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Sewing Room Swoon

Recently I shared my sewing room in the magazine and thought it should definitely appear on the blog too! I hope you like this peek into my sewing space. I know how lucky I am to have a dedicated space to sew, and although it feels like an indulgence at times, it has made me so happy in the short year I’ve had it.

Forgive the low light in the pics, these were shot in Jan!

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This room is on the middle floor of my townhouse in Leeds. It’s a great size room and is definitely nice and warm, but it doesn’t get the best light and the view isn’t the prettiest. I’ve done my best to make it look lovely inside instead.

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The main feature of the room is the cutting table, made by my partner. He used four Kallax units from Ikea, added a large MDF top and used ikea metal feet to raise the table to the perfect height. Underneath I use large baskets to store all my fabric, zips, and interfacing, as well as mugs of chalk pencils, tracing paper and bias binding. The whole thing is over 1m wide and 1.5m long, meaning I can cut delicate fabric single layer without them trying to escape. The only problem is that my cat Chewie thinks it’s the perfect sleeping spot so I have to shoo her away when it’s time to cut out projects. Then she just moves to another spot for a nap!

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I’m fortunate to have several machines. The Janome SMD4000 is my main machine, then there’s the machine I learnt on – a Toyota Jeans Machine. I also have a Singer 14sh754 overlocker and two vintage Singer machines (a 1939 hand crank and a 1970s machine set into a table. My dad is a great antique hunter!). Having all my machines in a row means bouncing between each is easy and I usually keep the Janome and Toyota threaded in different colours in case I need to work on multiple projects at once.

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My gorgeous pink mid-century inspired chair has a pretty scalloped back (Very.co.uk) and I’ll sit here when it comes to hand sewing and unpicking. The vintage glass cabinet was a gift from my partner’s grandmother and it makes perfect storage for yarn, ribbon, button tins and boxes of sewing patterns. (Orla Kiely tins, Selvedge yarn)

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Decorating is still a work in progress but the majority of my wall space is used for spool racks. I chose polka dot wallpaper from Prestige Textiles (in Graphite – my first ever wallpapering attempt! Under the careful eye of my mum) as an eye-catching feature when you first enter. My most-used scissors hang from a pretty coat hook from BHS for easy access and fun quotes and pictures keep me smiling while I work. (Vintage decorative dressmaking stand, Korbond pear pin cushion, Sasse and Bell spool holder). A vintage sewing-themed calendar from SewDirect.co.uk adds retro inspiration and an illustrated portrait I was given for my birthday shows me wearing my favourite handmade dress (artist @andsmile). My plan is to frame some of my vintage patterns and add a bit more shelving space and then the room should be complete!

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After years of working on my dining table and cutting out on the floor, it’s so nice to have a separate sewing space. I do miss Mr AR though, so we regularly run up and downstairs to see each other and take it in turns to brew up!

I hope you enjoyed having a peek in my sewing room. Hopefully the next time I share it the walls won’t be as beige or sparse heehee!

(16) Comments

  1. Wow! And thank you for sharing your beautiful and calm-looking sewing haven. I can see why you can be torn between doing errands and sewing!

  2. A lovely creative space. Thanks for sharing K xXx

  3. Ahhh such a stylish and tidy sewing room! I can only hope to have a space half as wonderful one day (still sewing in the corner of my bedroom but branching out to a shared sewing/music room with my boyfriends soon… we’ll see how well that works out!).
    I love your spotty wallpaper and your Andsmile portrait! 🙂 x

  4. Katie says:

    Looking good! Ever so jealous of the cutting surface. Maybe I’ll ditch my spare bed and get one of those instead!

  5. Love this pretty room, Amy. The chair & the polka dots look so happy!

  6. Lovely space! I might have to steal your thread display idea for the mound of silko threads I have waiting to do something with!

  7. Can I move in Amy? It’s just gorgeous! xx

  8. Such a nice space Amy + really reflects your style. I particularly love the cutting table with storage underneath (I’m obsessed with storage) and your vintage Singer in its own table is a treasure – your dad can obviously spot a great machine!!

  9. Claire Ross says:

    Beautiful. What a lovely space to sew. Thanks for sharing x

  10. It looks like a vintage atelier! Such a darling space. The scissors rack is totally cute!

  11. Beautiful room. I keep trying to add to mine. I’m slowly trying to remove clothes and work stuff and sneak more fabric and sewing items in 😉

    I love the cutting table idea. I have some Kallax storage I could do this and I just wondered if you could remember which legs you used (long shot I know….) as the Ikea website wasn’t very helpful when I put feet of legs in the search! It came up with an eagle costume……. 🙂

  12. What a tidy, inspiring space to sew! It’s a delightful haven. The cutting table with storage below is a brilliant idea.

  13. […] Amy from Almond Rocks contacted me to ask if I would like to send some photos of my sewing room for a regular feature in […]

  14. Siona (@sio_sews83) says:

    I feel the same way about missing the Mr. I actually had a sewing room and have traded it in for a small corner of the living room so I can be sociable as I found I sewed much less when I had to hide away upstairs. Need to find a balance 🙂

  15. Oh my I can’t imagine having that much space! I sew on a boat! It still works, doing yoga helps… 😉

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