Some women are blessed with large houses and plenty of space for a sewing or craft room. Unfortunately, I am not one of those women, and chances are, you might be facing a similar dilemma. While having an entire room for your hobby is ideal, it may not always be practical or even doable. That’s why I want to talk about how we can make space on our lives for the things we love, like sewing. You don’t need a whole big room, and I’m going to show you how I took a corner of my living room and made a cute little space for a
sewing niche.

For me, sewing is more than just a hobby. It is a break from life. Sewing is an outlet for my creative energies and a practical way that I can make dollars stretch further for my family.  And with three, soon to be four, little boys running around, I can’t afford to hole myself away in a separate room to indulge in my hobby. Right in the middle of all the madness is where I prefer to be. Here’s what you will need to start out-

• A hobby
• a corner, wall, or any nook, cranny, or niche that you can co-opt for your new cozy hobby spot
• a few organizational items-plastic bins, a nightstand, a small dresser, or even a cardboard box
• a few decorating items
• creativity!

For the purposes of making space for my sewing niche, I co-opted a corner of our living room that was previously collecting dust, toys, and little boys’ shoes. Here’s my set up-

If you will notice, I had a bit of space in between the fireplace and the outside wall that is the front of our house. As I mentioned before, we were not doing this space any justice.  My sewing machine came in a table that folds closed, but I chose to keep it open all the time, with a cover over the top of the machine to keep dust and curious little boy fingers out of it when I am not using it. For now, I have a few unused phone books (it seems like they give us a new one every month, but that’s a different post) along with a sewing book to hold up one end of the fold out table for now. I plan on eventually replacing this with a plastic drawer to keep sewing trinkets in, but for now it works and it was free. It also leaves me some space to store current sewing projects.

Underneath the sewing table I have been able to squeeze in a side table with drawers that was passed on to my from my sister-in-law when they redecorated their bedroom. It works perfectly, and I use it to store my quilting supplies and ribbon, among other things. I also have just enough room on the other side for a small ironing board. On the wall behind the table, I have hung a thread spool holder and when I close the curtain that I left room for behind the table, it covers the spool holder and again, keeps curious little boy fingers away while I am not sewing.

Another addition I made for curious little boy fingers is a scrap basket. I toss all my re-usable scraps in there and it looks cute and keeps the boys busy while I am sewing. They love to put together the different shapes and I am even teaching my 5 year old son how to sew buttons onto his scraps with a needle and thread. He loves to “sew” with me. Eventually I plan to teach him basic hand sewing like my mom did as I sat next to her while she sewed when I was a child.

I also chose to decorate my spot with a bit of vintage Singer artwork. On the wall above the right hand side of my sewing machine, I printed out an advertisement that I found online of the difference between the stitches a Singer 401 and a Singer 403 can do and what the cams look like. Since I have a Singer 403A, this is useful and decorative at the same time. I framed it in a frame I picked up at the thrift store for under $1. I also started a binder with sewing and craft projects that I have found on the internet and printed out. I placed them in clear page protectors so I can just flip to the right spot and get to work.

Last but not least, our chimney is unsafe, so we do not use our fireplace for fires. Instead, I have taken over the area as storage for my fabrics, near future, and current sewing projects. Eventually I would like to find a little dresser or night stand with drawers to stick in here, but for now, my plastic bin behind a decorative chest is working out just fine.

I hope I have helped to give you at least a few ideas to get started on making a space for your favorite hobby.  Happy hobbying, and may your little ones look like this while you are pursuing your creative interests!