Category Archives: Featured

the “old bat” cave…

Since it’s pretty tidy, I thought I would share a few of my favorite things in my sewing space, or, as I like to think of it, The Bat Cave.  And no, it’s rarely this tidy!

Welcome to my blog and my sewing room! C’mon in, because who doesn’t enjoy a good snoop around someone else’s sewing space?

I knew I needed a pegboard (or something similar) above my sewing machine. I need to have things handy and out where I can see them. I got this clear plastic pegboard from Amazon, and I love it.

The pegboard comes with the bins and various pegs so you can customize it for your needs.

Next is my cutting table under a traditional pegboard storing my longarm thread supply.

My favorite item in this photo would be my wireless headphones. I find them handy when using the longarm…I can actually hear all the dialogue! There are all kinds of newer ones available as well.

The upper cabinets are from Ikea. I still need to add some under-cabinet lighting. I store my in-progress projects in the cabinets.

I used to have a traditional ironing board in this room, but space is so tight, it seemed like an enormous waste of space. I bought this dresser from Next Act in Apple Valley, MN. It’s a second-hand dresser that they revived with paint. I added a padded pressing surface to the top of the dresser. Now I have a great pressing surface and loads of storage as well.

In the dresser, there are drawers for zippers, sewing-machine thread, manuals, wool, and three drawers FULL of Paula Nadelstern fabric.

Until recently, I stored my cutting rulers in a large drawer. I would forget which ones I owned, and I got tired of digging through a jumbled pile of rulers. The rulers now hang on 3M Command Hooks, and I can easily see what I have…specialty rulers above the turquoise dresser, and traditional rulers on the side of the white unit.

Here you can see the traditional rulers on the side of this unit — also hung on 3M Command Hooks. These white shelves, shoe cubbies, and drawer units were purchased at Target some time ago. They are great for small cuts of fabric, fat quarters, and all kinds of miscellaneous things like buttons, and T pins that I don’t use very often but I need a way to organize them. Various cutting mats are slid between the wall and the closet storage unit. Not pretty, but I can see where they are and easily grab what I need.

My most recent additions are two Sterilite storage units with drawers. I have a small one and a larger one, and they fit perfectly under the Gammill table. I am using them for longarm supplies.

Longarm bobbins are stored in ice-cube trays and kept handy in one of the drawers. The drawers also store some smaller Red Snapper pieces, tape measure, longarm rulers, and my Towa gauge. The large drawers are great for pantographs.

The Bat Cave is in the lower level, so I have one window for some natural light. I was going to put something lacy on the window about the same time I was trying to figure out what to do with county & state fair ribbons. I found a solution to both problems:

Well, that’s about it. Thanks for taking the tour with me!

Sue