Sewing and Doll Rooms

[cmd210]

Since I was little, I always dreamed of having my own doll room. Well, last year when we bought our first house, I got one. The problem: it has to serve as my sewing room also. It is the size of an average bedroom, with a small closet, two windows and easy access to the nearby storage room. But I am still having a problem keeping my doll things and my sewing things separate and organized. I am in the process of buying shelving and storage containers, but I often go in there to "play", which makes it a bigger mess.

I was wondering if anyone else had a room with these same purposes? Do find that it works or do you also have organization problems? Does anyone have any suggestions? I would especially like to hear people's organizing tips for sewing things such as material, patterns, notion, etc.

Thanks!

[schallerwoods]

I have a loft that serves as my studio and my doll room. Heres what I did to make it flow.

I put my machines, cutting table and chair in the middle of one side of the room. Then I put shelves on the three walls behind it for supplies and materials. By keeping my sewing table within arms reach of the shelves I just have to swivel on the chair to get whatever I need. It's a lot like the work triangle they push in kitchen remodels. It also keeps my cutting surfaces free of clutter.

On the other end of the room I installed very tall bookshelves and put a TV and DVD player. At the base of the bookshelves I display all my girls. I have some homemade backdops nestled in a corner behind the TV, it hides the wires.

The girls look good with the shelves as the area looks like it's intended to be a display area. I'll have to post some pictures sometime.

Nann

[Sakurako]

Nann, as always, I admire your sense of calm and organization. Can't do it myself, but I admire it in others!

My house looked quite pretty and was very functional for the whole first year I lived there because I never unboxed any of the dolls. I have pictures to prove that I actually had floors with rugs on them at one point, and a dining room that wasn't covered with FIMO and packing boxes! Before I moved in, I planned that the addition, which has the largest room in it, would be my sewing room and the larger bedroom on the second floor, with a skylight, would be the doll room. I sleep in the tiny bedroom, which I like. The sewing room has the only decent sized closet but it isn't really practical for supplies. Still, it worked fine while I was making accessories for the house during my first winter and bears during the second. Last June I unpacked the dolls. Haven't seen the house since! The doll room has a deep but narrow closet which gets hot enough to melt candles in the summer. Useless for storing all the doll clothes, which are now spread out through the closets and drawers in both upstairs bedrooms and in the addition. Doll accessories are everywhere, although the FIMO food and doll china live in the dining room. The bears and dolls quarrel over seating in the living room, while my cat valiantly refuses to give up his personal flat spaces and my tv dinners teeter precariously on the very edge of my half of the dropleaf table in the living room.

So yes, I do have a doll room and a sewing room and they are separate. But I tend to do photo setups on the dining room table because the doll room is too cluttered and the sloped ceilings are too low for me to play effectively in it. And chaos reigns throughout.

[josephhswife]

Nann,
I'm inspired--my sewing room looks like a train wreck most days. I have girls modeling their outfits all over the house. My sewing room isn't enormous but I keep thinking that somehow I have to find a way to make it work better.