Designing a Dream Craft Room

No matter how little space there is, a maker's home has a "craft room" somewhere. Maybe it's the corner of the kitchen table, a modular nook under the stairs, a whole spare bedroom (mercy me!), or a glorious little shed. We all think about where that all-important nest needs to be, don't we?

Recently, I was fortunate enough to buy a post and beam home in Bar Harbor, Maine with a glorious 17' x 15' skylit room that I devote all to myself. Just me me me! (Of course, as I type this, I see my yellow measuring tape has been stolen by the culprit who shares my bedroom 😅). 

Above all, this was an opportunity to create more room for sewing, the space hog of the craft world. I was done cutting wonky, off-grain pieces on the floor and really wanted a full-size table. I have been sewing since high school, and my college job was sewing costumes for the theater at Wesleyan University. Now THAT was a craft room, my goodness! The on and off-ness of sewing in my life has definitely been due to what space I had.

I can now say that I have successfully re-created the ultimate craft room in my home!

To start, I measured all the furniture in my possession (or in my online dreams) and created movable, true-to-size shapes with Adobe Illustrator. Shifting the shapes around really helped me fit in as much storage and working spaces as I could. You can do the same sort of planning with Powerpoint.

I had one 3' x 6' craft bench in my old house (brown rectangles above) that I absolutely adored. It is very sturdy and worth the splurge (sign up for email coupons to save 25% like I did!). I thought, "With a room this big, couldn't I buy another one and double the surface?" If I hadn't had the diagram, I'm not sure I would have taken the chance of it fitting. It worked out perfectly.

I also wanted a circular blade cutting mat that would fit on the 6' x 6' surface, but that was too challenging to find. I ended up splurging on two high-quality double-sided mats from Martelli. If you have the funds, I highly recommended them. However -- if you live in a cold place, don't order them in the winter. Mine froze in the roll and took months to settle completely flat, even after gentle coaxing with an electric blanket weighed down by boxes of books!

My ironing board happened to be the same length as a side and works as a nice extension when laying out fabric for cutting.

In that handy shelving below I have my precious Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, Bergere de France and Anny Blatt magazines. If you're wondering where the Rowan collection is -- it needed its own bookshelf in the hallway!

Turning left, we get into the machinery. I have my Jiffy Steamer (an absolute must for steaming clothes and sweaters) and my Passap Duomatic knitting machine. Passaps are a little problematic for the crafter because they aren't easily storable and use up quite a footprint.

My husband has helped me a lot with this room. He made that shelf for my stereo (above) and then modified a free table (below) to nicely stow away my other three knitting machines underneath (a standard gauge Singer, mid gauge Taitexma, and bulky gauge Singer). That big plywood bottom is attached so that there is absolutely no shaking as you machine knit. 

He also helped me get these pegboards up from Home Depot, with all sorts of cheap hardware from Harbor Freight. On the table you can see some of my other random crafts that I have in progress. There's a Van Gogh-style Irises cross-stitch I've been working on for, like, 12 years, and one of those silly stick-on jewel "paint by numbers" that is a mushroom hobbit house scene. I'm definitely a sucker for a random kit.

Moving towards the window, we get to the beloved sewing station. I've got a Pfaff Ambition 620 I found for half-price on eBay that I really enjoy using...

and a simple serger and heavy duty Singer machine I also found at major discount.

The hook holds my beloved heavy duty Rowan crafter's apron (made by dellaQ), essential 'formalwear' for when I knit with my favorite super hairy yarns like angora and mohair.

One thing in the above picture that I didn't save money on was the invisible mat under the chair! I needed something that I could swivel over easily, but let me tell you, carpet covering mats are NOT made alike. I have a semi-cheap Amazon one under the machine knitting table that is so damn crappy. It leaves big divots under the wheels so that you have to use herculean force to move the chair in any direction. If you can splurge on a beautiful, heavy duty mat, I recommend Just Chair Mats. They can custom cut the size.

Initially, I was going to get rid of this piece of couch that had lost its sectional compadres long ago, but I'm glad my husband encouraged me to keep it. That window is ideal to lounge in front of while knitting or hand sewing, especially when there is daylight. Bonus: the arm acts as the world's largest pin cushion.

You might spy this pillow that I crocheted 10 years ago. I still love how it came out and the free pattern is still available.

You can also see that I've been using the inherited curtain holders for bolts of fabric!

Speaking of fabric. Yeah, that's another problem with sewing, isn't it?? I have to confess, it's not all in this room. Maybe I'll show you my walk-in closet sometime. 🫣🫣🫣

If you know me, you know I am a pattern follower and alterer, not a designer. This applies to sewing, too. All of those envelopes are my extensive collection of (mostly) Vogue sewing patterns! I protect them in plastic sleeves that I get from Amazon.

But -- you may have come here to see the yarn, right? Or shall I say the YARN SKYSCRAPERS? Yes, it seems precarious but somehow it is all holding together. Wish me luck against an avalanche!

You can also see on the left how I store my circular needles in shoe pouches, organized by size.

I hope you've liked this peek into where I've been hiding for the last year! I know it's a luxury to have a space like this. Even if life moves me away from here, I'll know what it's like to make a little dream come true.

XO,

Dayana Knits

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