level with the table gives me more space to lay out the cutting board.

[@believeinfaeries8713]

What a great space! I am in awe of your organization. Ikea is great for furniture and organizational things. Thanks for the tour!

[@DixieDIY]

Thanks for watching!

[@HattoHem]

I loved getting a look at your sewing space! I actually gasped when you opened the closet. I have a mostly IKEA sewing room too. One of my aspirations is to have it clean enough to do a sewing room tour 😅 my current favorite part of sewing room organization is a fairly new purchase. I bought a jewelry box with multiple drawers and compartments. I was able to empty a whole tackle box worth of items in there: sewing machine feet, hooks and eyes, hooks and bars, snaps, strings of beads, etc. It's half the size of my tackle box so it was a good space saver.

[@cherriesnhoney]

sewing space and organizing...work in progress...i love your space...excellent idea for cutting/fabric storage...i use kallax but i dont find the cubes great for fabric storage...i may be using ur idea tfs:)

[@DixieDIY]

I’ve done cubes before but found they were too deep to easily store the fabric in vertical rows. The dressers were an improvement for me

[@pay1370]

I have the exact same sewing machine table and rolling tray, go ikea!

[@DixieDIY]

Yay ikea!!

[@lucyma6409]

I spy the Normandy lol

[@emmaemma2874]

Great! Can I repost your videos on another platform?

[@skkannan4123]

M'am, you keep threads and other things open. I wanted to know does it not get dusty or dirty ?

[@NatalieCrafts]

This isn't super helpful to you yet, but I will say that since turning 6, my oldest has gotten a LOT better at straightening her things. My 5yo is on the edge of that breakthrough too. (They still complain and put it off as long as I'll let them, but I don't have to expressly tell them to pick up every single toy. We can just say, "Clean your room," and magic of magic, IT HAPPENS.)

[@DixieDIY]

I can’t wait for that breakthrough! She’s getting better at it but I can tell when there are lots of little pieces on the floor from crafting that she gets overwhelmed when asked to clean it up. So I try to ask her to just clean up one thing at a time like just crayons or just paper. We’re getting there…

[@NatalieCrafts]

@@DixieDIY It's really crazy how much of a difference it makes!

[@brucefeichter1399]

ｐｒｏｍｏｓｍ ✨

[@JennySimon206]

Dont let her draw on ur furniture! Whats gonna happen when its other people's and or nice furniture or something? I used to clean houses. I had to buy someone a new stove once. They scammed me. Didn't have insurance. They were from India. Dont know splatter screens exist because there was a layer almost an inch thick of grease on it. The easy off oven cleaner and scrubbing rubbed off some of the finish. They called the police on me to press charges. The police came. I had to agree then and there to pay them $600. Curiously they had their receipt handy. It was a normal electric coil stove. I got insurance after that. Oh those were the days of craigslist bartering.